Adding live band and choir to PA System

Question

I have a similar task to do as with this question Sound system for home theater and band

but mine has a different application. I am running an event venue

To start, my challenge is to be able to setup in one room a mix of a PA system, Video Playback, Live Band and Choir.

It used to be just the first 2 (PA & Video Playback) but recently I need to add Live Band and Choir in the mix.

We are moving from our old location and I want to make adjustments and hopefully improvements. We have a low budget ($800-$1000) and we want to know where should we spend this to have a little improvement in our audio recording.

The room size we are about to setup is 4.4 meter by 8.4 meter and 3.8 meter high. Here is the planned setup http://postimg.org/image/xjwo3j65f/

We used to host solely seminars where standard PA system is sufficient but now live band and choir is added to the mix.

Our current setup is as follows

1 XENYX QX1832USB 3 Behringer ULTRAVOICE XM1800S (choir) 1 SM58 Wireless mic (guest speaker/event host) 1 Sony Home Theater System we use as our main speakers. Xenyx183 is connected here

Band have their own gadgets 1 XENYX 1204USB 1 Electronic Drums 1 Electronic Bass Guitar 1 Electronic Keyboard 1 Electric Guitar

Xenyx120 send instruments output to our main mixer Xenyx183. 4 mic is directly connected to Xenyx 183 Recording is coming from Xenyx183

Drums and bass shared on one (two inputs)bass amp for their monitor Keyboard and guitar share one (two inputs) guitar amp for their monitor

The main problem is our recording. Choir and Band is not being recorded properly. It sounds good on the venue but its not the same on our recording. Most of the time choir is barely heard on the recording.

We are planning to buy Audix M1250 to mic the choir but I am worried it will only pickup the band monitors when it gets loud.

Thanks

Answer 1

You don't mention how you record; are you splitting the masters from the QX1832USB, recording via the USB interface, or anything else?

A different solution to what owl describes could simply be to mic the room. Although you don't get anything near "studio" quality of the resulting recordings, this can sound surprisingly well, and room mics will capture what you hear in the room, and not what you have going out from the console(s).

If this doesn't work either, how about investing in a smaller field recorder? A Zoom R16 is around $400 new, and gives you 8 inputs and records to SD-cards. This could allow you to record the band and choir separately, along with extra channels for speakers or others. You can then mix this into a stereo recording; it might be possible to do so directly on the R16, but using a computer is likely to be quicker and easier.

Answer 2

The problem you are solving is: how to get good sound in room and in recording?

This can be challenging in small venue like the one you have, because what you can hear lot of "stage noise" in the room. I have few ideas probably worth trying:

1. multi-track recording and mixing it afterwards.
   • I see you have 2 mixes with USB recording (stereo) so you can change the setup to record choir separately (stage desk) and band (with little choir from main desk)
   • you can try connecting everything to the bigger desk and
2. mix it loud, then you have to put much more choir to be heard, but this can make feedback problems. If you have 3 person choir (I see you have 3 mics, than this should be no problem)
   • use headphones to hear what goes into recording - create a nice blend of band with choir and check if it is acceptable in the room
3. different (bigger) venue where you would have to really amplify the choir.
4. you can mix it in mono (left - all speakers from here) and put choir to the right (only into recording) and mix it later (it would be mono).

If you have sound check or rehearsal I suggest you try some of these things and find which works for you. I would go with #1.

None of these options take great investment, you can probably achieve what you want with what you currently have.

If you want to really record multi-track there are some great desks close to your budget (for example Yamaha 01V96i used from $1400) but it can do way more than that. You would need a PC though.

That Audix is a good choice to get better sound, but doesn't solve your problem.

When I see your gear, I miss professional grade speakers. For example pair of RCF ART-310 or similar is in your price range. It would be definitely needed in a bigger venue.