Topic: a cappella vocal performance: Schoeps MKxx or AKG 414 > V3

[eric.B]

With my experience of ONCE recording a pipe organ in a semi large room(not as big as the one in your pic)..  Id say its a toss up between the 414's NOS subcard(if you have it) or Blumlein..  and its a toss up between setting close and low, or back farther and higher up. 

enjoy!

[Brian Skalinder]

Many thanks for everyone's suggestions, tips, etc.  I moved the mics around a bit and walked around during rehearsal to find the spot that sounded best to my ears.  I ran MK21s NOS, and 414s Blumlein from the same stand, ~12' back, ~5-6' up.  Farther forward and it exaggerated the L/R stereo image too much and also picked up individual voices too strongly.  Farther back and/or higher and I got too much of the room.  I'll have a few pics and maybe a sample or two in the next couple days.   I must say, I'm very pleased with the results. 

[Brian Skalinder]

Well.  First off, BIG thanks to Jonny for lending me his V3 - I'm glad I got two recordings and he made it all possible.  And thanks to the rest of you for the advice - set my mind at ease going into this and helped me out tremendously.  The quick response:  I'm very pleased with both recordings and like both for different reasons.  FWIW, I ran:

Schoeps MK21 (NOS) > V3 > JB3
AKG C 414 B-ULS (Blumlein) > V3 > Hosa ODL-312 > JB3

The group sang on the steps leading up to the altar area, raised up a couple feet.  Since I could set up in a large center aisle, no problem running the mics around audience-standing head-height.  Set up mics about 12' back from the group, MK21s ~6' up, 414s ~5' up.  As expected, the MK21s provide a very open sense of space while the 414s picked up a bit more audience shuffle and offered a stronger L/R stereo image.  I plopped my mics down and walked around a bit during rehearsal and found that any closer and the L/R imaging was too exaggerated, farther back and I would've picked up too much of the room reverb.  Some minor forward/back tweaking is all it needed.  Dave, the group's recording guy, said he likes to run right around head-height because running too high he picked up too much room as well.  So, I took his advice and kept things fairly low. 

A few un-mastered, raw samples attached.  Since it's an unamplified performance, there's a bit more HF noise than I'm used to.  In WAV I've already played around a bit with some minor NR schemes and had some success - time will tell if I can get it to a point where I'm satisfied or if I'll just leave it alone.  Note:  the MP3 compression does weird things to the ambient HF noise.  Anyway, here're the samples, a total of 6 MP3s - 3 selections from both sets of mics:

procession.x.mp3
The group started Caroling, Caroling towards the back half of the church in two lines and proceeded up the aisle and past the mics before filing into the "stage" space.  Love the sound of the C414s Blumlein, hearing the voices switch from L > R and vice versa as they walked by!  MK21s don't sound too shabby on this one, either.

wonder.x.mp3
Intro solo to I Wonder As I Wander.  Clear, clean, pristine.  And my sister. 

12days.x.mp3
Twelve Days of Christmas blurb.  During rehearsal, I set my peaks for this section - only to have another section a bit louder during the performance.  Fortunately, I figured something like that might happen so I gave myself a bit of room on levels and this one turned out okay.  On the other track, I just barely clipped - sounds fine after minor restoration.

And I gotta toss some pics out there else Moke'll get pissed at me, Evil Moderator that he is.  FWIW, maybe 75 people showed up - I took these all pretty early in the afternoon...

Front from sorta close:



Front from farther back:



Front showing the full arch:



The "stage" space:



View of the stage from the side, including my mics:



And the obligatory gear pic:

[F.O.Bean]

nice brian