Recording Live concert strings on a noisy stage

Hi all,

a quick question and hopefully some insight from those of you doing sound reinforcement & recording of more modern classical productions.

For example, I recently went to a concert here in London wit choir(s), traditional orchestra, Piano, solo singers, bass and drum kit. Some performers have monitors on stage, but I couldn't see any IEMs being worn. I recon there were, at times, 250 people performing (both on AND off stage).

In one of the pieces, the string section (all 50 of them) where under balanced from my seat way further back in the hall (I was very much in the cheap seats) and it got me wondering, if you were doing this sort of concert with a modern 'band' style ensemble with full symphony orchestra and singers with some monitor wedges on-stage (ie, loud on stage), how would you go about reinforcing a large (50-60 size) string ensemble? Do you go for classical style spots?

Would you put a pickup/lapel style mic on every player? On some of the players?

Is there a 'correct' way of doing this?

The I/O abilities of desks these days mean that I'm sure you COULD put a DPA 4099 on each string player, but it would be pretty extreme to have 50 channels of the stuff.

Thoughts?