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The pastor at my church has asked me to source a fairly portable sound system: mixer, speakers, a few mics (anything else?) He has a $3000 dollar donation to play with so any suggestions for decent gear would be appreciated.
If you just take one aspect, in this case the microphones, you need to think about how many people there are in the choir, their gender and positioning. Condenser mics are usually the best choice for groups but so much depends on the points I have mentioned above.
Use Omni directional instrument microphones to cover a wide area, not uni-directional vocal mics. Condensor mics are more sensitive, but require the mixer to provide them power. Look Into Yamaha mixers and Cerwin Vega speakers, those two are usually the workhorse brands that are cheaper than the price suggests. If you are not very familiar with wattage (i don't know what wattage to decibel is myself without looking it up) do some research in that area. Get speakers that are rated around the loudness you need, you'll save money and the speakers will sound better being pushed to their limits. That is my opinion though, some people do not like the way speakers start breaking up near their limits. If you have the budget and want the least distorted (again, not necessarily bad distortion) sound get something that is twice the wattage you need. This is usually only a problem for people that insist the bass is jacked up way too loud through their equipment and I don't hype up the bass much.
Wonderwoll wrote on Wed, 22 September 2010 11:44 If you just take one aspect, in this case the microphones, you need to think about how many people there are in the choir, their gender and positioning. Condenser mics are usually the best choice for groups but so much depends on the points I have mentioned above. Thanks to you both for the responses and information. The choir has around 20 people and I think the majority are women, maybe 75:25. By positioning I guess you mean how they will be grouped? I saw them practice the other day and they were standing in a semi circle/horseshoe, with the men front and center. The second row are slightly elevated. Adveser, I will look into the things you suggested. Thanks again.