Mic Archive

Men's choir (TTBB)

Tenor · Baritone · Bass voice

Sources
43 independent: not from a mic maker

What it is

Male voice choir (Welsh and English tradition): adult men, first and second tenor, baritone and bass; first tenors in falsetto can reach the range of a women's choir, but the lowest female voice cannot reach the bass range.10

Where the sound comes from

  • voices: Many incoherent voices whose intensities add; a few loud voices dominate fortissimo.8
  • Each voice is close to omnidirectional below about 1 kHz.9
  • Above about 1 kHz each voice is more directional, towards the front.9

Layout

The Spooky Men's Chorale (16 men, a church) arranged themselves in a wide "square bracket" shape with the conductor in the middle; the array above his head had to "see" about 150 degrees; two omnis 50 cm apart gave a full image without a hole.3

How loud

Sound pressure level measurements as published. Different kinds of figure (a playing level, a peak, a dose at the player's ear) can't be compared with each other, and neither can figures at different distances.

Player's exposure (dosimeter)
88.8 dB(A)at the singer; university choir, tenors (mean Leq)6
91.6 dB(A)at the singer; university choir, basses (mean Leq)6
88.84 dB(A)dosimeter on the right collarbone, 5-7 in (13-18 cm) from the ear; university choir (85 voices) tenor, one singer, mean Leq over five rehearsals and performances of opera choruses with orchestra (each about 1 h)6,7
91.63 dB(A)dosimeter on the right collarbone, 5-7 in (13-18 cm) from the ear; university choir (85 voices) bass, one singer, mean Leq over five rehearsals and performances of opera choruses with orchestra (each about 1 h)6,7
92 dB(A)chorister (dosimeter); Finnish National Opera choristers, mean exposure; 100 dB(A) in choir-only rehearsals secondary6,7

University choir bass mean Leq 91.6 dB(A), tenor 88.8 dB(A) at the singer (one singer each). A Finnish opera chorus: 92 dB(A) mean for tenors and basses.6

Recording it

Recording: Mike Senior put a SoundField ST450 MkII (B-format) in the middle with two small-diaphragm omnis (MBHO 603 bodies with KA 100 DK diffuse-field capsules) either side, a "Robjohns Array" like a miniature Decca tree, and a pair of Samar VL37 ribbons far back "just in case". Findings: the church gave a rich low-end bloom; moving choir and mics a few yards towards the centre helped; the spaced omnis had more low end (a 1 dB shelf cut from 350 Hz on quiet songs); the SoundField was leaner, and the choir preferred it after decoder tweaks.

Proximity and low end: close mics lift male bass (DPA); bass singers at the back lose level on distant mics (SoundPro); a spot mic among the basses with a low-pass filter can help a thin bass section (Recording Magazine).3,11,12,13

Mics

No mic is named by more than one source yet: each names its own.

All the mics sources name, by setting and role (7)

On stage

The 1 setup behind this: placement and quotes
  • Close microphone (type not named)
    area, four mics on stands for the choir
    four microphones on stands for choir1

Studio and stage

Overhead

The 2 setups behind this: placement and quotes
  • Overhead Pearl TL 44
    overhead, suspended upstage above and in front of the choral risers
    Chorus: one Pearl TL 44 stereo mic suspended upstage, above and in front of the risers (paraphrase)2
  • Overhead Schoeps CCM 4
    overhead, two suspended eight feet to either side of the central stereo mic
    Two Schoeps CCM 4s suspended eight feet to either side (paraphrase)2

Studio

Main pair or array

  • MBHO 603 with KA 100 DK capsules1 source
  • Royer SF-121 source from its own maker
  • Royer SF-241 source from its own maker

