I've been asked by a friend to help produce a CD of some Northumbrian Pipe music, as a charity project for a hospice.

I have no problems with creating the CD and have access to Sound Forge (including some decent reverb, compression etc. plug-in's for any digital editing that may be required).

Where I'm a bit more uncertain is in the actual recording. The recording will be made using a 4 track minidisc recorder. We have access to some reasonable mics, (SM 58's PZM etc.) but nothing brilliant. The group to be recorded consits of 7-8 players.

My initial though is to get the group to play in a fairly close semi-circle, and use a trio of SM 58's at say 5 metres (yards) central, left and right to capture direct sound, and use a PZM on a fairly distant wall to collect reflected stuff.

This is however a purely amateur guess. I realize that, even given the expertise in this group, it's unlikely that I'll get replies from people who have recently recorded septets of pipers, so any general advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Ed