In recent history, music in church has evolved to focus heavily on a traditional pop aesthetic: drums, bass, guitars, keys and vocals. The church platform looks a lot like a rock or pop concert, and it’s pretty awesome. The notion of a choir in church has become less common, but it’s still very much a thing, particularly in the domain of gospel music. In gospel, the choir is arguably the most important element of the whole mix. A competent audio professional needs to be prepared to present the choir properly as part of the blend, and that process starts with getting some mics in position to capture the sound of the choir. Let’s take a look at how to go about it.
Traditionally, the two main reasons for miking a choir were amplification and recording. If we had a lot of amplified musical instruments, we might find our choir buried in the mix if we didn’t give them a little P.A. assist. And obviously, capturing a recording of the choir requires miking — in fact, more deliberate and carefully planned miking than for other purposes. In the modern age, we have introduced a third rationale for proper miking of the choir — to ensure that they will be heard in our livestream. And yes, churches have been livestreaming for a while and broadcasting for decades, but in the post-pandemic world, the livestream has become a key and integral component of the media presented by most churches.
Let’s presume that our miking scheme will be leveraged to accomplish all three of these possibilities — we want to record, reinforce, and represent. If we plan and execute carefully, we can accomplish all three of these goals with a single setup. There are several additional goals we’ll want to accomplish in this process. First, let’s make sure that the aural image of the choir that we capture sounds good — we want to ensure that the electronic signal strongly resembles the actual sound of the choir. Most of the time we’ll want to avoid altering the natural blend of voices created by the choir (although there is one exception that we’ll address later). If indeed we are amplifying the level of the choir, we’ll want to avoid feedback — that old arch-enemy of ours. We’ll also want to avoid creating distortion or other unwanted artifacts that detract from or outright mangle the fidelity of the choir’s sound. And there’s also a visual aesthetic that requires some attention. We must take care that we don’t conceal our choir behind an ugly array of microphones that distract the congregation — particularly now in the era of live visual capture for streaming.
Minimalist Miking
One fundamental notion that helps to accomplish all of the above is to use the minimum number of mics necessary. More mics cause more problems, in a number of ways. More mics creates more potential for feedback — more potential paths through which feedback can start. More mics also create additional potential for phase interference, particularly if they’re not placed with sufficient space in between them. If mics with tight cardioid patterns are used, more mics can result in one or more voices standing out, which is anathema to the notion of a choir. We want the blended sound of all of our vocalists to be presented, not a group of distinct individuals. More mics also create additional opportunity for an obstructed view. Properly locating a small handful of mics unobtrusively is much easier than doing so with a dozen mics. Throwing lots of mics at the application can be a rookie mistake. On the other hand, these challenges can be overcome by a seasoned professional who understands how to maximize gain before feedback, minimize phase interference, manage a true blend of voices, and do all of the above with minimal visual obstruction.
Another exception to this notion should be somewhat obvious: if you have a very small choir of say, 12 people, and you have enough SM58s to close-mic each person — do so, by all means! Close miking increases gain before feedback, reduces phase struggles, but still presents challenges related to visually concealing mics, and may also require some clever mixing to achieve a choir-style blend instead of a group of individuals mixed together.
The X-Y Solution
I like the idea of a nice stereo pair, and this approach is typically sufficient for small to medium choirs. In particular, an X-Y pair can limit the visual distraction to what amounts to a single mic location with two elements. Phase problems are largely eliminated with the X-Y arrangement, and we achieve a nice stereo image. Of course, we’ll want to deploy mics with cardioid polar patterns, as omnis are going to present problems in terms of phase and gain before feedback. Cardioid mics with super tight patterns can get too much focus on one or two vocalists, so a regular broad cardioid is almost always going to be the best choice.
A spaced pair can work well too, as long as the 3:1 rule is observed — we want to make sure the distance between mics is at least three times the distance between the mic capsule and the vocalists. This brings up another important placement issue. If we place our choir on risers so the rear rows are elevated above the front, we can place our mics essentially right in front of the choir. If the choir is not “tilted” by virtue of risers, however, we’ll need to accomplish the “tilt” by placing the mics a bit higher so that they “see” all the vocalists — so the vocalists in the front are not creating aural shadows that block the voices of the vocalists in the rear. This also helps to resolve the issue created by sheer distance. The sound pressure level projected by the rear row would be lower by virtue of the distance from the mics as compared with the front row. Accomplishing a tilt with either risers or mic placement is important to ensure that all rows are captured as equally as possible.
If there is a vocal solo, it’s preferable to have that person step downstage and sing into a soloist microphone, typically a handheld mic that can be held or left on its stand. This accomplishes the goal of bringing the solo out in the mix, above the level of the choir. From a visual standpoint, this also facilitates proper acknowledgement of the solo part when the vocalist steps forward, possibly even into a pre-located spotlight.
Keeping It in the Mix
If it’s necessary to provide the choir with monitor speakers (the expense of providing IEMs to every member of a large choir could get prohibitively high), it’s best to avoid representing the choir mics themselves in the monitor mix. The members of the choir should be able to hear themselves and their neighboring vocalists sufficiently to perform, but it’s perfectly fine to present in their monitor mix such components as the rhythm section, keyboards, guide tracks, and other such elements that help them rhythmically and with pitch. If it’s absolutely necessary, the choir mics can be mixed into the monitor speakers, but the potential for feedback can increase substantially as a result.
Earlier, we alluded to the notion of simply capturing the natural blend of the choir and presenting it the way it is. Most church choirs are well rehearsed, well balanced, and well coordinated by the director. A good director will physically array their vocalists to accomplish a pleasant blend. But in some cases, the director might arrange vocalists by section, and this creates the one notable exception to the idea of simply capturing the blend and presenting it. We might consider a mic for each section, to be blended by the FOH mixer. This will require more experience from our FOH mixer, and a particularly good ear to get the parts of the choir properly blended. The typical breakdown is soprano, alto, tenor, and bass (SATB), and riding gain on these four sections to arrive at a pleasant blend is not necessarily for the faint of heart, particularly if the mixer is also charged with maintaining a proper mix of a rhythm section and other elements simultaneously.
My strongest advice is to keep the miking scheme as simple as possible, with no more mics than what is necessary, getting them properly placed, and doing so in the least visually obtrusive possible way. It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s also not rocket science, and good results are not difficult to achieve.
John McJunkin is the chief engineer and staff producer in the studio at Grand Canyon University.
