recording a 9 guitar ensemble !

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

A project in a few weeks sees a 9 guitar group (classical/acoustic gtrs all)
in a quiet hall with a great acoustic, arrayed in a slight "bow"
shape/semi-circle for eye contact. My intuition is to have a 7" spaced
cardioid or omni pair as main pickup, with perhaps 4 SD condensors (Rode
NT5's, or similar) arrayed across the players at 3-4 feet distance panned
L-R as spot mics.
Live to 2 track via laptop with Dat backup.Recording at 24 bit 44.1 or 88.2
should see no need for compression going in, perhaps some reverb added to
spot mics on the way in to match the hall acoustic (or not...advice ?)
How does this sound as a starting point ? Your thoughts and guidance will be
greatly appreciated,
Thaanks,
Ray


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Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"Ray Thomas" <rthomas@chariot.net.au> wrote in message
news:41171af4$1_4@news.chariot.net.au...
> A project in a few weeks sees a 9 guitar group (classical/acoustic gtrs
all)
> in a quiet hall with a great acoustic, arrayed in a slight "bow"
> shape/semi-circle for eye contact. My intuition is to have a 7" spaced
> cardioid or omni pair as main pickup, with perhaps 4 SD condensors (Rode
> NT5's, or similar) arrayed across the players at 3-4 feet distance panned
> L-R as spot mics.
> Live to 2 track via laptop with Dat backup.Recording at 24 bit 44.1 or
88.2
> should see no need for compression going in, perhaps some reverb added to
> spot mics on the way in to match the hall acoustic (or not...advice ?)
> How does this sound as a starting point ? Your thoughts and guidance will
be
> greatly appreciated,

I'd skip the spot microphones unless you're recording multitrack; there'll
be comb-filtering effects from the difference in distance between the mains
and the spots, and if you're not obeying the "rule of threes" you'll get
more comb-filtering between the spot mikes. I'd go with an ORTF pair of good
small-diaphragm condensers -- Schoepsim if you can get them, Neumann KM-84s
if you can't. That should be plenty. Might need to put a couple of rugs on
the floor between the mikes and the players.

Peace,
Paul