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[Mike Thomas]

Hi Folks. I am looking for some advice on the best mics for a small choir. The setting is a gym with the church service set up and taken down each week. The choir can be anywhere from 12 to 35 people on tiered risers. The mics will need to be placed in boom mic stands and cannot be permanently fixed as we are a portable church. Also, the main speakers are close by and a bit behind the plane of the mic set so feedback could be a potential issue. The sound board can furnish phantom power so condenser mics are definitely possible.  Your advice on the mic type, brand, pickup pattern, number needed, placement, etc will be helpful in locating the right solution for this choir. Thanks for the help! Mike

[Lee Buckalew]

Hi Folks. I am looking for some advice on the best mics for a small choir. The setting is a gym with the church service set up and taken down each week. The choir can be anywhere from 12 to 35 people on tiered risers. The mics will need to be placed in boom mic stands and cannot be permanently fixed as we are a portable church. Also, the main speakers are close by and a bit behind the plane of the mic set so feedback could be a potential issue. The sound board can furnish phantom power so condenser mics are definitely possible.  Your advice on the mic type, brand, pickup pattern, number needed, placement, etc will be helpful in locating the right solution for this choir. Thanks for the help! Mike

Depending on their singing level and how much reinforcement you need this may be an excersise in frustration.  You can't cheat physics.  Once the SPL level of the reinforced choir reaches the level of th acoustic sound of the choir at the mic (s) you will have feedback.  No mic will solve this for you.

That said.  For an inexpensive choice I like the Shure MX202.  I would use a cardioid capsule in the situation ou described.  You may play with speced vs. XY layout of the mics and how it affects feedback vs. blend of hour members.

If your budget is higher then either DPA or Schoeps.  The cardioid DPA 4011 (either A or C) or the sub-cardioid DPA 4015 (either A or C) would be great or the Schoeps CMC6 body with either the MK4 cardioid capsule or the MK22 open cardioid capsule could work very well.

Lee

[Tom Young]

Hi Folks. I am looking for some advice on the best mics for a small choir. The setting is a gym with the church service set up and taken down each week. The choir can be anywhere from 12 to 35 people on tiered risers. The mics will need to be placed in boom mic stands and cannot be permanently fixed as we are a portable church. Also, the main speakers are close by and a bit behind the plane of the mic set so feedback could be a potential issue. The sound board can furnish phantom power so condenser mics are definitely possible.  Your advice on the mic type, brand, pickup pattern, number needed, placement, etc will be helpful in locating the right solution for this choir. Thanks for the help! Mike

The mic's should be condenser and of/from the cardioid family (aka: directional). Without knowing all of the exact conditions, a standard cardiod should work well. Positions and aiming depend on what else is going on around the choir. You use the rear/null point on cardioid mic's to discriminate against "noise" (unwanted sound). No one can tell you how many you will need. You need to determine this based on how the choir is set up plus employing the well-documented "3:1 rule", but as a GUIDE, not a rigid rule.

Very good mid-priced microphones can be found from Earthworks Audio. Along with great sound quality and very good build quaility, they have a 15 year warranty.

How well the choir sounds will be effected by architecture, acoustics, how the choir is arranged, how tightly packed they are, whether there are monitors or not, how loud the band is, worship style, what and where the FOH loudspakers are (relative to the choir mic's) plus how well designed this system is and how it has been optimized.

[Mark Turner]

As previously mentioned, feedback will be your nemesis with the mains behind the choir mics.  Our choir is well behind a set of ceiling mounted mains and we still have trouble, especially if the choir isn't singing loudly (which happens frequently at our church).  You may be mic the choir more closely and use additional mics but then balancing the voices to sound like a choir becomes a challenge.

Despite these issues, we have had good results with the Audix micro-booms and capsules (like the MB5050 and M1250B) as they let you get enough height to get a decent balance between the back row and front row of singers while still keeping a relatively small visual footprint.

Audix has some helpful videos on choir micing posted on YouTube as well.

[Brad Weber]

For portable choir applications I second the Earthworks FW (http://www.earthworksaudio.com/microphones/flexwand-series-2/) and Audix MicroBoom (http://www.audixusa.com/docs_12/units/MicroBoom_.shtml) microphones.  Ace Backstage also offers the CSM series with Shure capsules (http://www.acebackstage.com/abc_pages/choir_stick_mics_SH.html).

[Jared Koopman]

We use Audio Technica Pro37's. But we do not have the mains behind the choir.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Hi Folks. I am looking for some advice on the best mics for a small choir. The setting is a gym with the church service set up and taken down each week. The choir can be anywhere from 12 to 35 people on tiered risers. The mics will need to be placed in boom mic stands and cannot be permanently fixed as we are a portable church. Also, the main speakers are close by and a bit behind the plane of the mic set so feedback could be a potential issue. The sound board can furnish phantom power so condenser mics are definitely possible.  Your advice on the mic type, brand, pickup pattern, number needed, placement, etc will be helpful in locating the right solution for this choir. Thanks for the help! Mike

Mike...

What board do you have? 

How many channels do you use now?

 How many more do you have available?

Is there a band?

Where are they?

Do you have any monitors?

Do you have any extra speakers?

What kind of processing do you have available in addition to the mixer?

[Tim Perry]

Mike...

What board do you have? 

How many channels do you use now?

 How many more do you have available?

Is there a band?

Where are they?

Do you have any monitors?

Do you have any extra speakers?

What kind of processing do you have available in addition to the mixer?

For this situation I'm thinking one mic for every 2 to 3 people and sing directly into it.
Probably plain old Sm58's will be a good choice.
As this is a portable church in a gym there is no reason at all why the speakers cannot be properly deployed unless maybe they are part of the non portable house system.

[Mike Thomas]

we have had good results with the Audix micro-booms and capsules (like the MB5050 and M1250B) as they let you get enough height to get a decent balance between the back row and front row of singers while still keeping a relatively small visual footprint.

Audix has some helpful videos on choir micing posted on YouTube as well.

Thanks for the recommendation on the mic and the videos. Sounds like a good option

[Mike Thomas]

Depending on their singing level and how much reinforcement you need this may be an excersise in frustration.  You can't cheat physics.  Once the SPL level of the reinforced choir reaches the level of th acoustic sound of the choir at the mic (s) you will have feedback.  No mic will solve this for you.

Thanks Lee for your advice and recommendations. I have used some SM81 mics we normally use for instruments to mic the choir with fairly good results. I am able to pick up the singers voices prior to experiencing feedback. Hope to have same experience with the new mics.

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