Spaced pairBlumlein

Contact

  • SoundField ST450 MkII1 source

Room

  • Samar VL371 source

Stereo pair

The 4 setups behind this: placement and quotes
  • Main pair or array 2 × MBHO 603 with KA 100 DK capsules
    main pair above conductor, with SoundField in centre
    Spaced omnis 50 cm apart gave a full stereo image for a choir spread over about 150 degrees (paraphrase).3
  • Contact SoundField ST450 MkII
    main pickup, centre of array above conductor
    Choir members preferred the SoundField mix to the spaced omnis (paraphrase).3
  • Room 2 × Samar VL37
    distant pair, room
    A pair of Samar VL37 ribbons were put up as distant mics "just in case" in a strong church acoustic (paraphrase).3
  • Main pair or array Choir advice Royer SF-24 or Royer SF-12
    stereo pair for vocal groups
    "The SF12 and SF-24 are especially useful for recording vocal groups in stereo."4

Advised against

  • Close many close microphones
    close, many mics on few singers in a studio, instead of a few room mics; the reviewer finds little room for acoustic blending
    the recording engineer opted for a large number of microphones on very few singers rather than a few room microphones5

On stage

  • Small-diaphragm cardioid or supercardioid condensers on stands or hanging, about 45 cm in front of the first row and 45 cm above the back row's heads; or '2x2': 2 ft in front, 2 ft above the tallest singer, for up to 20 singers.
  • About one mic per 6 m of singers; 30-45 voices need two or three.
  • Keep neighbouring mics at least three times as far apart as each is from its singers (3:1); with few mics it can't always be met.
  • Aim a supercardioid at the back row: the front row is then about 60 degrees off axis and the back row 1.4 times further away.
  • Gain before feedback drops fast as mics cover more singers: in DPA's example for 12 singers, six mics lose 17 dB and three mics 25.5 dB against one mic per singer.14,12,11,15

Problems to watch

  • Feedback with monitors behind the choir.
  • Hearing loops pick up dynamic mics and cables: use condensers and route cables away.
  • Comb filtering from too many open mics.11,16

Sources

  1. BYU Performing Arts Management: Men's Chorus technical rider 2021-22 (about 180 men on 4-level risers)educational · pam.byu.edu
  2. Mix: Sound Design for an American Tradition (Mark Frink, Dec 2002, BHS international convention)magazine · mixonline.com
  3. Sound On Sound: Session Notes - Spooky Men's Chorale (Mike Senior)magazine · soundonsound.com
  4. Royer Labs FAQ: Which Royer mic would you recommend for recording vocals?manufacturer · royerlabs.com
  5. MusicWeb International: review of The Betws-yn-Rhos Male Choir (Sain SCD2343; Patrick Gary)magazine · musicweb-international.com
  6. Cook-Cunningham, Grady and Nelson: choir singers' noise exposure (IJRCS 4(1), 19-35)academic · 2012 · acda.org
  7. IJRCS: Cook-Cunningham, Grady and Nelson, Hearing doses of university choral singers (4(1), 2012), PDFSheri L. Cook-Cunningham; Melissa L. Grady; Heather Nelson · academic · 2012 · acda-publications.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
  8. Titze and Maxfield: choir dynamic range model (JASA 142(4), 2464-2468)academic · 2017 · pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  9. Katz and d'Alessandro: voice directivity measurements (ICA 2007)academic · 2007 · groupeaa.lisn.upsaclay.fr
  10. Wikipedia, Men's chorusreference · en.wikipedia.org
  11. DPA Mic University: How to mic a choirmanufacturer · dpamicrophones.com
  12. SoundPro: How To Mic a Choir, Best Mics & Placement Tipsretailer · soundpro.com
  13. Recording Magazine: Choir Recording And A Primer On Mid/Sidemagazine · recordingmag.com
  14. ProSoundWeb: Church Sound, Effective Microphone Strategies For ChoirsBruce Bartlett · educational · prosoundweb.com
  15. Audio-Technica: ES933 datasheet (hanging choir mic)manufacturer · fullcompass.com
  16. ProSoundWeb: Choir Mic Techniques, Rising To The Challengemagazine · prosoundweb.com