Listen to the mics’ signals, using either headphones or loudspeakers in a separate room.

If the choir sounds too distant and muddy, move the mics about a foot closer and listen again. f the choir sounds too close, without much room sound, move the mics farther away.

Note: if the hall is acoustically “dead” (lacking reverberation), you might prefer to add artificial reverb.

Use a digital reverb unit patched into the effects loop of your mixing console.

If the organ overpowers the choir, or if air handling is noisy, you’ll have to close-mike the choir and add digital reverb.

Simultaneous PA and Recording
Ideally, you’d use distant mics for recording and close mics for PA. But suppose you’re limited to just the PA mics.

Since PA mics are closer to the choir, their recorded sound will lack ambience unless you add some artificial reverb.

You’ll want to send the reverb only to the recorder, not to the house loudspeakers.

Here’s one way to do it:
1. Connect buses 1 & 2 to the PA power amp inputs (or to the graphic EQ inputs). Connect buses 3 & 4 to the recorder line inputs.
2. Assign all mics to buses 1, 2, 3 and 4.
3. Connect the reverb returns to buses 3 & 4 (input).
4. Turn up the choir mics’ effects sends while monitoring the recorder output.

You also could record “dry” to multitrack, then add reverb during mixdown.

Try out these techniques, and feel free to experiment with your own techniques too. In time, you’ll enjoy a beautiful choir sound for both recording and PA applications.

AES and Syn Aud Con member Bruce Bartlett is a recording engineer, microphone engineer and audio journalist. His latest books are Practical Recording Techniques (5th Ed.) and Recording Music On Location.
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More articles by Bruce Bartlett on PSW:
Microphone Techniques To Prevent Acoustic Phase Cancellations & “Hollow” Sound
Recording Microphone Techniques To Produce Warm, Spacious Stereo
Remastering Jazz Classics: The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Art Pepper, and Sonny Rollins
Deconstructing Hip-Hop To Hear How The Mix Comes Together
Recording Microphone Techniques To Produce Warm, Spacious Stereo

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