Introduction 

The purpose of this guide is to provide all you need as a music director to get you started with recording wind ensembles. As music directors, we all understand how much work it takes to put a concert cycle together. There's finding the right repertoire for your students, score study and preparation, and of course the countless hours both you and your ensemble have put in both in and out of rehearsal to get there. What better way to immortalize such a culmination of work than with a recording, you can share it with your students, their families, archive it, and of course use it as a teaching tool to help you all improve. The best part, it's easier than you might think. 

The guide is broken down into three Tiers to help you get started regardless of the equipment you may have or plan to get. All tiers in the recording guide recording involve having a “main array” that is placed towards the front of the ensemble, usually close to where the conductor stands. As the tiers progress, additional mics are added to better capture the ensemble. 

Techniques and Placement

XY (Coincident)

XY is a great way of recording small to medium sized ensembles. You get both a focused ensemble center while still recording the left and right sides of the ensembles. For this method you will:

• Need two Cardioid microphones angled 90 degrees toward each other

  • (Can be mounted on two separate stands or on one stand using a stereo bar)

• Place the array 2-3 feet above the conductors head

• Aim the microphones toward the middle of the ensemble

*A high quality recorder such as the Zoom H4n or H6 can be used for XY configurations as well.

** This method can also be flown/suspended if you want a more permanent solution. 

NOS (Near Coincident) 

Similar to the XY method in that it uses two directional microphones, NOS is great at recording larger ensembles while getting slightly larger stereo separation compared to XY. For this method you will:

• Need two Cardioid microphones spaced 11.8 inches apart and angled 90 degrees apart.  

• Suspend microphones 2-3 feet above the conductor

• Aim the microphones at the center of the ensemble.

AB (Spaced Pair)

An AB setup is great for achieving a wider stereo image while also picking up the room reflections. Because this uses two microphones several feet from each other, you will want to make sure they are spaced properly in order to avoid phasing issues (sounds not lining up).For this method you will:

• Use two omnidirectional (omni) microphones, each mounted on their own stand

• Place the microphones 10-12 feet apart with you (the conductor) in the center.

• Raise the microphones 2-3 feet above the conductor's head. 

**Like XY, these two microphones can be flown/suspended for a more permanent solution.

Techniques and Placement

XY (Coincident)

Exactly the same thing used in Tier 2 but can be expanded with outriggers (side microphones) in order to get a wider stereo field. In order to do this, you will need:

• Additional two cardioid microphones  

• Each outrigger is placed on its own stand 

• Outriggers are placed at the same height as the main XY and 6-10 feet in both directions from the main array.

• Aim the microphones toward the middle of the ensemble and pan hard left and hard right.

*A high quality recorder such as the Zoom H4n or H6 can be used for XY configurations as well, with additional microphones added.

** This method can also be flown/suspended if you want a more permanent solution. 

Spaced Pair

Similar to the AB setup in Tier 2, however this uses three microphones and is designed at filling in the gap that is created when trying to mic larger ensembles as the microphones are spread too far apart. This is accomplished by adding a center microphone. For this method you will:

• Use three omnidirectional (omni) microphones, each mounted on their own stand

• The center mic is placed 2-3 feet above the head of the conductor

• The outrigger mics are placed at the same height as the center mic, 6-10 feet from the center mic depending on the size of the ensemble.

• Good rule of thumb is to try to divide the ensemble into thirds with the microphones.

**Like XY, these two microphones can be flown/suspended for a more permanent solution.

OCCO

OCCO is a hybrid of NOS and AB without the need for several stands. The reason it is called OCCO is because it uses two Omni mics and two Cardioid mics in that configuration (Omni-Cardioid-Cardioid-Omni). This is a great way of capturing any size ensembles while giving you the freedom to use the four microphones in different capacities such as just the omni array, just the cardioid array or a mixture of the two at different levels. For this method you will need:

• Two matched cardioid microphones

• Two matched omni microphones (APE Spheres optional)

• A four microphone stereo bar (if using one stand)

• Can be mounted on large stands or flown. 

• Angle the inner array (Cardioid) 90 degrees similar to NOS

• Angle the outer array (Omni) 90+ degrees.

• Suspended 8-10 feet above the ensemble. 

• You can use similar sounding microphones, or microphones with different sonic profiles. 

***With all techniques used in Tier 3, spot mics (individual or section mics) can be used to get better control of the mix. An example of this might be placing a microphone pointed at a soloist, or used in the back of the ensemble above the timpani or keyboard instruments. You can also use a dedicated room microphone (omni usually works well) to capture the hall as well as audience noise)***