This is the first time I am mixing chamber music. I have tried to balance the oboe with bass strings . There might be some unresolved phase issues. I don't know whether this balance works or not. Some insight would be helpful.
Nice to hear someone else's take on this one, and I wouldn't really fault your balancing of this at all. I know from experience how difficult it is to rebalance the oboe against the strings, and I think you've done a good job with it. You've also managed to get a nice midrange focus to the sound, somehow, which I rather like, and which benefits the violins and oboe in particular.
My main concerns are the issues of blend and depth. It sounds rather too much like a collection of spot mics, rather than something more coherent and unified -- an ensemble performance. The fact that you've pretty much retained the general dryness of the mic signals means that the overall effect is of the group all sitting on top of each other in a small practice room, which doesn't really suit the genre for me.
The solution, as far as I'm concerned, is reverb. Classical music usually only really blooms if it's got that reverb flattery going on. Find a nice hall/chapel patch to give you some height and space, and then supplement this with an early-reflections patch to blend and distance the close mics.
