Monitoring for a Choir?

[bluespkr75]

So there are about 30 people in a choir I'm going to record. They sing to backing tracks and I can't give them all headphones. I'm thinking about using a powered monitor so they can hear the backing track. Does anyone have any ideas about where I could place the monitor in relation to the mics so as to reduce bleed? I'm using two sm-81's and mic placement is somewhat up in the air (no pun intended ) at the moment. Any Thoughts?

[Stephen B.]

Would it work for you to use headphones and conduct them? Of course, I guess you'd at least have to have piano playing to keep them on key.
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[joelpatterson]

I'd spend a few minutes on site and poke around trying to find the nullest of the null of the 81's and set the powered monitor right there, maybe directly behind the mics? You figure you're going to be adding the backing tracks into the mix eventually so more than "bleed" you need to worry about bizarre coloration-style bleed, like way off to the side at an angle. Unless the backing track is loud and engulfing, the singers may turn in a weasley performance. Maybe playing the backing track pre-mixed left and right to the chorus miked left and right would result in the fewest anomalies? I've done this very thing, and there's always some kind of "whoosh" to the backing track, which kind of gives the game away that the instrumentation is not "real."
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[A.David.MacKinnon]

I've done this in the past. The quick way is to use 1 powered monitor and move the mic around untill it's hearing as little of the monitor as possible. The not so quick way is to use 2 monitors, wired out of phase (reverse the wires on 1 monitor). Space the monitors out a few feet, play you mix back in mono and find the spot in the room where the signal from the monitors cancel each other out. I do this by playing a test tone while I move the mic around the room. Watch the mic level on you meter, you'll see it drop when you find the dead spot.
You'll still end up wiyh some bleed on the choir track but it should be managable. Just remember that the monitors need to be in mono while your recording.
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[Professor]

I imagine that you'll also have the backing track somewhere on your recording as well, right? I mean is the recording meant to sound like it's voices only while they are listening to their parts played on the piano, or is the backing track meant to be precisely that, a backing track for the performance?
If you're recording to multi-track and want to have the ability to boost voices vs. track then you'll probably want to put the backing track on your recorder and playback from there and then measure the distance from monitor speaker to mics to figure an approximate delay time to line up the mics to the track and you're pretty well set. It will still help to minimize the bleed in all the ways mentioned above of course, if you want the most control over voices & track in the final mix.
Of course, if you're mixing on the fly then you'll want to balance the level of the track coming in to the mics on the way to the recorder with or without delay if you have it.
If you're only setup to go two mics to the recorder then you're probably going to need to capture that backing track as well.

If they really expect to be able to sing to a 'cheater track' and not have it recorded then you just have to tell them that they are all going to need to buy some sort of headphone system. Just having them get headphones wouldn't work unless you have a power amp and enough headphone splitter boxes to hit 30 sets of cans (even in my studio I only have 22 sets of cans and splitters to hit 24). It is possible to have everyone get a little headphone radio deal like they sell for joggers if you can track down a little FM transmitter like the ones they used to sell at Radio Shack to transmit your CD player from the living room throughout your house.

When it comes to minimizing the bleed from the speakers, just remember that the speakers have a dispersion pattern that is probably close to 90º around, though obviously some LF sound will be almost omni. So roll off the low end pretty high if you can, and don't kick back the speakers but rather set them between knee and waist high, perpendicular, and pretty close to the front row. Use the bodies of the choir to absorb as much sound as possible and don't let half the energy from the speaker be sent over their heads. I use a very "high-tech" cardboard cutout of a 45º, 45º, right triangle (cut the corner off a cardboard box with equal sides) and a laser pointer to tell where speakers are pointing, assuming their dispersion is in around 90º.

Either way, good luck with the gig.

-Jeremy