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[Lars Samuelsson]

Hi everybody,

I need your advice on how to set up an upcoming gig.

It is an outdoor event with a crowd of approx 5-600 people.
The lineup is a 250    -voice choir backed up by a traditional rockband.
Drums, git, bass, key.

Any thoughts on how to set the mics and how many you would use for the choir.
Where do I position, and what do I send to, monitors and so on.

Cheers
Lars

[Justice C. Bigler]

Mic the band as normal.

For the choir, get several (for or five) large diaphragm condenser mics (AT 4050, or the like), and spread them across the choir on heavy-duty tall stands.

With 250, you may not even need choir mics.

If the choir needs monitors, I'd probably do side fills. Hopefully they will be on risers up stage of the band???

[Toby Mills]

250 voice choir and the audience is 500?
wow.

the AT2020's are also great, cheap and perfect for this sort of thing.

Because they are cheap you can afford to use more of them to pick up the sections of the choir, although with 250 people in it, i'm guessing they probably won't be divided into sections

[Geoff Doane]

If the band is too enthusiastic, you may still have trouble getting the choir loud enough in the mics compared to the band.  If that happens, forget about fidelity, and move the mics closer to the choir.  Sure, you won't get as smooth a blend, but at least you'll get some voices instead of the band bleeding in.  Drastic high pass filtering (150 Hz) of the choir mics is also probably a good idea.

If you need to use monitors, more at a low level, works better than a few at a higher level.  Also, you can employ the "butt fill" technique of putting the monitors behind the choir.  They can still hear them, but their bodies block much of the sound before it gets into the microphones.  If there is a conductor, try putting him on one ear bud for the monitor feed.  In theory, the choir shouldn't need to hear the band as long as they can see the conductor.

Good luck.  I hope you're not trying to do this in a gymnasium.
(Oh never mind.  I see you're outdoors.  Look out for wind!)

GTD

[Ales Dravinec 'Alex']

Justice C. Bigler wrote on Wed, 30 May 2007 11:22

Mic the band as normal. For the choir, get several (for or five) large diaphragm condenser mics (AT 4050, or the like), and spread them across the choir on heavy-duty tall stands. With 250, you may not even need choir mics. If the choir needs monitors, I'd probably do side fills. Hopefully they will be on risers up stage of the band???

Lars !

Do what Justice proposes, it makes more than perfect sense in every aspect.

Good show (nothing to do with luck)

A

[Lars Samuelsson]

Thanx a bunch for your advice !

Did the show last night and went for the "many mics - butt fill monitor" option.

I used 6 mics spread across the choir and 6 Sx100+ for monitor.
4 of them in the back and 2 upfront.

It was an interesting show since the act actually outnumbered the audience....
As you stated the band got a little loud so I had to get the mics real close to some of the singers.
Worked ok, but as stated no hi-fi experience

The ogranizer was pleased and we got another booking right away.

Case closed  
//Lars