[flyinghamster]

Aside from being one of the singers involved, I make archival recordings of my community chorus's performances. In my case, I use a rather simple setup: a pair of small-diaphragm condenser mics (usually but not always set up in the ORTF configuration), a preamp, and a digital recorder. Audacity has all of the capabilities I need for the editing/mastering phase.

One thing I've noticed is that the dynamic range of a live choral performance tends to exceed the useful range of typical consumer audio equipment[1], and it's necessary for me to deal with audience applause (usually by temporary dropping its level), and I also need to carefully apply some limiting on peaks - and sometimes a little bit of compression can work wonders.

If I resort to compression, I typically use parallel ("New York") compression, in which the uncompressed audio gets mixed with the compressed audio. It can be a bit fiddly, since it's necessary to apply the right settings to the compressed track, and to find the right proportion of compressed to uncompressed audio in the final mix.

The finished result tends to sound a bit more "up close" than the raw recording, which can be useful when I'm forced to record from the back of the room.

Even so, I find that I have to turn the volume up quite a bit higher than I would for typical pop music (especially since the Loudness War).

[1]What I mean above is, "being able to listen to the recording at a reasonable level without the peaks distorting or blowing out your speakers."