Balance an orchestra 101:
I'll take a guess here that all of the other tracks you've got are spot mics around the orchestra, and you'd only really need those for solos, or if that section was particularly weak.
As for the rest, it's fairly straightforward, but don't try and do it as stereo pairs, even though it's tempting, as groups are far more use. I'm assuming that this is a Decca Tree with a couple of outriggers. You need the L and R panned mid-left and mid-right, and the centre panned (obviously) central. When you've got the balance about right for that, then assign these to a stereo group. Also in this group you can include the wide L and R (the outriggers), probably panned hard left and hard right. This group is now your main orchestral balance, and you'll have that on a single fader. You may find that you need less centre than you might have thought*, and the balance of that is quite critical; you can only really set that after getting the other L&R balances about right. You need to set all of this up first. The one thing you will notice from the outriggers is that you get far more of the strings on them, and this will probably determine their final balance in the mix.
The far L & R are your ambience mics, and these will also need to be panned hard left and right, and in another group (unless you want to reduce them to a single stereo track, but it's probably not worth it), and you add those to taste - sometimes you don't need them at all. Without hearing it, I have no idea - it's generally hall-dependent though; some give back more than others!
Having got the orchestral balance sounding good, then you have only to pan the soloist mics central and get the levels of those correct. If there is more than one person singing, you might like to pan each of them very slightly L and R. The reason for the * above is that the soloist mics will also pick up the orchestra centre to an extent, which is why you might need a bit less from the C in the Decca Tree, but...
Opera singers are a PITA, quite frankly. They are too loud! Chances are that you will end up with quite a lot of them in the Decca mics anyway, and all you'll need the soloist mics for is a little clarity.
If you find that you need to use any of the spot mics, then it's important that you pan them to the same place that you can hear the instrument from in the stereo field, otherwise it mucks this up completely. And use them subtly!
That should be enough to get you going, I hope...
AdChoices