That’s why the most fool-proof method of recording a choir usually involves setting up a stereo mic rig to capture the whole group, and then balancing the voice sections as necessary by rejigging the ensemble layout or adjusting performance dynamics. In other words, your recording starts sounding too much like a collection of disconnected soloists, rather than a coherent group performance. The problem with close-miking a choir is that you sacrifice a good deal of the tonal complexity and natural blend that are essential to convincing choral textures. Because I wasn’t at all sure how much natural acoustic reflection we’d be able to get away with in the final mix, I decided to give each of the 20-strong group’s four main sections (from left to right: tenor, bass, soprano, alto) its own directional close mic, reasoning that in the worst case I could rely exclusively on these close mics should the room ambience present insurmountable mixdown problems. In our favour was that the choir’s practice room was a reasonable size (8x17 metres, with a 3m ceiling height), so although its reverberation character implied smaller dimensions than we wanted, we didn’t have to deal with serious resonance-mode colorations in the mid range, which are a real problem when more than one room dimension gets below about 4m. And did I mention we only had a 2.5-hour rehearsal slot to work with? Just another day in project-studio land. I was recently approached by an amateur choir who had decided to enter a competition set up by their local radio station, for which they needed to record an original arrangement of Handel’s ‘Hallelujah’ chorus in short order - by the time they’d learnt of the competition, the entry deadline was fast approaching! Given the time constraints, it wasn’t feasible to arrange an appropriately ecclesiastical recording venue, so my challenge was to capture the ensemble in their normal practice room, but in a way that would allow us to fake something akin to a church environment at mixdown. ![]() The Don Camillo Chor: Our engineer records a choir singing in their practice room, and tries to make it sound like it was captured in a church! To allow scope for adding in a more suitable church-style ambience at mixdown, the main stereo pair (above the conductor’s head) were cardioid mics, and supplemented with per-section close mics for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass sections. ![]() Recording a mixed-voice choir in a rehearsal room.
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