Sound Ideas

Monitor Mixes

Set up a microphone in front of one of the choir monitors. Possibly an omni mic would do well here? The goal is to identify whether the output of the monitor is reasonably matched to the output of the choir and the orchestra, so that 1) the monitor is audible in the louder songs, 2) the monitor is not overpowering during any song, and 3) the monitor is not deafening over the entire concert.

Choir KSM141 Pattern

Currently choir is mic'd with four Shure KSM141 microphones. These are set to the cardioid pattern. These microphones also offer the omnidirectional pattern, and perhaps the omni pattern would work better with choir because the 4 microphones, no matter they are positioned, cannot point at even the majority of 40-50 people that comprise the choir. With the omni pattern the microphones would be receiving more of the sound from the sides, which isn't necessarily bad, especially if the microphones could be moved closer to the choir.

Choir Shotgun Microphones

Currently choir is mic'd with four Shure KSM141 microphones. Given the limited coverage of the choir with (any) 4 microphones, and relatively high distance from KSM141's to the choir, the theory is that shotgun mics could be a good complement to the KSM141's or potentially a replacement.

Shotgun mics have a focused pattern, and given their length, they have the issue of receiving sound from the person that the mic is pointed at rather than the entire choir. In this regard they can end up overshooting the target of balanced choir mic'ing and be significantly poor in ways other than KSM141's.

Oleg's current thinking is to:

• Move shotgun mics farther away from the choir (should be possible but requires fiddling with the clamp mounts during setup).
• Use AT815a and AT815R in preference to AT815b. The a and R models block the center of the barrel with metal, thus potentially receiving more sounds from other than right in front of the microphone.

Microphone Preamp Gain Levels

In theory it should be possible to preset gains for each microphone/instrument combination. For example, violin mics should generally always be about the same distance from the instrument, and as long as the same microphone is used, once a good gain setting is figured out, this setting should work well for subsequent concerts for the same microphone on the violin.