The Orchestra in the pit has not the same sonical depth as when installed in a classic symphonic setup. Often this setup in combination with the acoustics of the venue give the orchestra a much bigger sound. Of course the depth of the pit is very important in the transmission of the sound in the hall and most of the pits are adjustable for different setups and styles of music.
Again most people involved in Opera do not like microphones, for obvious reasons, and so we try to place them as low as possible. As a result of this you cannot install a 'main array' (ORTF, Decca) because this will not give you an overall sound of the orchestra, you'd only capture the instrument close to the microphone. But we manage most of the time to work with under 24 microphones in the pit and often even under 16.
On the strings we often put omnidiretional microphones with an acoustical pressure equalizer (sphere), this way we capture the full sound of the orchestra and can get the focus we need whenever a particular player has a solo and needs to come out a bit. For each section we did several AB testings and you can read in the blog which microphones are used on what instruments.
Especially for the strings we put at least 2 microphones per section so you do hear a bigger orchestra playing and not just one musician. Because we are rather close to the orchestra, we often hang 4 omni's in the hall to give some of the live ambiance in the mix. Most microphones we use are small diaphragm Condensers. these take less space in the pit and give a more natural sound. Only on the double bases we like the low end of the Neumann M149.
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