# Recording Orchestras: How loud are the mid/far mics in comparison to front?



## SwedishPug (May 21, 2019)

Hey! I had a quick question about orchestral recording. Usually how loud are the mid and far mics set in comparison to the front/main microphones? 

Bonus: Are reverb effects added to some mics but not others?


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## Scoremixer (May 22, 2019)

Depends what you/your libraries are defining as 'front' and 'mid' and 'far' mics... In a traditional orchestral film recording context, all the room mics (ie the tree, the outriggers and and the surround pair) would typically be set to an equivalent gain level, and then balanced @ 0dB as a starting point on the faders, and tweaked from there. Any closer mics would be faded up underneath as needed, but it's not unusual to use no close or mid mics at all on strings and brass in a final mix.

Bonus answer: sometimes.


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