Ensemble or kit

Men's choir (TTBB)

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.¹

Part of the Choir family; that family's advice shows here too.

Parts: Tenor, Baritone, Bass voice.

Sources: 4 (3 independent)

Recommended mics

Mics sources recommend

7 setups from 4 sources, 3 of them independent of any mic maker. Each mic shows how many sources name it for that role, and how many of those are independent. Listed alphabetically: there is no ranking.

On stage

Close

microphone (type not named)1 independent source

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 choir²

Studio and stage

Overhead

Pearl TL 441 independent source
Schoeps CCM 41 independent source

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)³
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)³

Studio

Main pair or array

MBHO 603 with KA 100 DK capsules1 independent source
Royer SF-12 maker's advice1 source, 0 independent
Royer SF-24 maker's advice1 source, 0 independent

Contact

SoundField ST450 MkII1 independent source

Room

Samar VL371 independent source

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).⁴
Contact SoundField ST450 MkII
main pickup, centre of array above conductor
Choir members preferred the SoundField mix to the spaced omnis (paraphrase).⁴
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).⁴
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."⁵

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 microphones⁶

Where the sound comes from

voices: Many incoherent voices whose intensities add; a few loud voices dominate fortissimo.⁹

Each voice is close to omnidirectional below about 1 kHz.¹⁰
Above about 1 kHz each voice is more directional, towards the front.¹⁰

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.⁴

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).^4,11,12,13

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

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)⁷
91.6 dB(A)	at the singer; university choir, basses (mean Leq)⁷
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)^7,8
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)^7,8
92 dB(A)	chorister (dosimeter); Finnish National Opera choristers, mean exposure; 100 dB(A) in choir-only rehearsals secondary^7,8

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.⁷

Sources

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