Microphone Placement

Vocal Solos

During setup, vocal microphones should be placed on stands pointing up and toward the soloist area, so that when a soloist standing in their area is reaching for the microphone, the microphone is pointing approximately at their head.

Solo monitors should be positioned such that they are directly in front of the soloists. Said differently, the back of the vocal microphones, when they are used, should point approximately at the solo monitors.

Microphone placement during singing is up to the soloist. See VocalSoloNotes.

[Sound engineer note: verify polar pattern of E965 wireless mics, should be switchable between cardioid & super-cardioid.]

Choir

Still under experimentation. I think in practice the microphone array needs to be somewhat two-dimensional to reflect the two-dimensional nature of the choir arrangement, meaning there need to be e.g. two rows of microphones with each row of microphones capturing singers left to right in two choir rows.

Vioins

Current setup:

• Violin 1 gets Rode NT5
• Microphone higher than the instrument, pointing down at around the center of the instrument. This requires a boom stand
• Violin 2 has instrument-mounted microphone, no stand is used
• Violins 3 and 4 get SM57 or available instrument mics, mounted the same as violin 1

Oleg's notes: no changes under consideration at this time. Violins 1 and 2 are generally audible in the microphones. Audibility of violins 3 and 4 is uncertain. Violin 2's mic has lower output than NT5 used by violin 1, they need to be leveled otherwise which violin is heard by the audience is a matter of random chance.

Viola

Current setup: unknown, presumably similar or identical to the violin setup. Viola gets either the second NT5 or an SM57, the SM57 I suspect is a poor choice since I think the player is not playing the instrument very loudly.

Oleg's notes: viola is not very audible. It is also not present at rehearsals. Probably will remain inaudible going forward unless I get bandwidth to experiment with mics or the player is interested.

Cello

Desired setup: I want to try AT815b (with the open center), horizontal, aimed just above the bridge.

Oleg's notes: cello is not very audible and there have been many issues with it being missing audio-wise at the 2023 concerts. I am of the opinion that the player is not playing the instrument very loudly, thus for example the AKG D112 simply does not pick it up very well, being designed for extremely loud sources (e.g. kick drum/bass amp). AT815b is a shotgun condenser microphone with a very focused pickup pattern that I am hoping will provide higher signal to noise ratio of the instrument to background and it wouldn't interfere with the bow movement.

Previous setups: AKG D112, SM57 pointed somewhere at the instrument. I am under the impression that people like to point instruments that are below shoulder level up (cello, clarinet) which is in my estimation causing excessive bleed of other instruments into the affected mics.

Flutes

Current setup: AKG C1000S, mic in front of the musician, approximately horizontal, pointing at the instrument.

Oleg's notes: no changes under consideration at this time. Instrument is generally audible in the microphone, when it's not I suspect the musician is not playing it at the proper volume.

Oboe

Current setup: unknown placement, uses AKG C1000S.

Oleg's notes: best sound in my opinion out of all reinforced instruments. Instrument is loud & clear in its mic. No changes needed.

Clarinet

Desired setup: AT MB 4k, shoulder height, pointing down at ~45 degree angle about 2/3 of the way down the instrument.

Oleg's notes: Instrument is only partially audible in the mic. When the musician is playing below forte level instrument is likely inaudible. Much bleed from other instruments into the mic, likely caused by the mic pointing upward. Musician complained about too much high frequency content in the mix (which I am not hearing, but I also am not hearing the instrument), possibly caused by C1000's frequency response having a rise in the kHz range. C1000 is considered a bright mic. I want to try MB 4k which sounded decent at 1/14 rehearsal and point the mic downward instead of upward.

Alternative mics: possibly one of the shotguns if the mic must be further away, still angled ~45 degrees downward pointing 2/3 down the instrument. I am suspicious of 991 mic working well for clarinet based on 1/14 rehearsal, it does not seem to pick up lower midrange superbly well.

Current setup: AKG C1000S under the music stand pointing at ~45 degree angle upward somewhere at the instrument.

Piano

Current setup: Beta 87A somewhere in the middle of the instrument. Requires a boom stand.

Oleg's notes: I want to try one of the AT841UG boundary condensers taped to the top cover pointing down at the strings in addition to the Beta 87A. When the piano has a house mic on it, we generally use those currently, although I'm not convinced they would be always better than a dialed-in setup we can bring ourselves.

Percussion

Current setup: SM57 pointing somewhere toward the musician.

Oleg's notes: The mic generally works well, most of the percussion is audible in the mic. I would try to ensure the mic is pointing at all of the various devices being employed to generate noise. For something that is held closer to the musician I feel that the mic is either too far away or too far off-axis to generate great results.

Overhead

Current setup: 991 pointing toward the tom from above the drum kit.

Oleg's notes: TBD, pending review of 1/20 concert where overhead and tom/snare mics were separate.

Tom/Snare

Current setup: PG48 pointing at the snare.

Oleg's notes: TBD, pending review of 1/20 concert recording.

Kick Drum

Current setup: AKG D112 pointing at the floor tom.

Oleg's notes: I think I should be getting more bass output from this mic, don't know if this should be achieved via a placement change or EQ. Review 1/20 concert recording where the mics should have been placed by the drummer.