Amplification for guitar, flute, violin ensemble

[wcap]

My family and I will be playing in church on Christmas eve, with me on guitar, and others on flute, violin, and maybe some percussion (bodhran and/or tambourine).

The strong preference in this church is to not amplify acoustic instruments, and past experience has shown that flute and violin both carry just fine unamplified (though flute can get drowned out by the grand piano sometimes - will not be a factor for us though).

Guitar seems to need some amplification though - I played solo (fingerstyle) about a week ago and though it was fine unamplified for the first service (which has low attendance), in the second service (with maybe about 100 - 140 people in the congregation) it would have been useful to mike the guitar. On Christmas Eve the church will be packed with a lot more people.

We have little experience with dealing with these sorts of amplification issues.

Is it likely to work to just mike the guitar (through some big speakers the church owns) and not the other instruments? It seems like getting the sound levels right could be tricky to avoid having the guitar overpower things (and I will have to be very careful about distance to the microphone so this does not change during our playing). And, adding some complication, I will probably be playing my Goodall for part of this, and my classical guitar for other parts.

Any insights or suggestions will be welcome. Thanks.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by wcap

My family and I will be playing in church on Christmas eve, with me on guitar, and others on flute, violin, and maybe some percussion (bodhran and/or tambourine).

The strong preference in this church is to not amplify acoustic instruments, and past experience has shown that flute and violin both carry just fine unamplified (though flute can get drowned out by the grand piano sometimes - will not be a factor for us though).

Guitar seems to need some amplification though - I played solo (fingerstyle) about a week ago and though it was fine unamplified for the first service (which has low attendance), in the second service (with maybe about 100 - 140 people in the congregation) it would have been useful to mike the guitar. On Christmas Eve the church will be packed with a lot more people.

We have little experience with dealing with these sorts of amplification issues.

Is it likely to work to just mike the guitar (through some big speakers the church owns) and not the other instruments? It seems like getting the sound levels right could be tricky to avoid having the guitar overpower things (and I will have to be very careful about distance to the microphone so this does not change during our playing). And, adding some complication, I will probably be playing my Goodall for part of this, and my classical guitar for other parts.

Any insights or suggestions will be welcome. Thanks.

I presume your guitars have no pickups themselves?
If you're miking the guitar, I'd suggest miking the other instruments too - even if they don't need it, the sound will blend better that way if all of you are coming out of the PA, even to a small extent.
You're right about your distance from the mic being critical of course, and I'd suggest you sit (in case you were thinking of standing!) so the distance is much less likely to shift.
Would you be able to have someone in charge of the sound, who can make adjustments while you're playing if necessary?

[wcap]

Thanks. This is sort of what I was thinking (that miking just one instrument might not sound good), though miking the flute and violin is going to give a different overall sound than what people had in mind.

The other problem is that the church does not seem to have an adequate set of microphones for miking a group - they seem to have one available, and I have one, but that leaves one instrument with no microphone, or it leaves the flute and violin sharing a microphone (we ran into the problem this last summer when we played at a church event outside, though the flute and violin sharing a microphone did sort of work in that case as it turned out).

None of my guitars have pickups. I always sit when I play, but even when sitting slight variations in distance to a microphone can have big effects on the sound level.

I don't know about whether someone can sit with the sound board as we play - this tends to not be how things work around there (the norm is for all instruments to be unamplified in our church).

Obviously we are going to have to experiment with all of this a bit!

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by wcap

Thanks. This is sort of what I was thinking (that miking just one instrument might not sound good), though miking the flute and violin is going to give a different overall sound than what people had in mind.

The other problem is that the church does not seem to have an adequate set of microphones for miking a group - they seem to have one available, and I have one, but that leaves one instrument with no microphone, or it leaves the flute and violin sharing a microphone (we ran into the problem this last summer when we played at a church event outside, though the flute and violin sharing a microphone did sort of work in that case as it turned out).

None of my guitars have pickups. I always sit when I play, but even when sitting slight variations in distance to a microphone can have big effects on the sound level.

I don't know about whether someone can sit with the sound board as we play - this tends to not be how things work around there (the norm is for all instruments to be unamplified in our church).

Obviously we are going to have to experiment with all of this a bit!

Yes - you just need to do the best with what you have. I'd say the flute and violin could share: I suspect the flute would need to be nearer, but both could be at leat a foot or 2 ft away - just so the mic picks up them partly, but mainly they work acoustically in the space (as you say they carry fine). The shared mic would be like a backup in case it turns out they do need a little extra. But you have your own (and just try to make sure you maintain a set distance and position). Make sure you can do a sound check beforehand with a friend out front to assess the balance.

[Ruston]

In my experience sharing a mic can be tricky. Balance between the two instruments sharing is dependent on the distance from the mic for each and variability in the relative volume of the two. In short, unless the performance goes EXACTLY like the sound check, it can be a nightmare for the sound tech because he/she has no control over the balance between the two.

If you can't mic each instrument my suggestion is to only mic the guitar. It will be the quietest of the three (in my experience). The goal is to reinforce the sound of the guitar just enough to bring the volume up to the other instruments and let the musicians balance the mix by ear.

Having time to practice and play around with it will be essential to getting the best sound possible. This includes someone at the sound board who can make adjustments and let you know how the mix sounds in the room.

[WeddingGuy]

I play duets with my wife for about 30 weddings/parties per year. She plays 'cello & I play guitar.

We carry a small, two-channel amp with us always. I'm always amp'd. She'll mic only when we're doing an outside wedding or if we're playing a loud-ish dinner or cocktail party. For the setting you're describing, I would suggest going our route--it's very simple and effective, but requires either a pickup or on-board mic on the guitar. I use both.

I run a pickup and a clamp-on mic (K&K Meridian) blended into a small amp. It essentially just "fills out" the guitar sound so that it's up to the acoustic level of the 'cello, and then we just balance by ear as we would if we were playing at a recital or so--which is essentially what y'all are doing. If you don't have a clamp-on mic, a decent condensor positioned well would do the trick.

In your situation, micing all instruments and running through a board is just overly complex and would take away the acoustic blend of what you're trying to do.

I hope this is helpful. Good luck.

[wcap]

Somehow I missed these recent replies.

Thanks for the additional suggestions. I'm also thinking miking all the instruments is going to be tricky, and that maybe just a bit of amplification of the guitar is what we need. I have a small condensor microphone we could use, and the church has some big amps/speakers - maybe we could use on of those. We'll see how it goes I guess.