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[Jeremy Oswin]

I'm the touring sound engineer with an Irish music & dance show, upcoming tour adds choir for a few songs.  Normally for hardshoe pickup I mic a 40'W stage with 4 x PCC160s (other boundary mics, or sm57s taped to floor) spaced every 10' downstage at edge of Marley flooring (and blend with wireless lapels taped to lead dancers' ankles).  Live band is placed on risers 15' upstage.  Results are acceptable for hardshoe sound (though extremely challenging on dead stages).  With addition of choir I have a micing idea, would appreciate feedback:

Considering using same boundary/floor mics for hardshoes and choir, multing inputs to separate channels and processing accordingly.  Having choir stand center stage using 2 centermost floor mics.  An alternative of bringing dedicated choir mics/stands on & off for these numbers is not out of the question, but involves extra moving parts.  Curious if 4 x Bartlett TM-125C is best mic choice.  Curious about adding felt to mic's underside to reduce foot noise of choir, but concerned it will reduce taps/stomps of hardshoes.  (In general wouldn't adding felt/carpet, and therefore distance, reduce volume and add comb filtering?)

Band has IEMs and drums have shield.  Hardshoes and choir will not perform simultaneously, band and choir will.  1 stage monitor is placed downstage center, 2 side fills downstage left/right.  Goal is to reproduce choir with sufficient volume and pleasing sound.  Considered flipping polarity on 1 choir mic to cancel out monitor/main wash (mics combined to mono) but figure it'd destroy the fidelity of choir sound (especially in low end) and prevent stereo mix option.  Any thoughts, recommendations?  Cheers

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

I've used the same setup but with 2 160's and 2 of the Bartletts...because that's what I have.  For the dancers there's not an appreciable difference.  I use foam strips under them.

For the choir you should just try it and see.  It will depend mostly on the choir itself, but my choice would be a pair of wireless hand-held mics.  It's not that hard to get them on and off.  You could use both the boundary mics and 1 or 2 wireless IF you delay them together.

What will go in the monitors for the choir?  Band is OK.  Choir back at themselves will be problematic, but less so with designated choir mics.

[Spenser Hamilton]

The biggest issue I see is that what sounds good for the hard shoes probably won't sound good for the choir. That could be dealt with at the console end.

I typically drop my e912s right on the stage (no padding).


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[g'bye, Dick Rees]

The biggest issue I see is that what sounds good for the hard shoes probably won't sound good for the choir.

From the OP:

"Considering using same boundary/floor mics for hardshoes and choir, multing inputs to separate channels and processing accordingly"

I think he's got it covered.

[Jeremy Oswin]

You could use both the boundary mics and 1 or 2 wireless IF you delay them together.

I do like this idea.  Probably will try it.  Concern is lowered gain before feedback, expense of 2 more RF rentals, and lack of delay option on analog consoles that sometimes are provided.

What will go in the monitors for the choir?  Band is OK.  Choir back at themselves will be problematic, but less so with designated choir mics.

Agreed.  No choir in monitors, medium amount of ac guitar, keyboard, bodhran, light amount of whistles & fiddle.  Stage volume is extremely reasonable, except drums–nearly fill 1800 seat halls without mics, hence the drum shield this tour.

[Chris Eddison]

I pad the bottom of my PCC160's with material from mouse mats, attached with double sided tape. For a while I only had 2 of my 3 mics padded (quite simply because I'd never got round to doing the 3rd) and because of this I'd tend to position them with the non-padded one central and the 2 padded ones left and right. I found that whilst my mic gain was pretty much unaffected and there was no noticeable difference in level, my gain before feedback on the un-padded mic was poorer. I guess this was just due to mechanically transmitted vibrations through the stage surface. The padding makes a noticeable difference to the effect of unwanted stomping/thudding when people walk directly in front of the mic.

I'd give the boundary mics a go. I've had good results with them for covering choirs.
Another option I've been exploring (or was, when I was working with a choir who needed to be on and off the stage) is to use a thin boom mic such as the JTS microboom. These are a small standard mic stand with then a long, very thin boom up to a capsule. These could be paired with a small wireless mic pack to give you a very unobtrusive and low profile mic. It'd need a custom cable making up between mic and pack, but otherwise I think it'd work. I never pursued it because my need for them went away, but it'd be a neat, elegant solution. AKG also make similar boom mics.

[Jeremy Oswin]

I bought 4 Bartlett Stage Floor Mic C for this tour and very happy with the results on choir and hard shoes.  Sound clear with sufficient gain before feedback.  I used the 2 on stage right for choir (opposite drums), high passed at 140 (children's choir), notched about 5 lo-mid frequencies, boosted the air few dB, and had extremely natural pickup and loud enough output.  Mics on stands got vetoed by producer before the choir arrived, didn't want the eye-sore, go figure.  I would have really enjoyed comparing against the MicroBoom or FlexWand, though did briefly try Heil PR 22–noticeably quieter and noisier.  I think the 6dB of boundary gain worked favorably with choir nearly on top of them. 

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