Recording in a dive bar

powerval

New member
Hello,

I'm playing a show tonight in a-you guessed it-dive bar, and I want to get a decent recording. There's a PA for the vox, but everything else is unmiced.

My field recording gear is unfortunately pretty bare bones:

SM57
iRig Pre
iPhone (for video)

What would be the best place for my one SM57? I've had luck with it directly over me (the drummer), but that placement doesn't get the rest of the band.

Thank you!
 
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Who is mixing the band? If someone on stage is mixing it might be good to put the mic on stage where it picks up the drums, amps and vocal monitors about evenly. If the mixer (person and board) is out in the audience then maybe put it near him aimed at stage.
 
Thanks! I'm pretty sure there their setup isn't that elaborate, but I'll try my mic where that stuff would be anyways.
 
Out by the sound guy is usually a good place to put the mic in a single mic recording setup. Since he'll generally be mixing things so that it sounds best to him where he is.
 
Except that it's a fricking 57! It's gonna sound like ass anyway. Put it wherever you want. I'd just as soon use the built in mic in the iPhone. It's actually not that bad, and a bit less fucking around.
 
you won't get a good recording with the equipment mentioned, I would never use an sm57 for this kind of thing, live recording with mics is very difficult because of the unpredictable acoustics, unpredictable audience, engineer e.t.c. Try and hook up the live engineers mixer to your rig and record it that way....
 
So how did it go powerval?

I bet the soundman didn't show up to run the vocal mics huh? lol

Seriously, did you have any decent results with your recording?
 
Except that it's a fricking 57! It's gonna sound like ass anyway. Put it wherever you want. I'd just as soon use the built in mic in the iPhone. It's actually not that bad, and a bit less fucking around.

Most iPhone recordings I've heard of loud rock shows are distorted. Is there a way to turn down the gain to prevent that? If not I'd go for the 57 into something with a gain knob.
 
Heh!
I was at Jam Night at a club a few days ago and the balance inn the room was dreadful, bass G far too loud (and I GAVE then the friggin' bass cab!) . However when I went 50 feet away to the bog the sound cleaned up no end, guitars, keys and drums much more audible. Sadly the singer was lost!

Hiding to nothing mate IMHO!

Dave.
 
There actually was a little PA/mixer, but no sound guy. I ended up putting my mic at the edge of the stage, about level with my kick. I had the gain just a bit too high, but I messed with it in Cubase and got it sound almost alright. I'll be uploading a video or two as soon as I review the results with my band!
 
Thanks for the replies everyone! The show itself was great! Even though I had my gain a bit too high, it's still better than the iPhone's built in mic (especially because I had my phone on the bass amp). They ended up having a little sound equipment, but I didn't have a chance to scope it out.
 
My real point was that if you're not willing to do any better than put up a 57, then you're obviously not that worried about it, so why bother? I've actually been pleasantly surprised by my iPhone at times. It definitely handles level better - or at least fails more gracefully - than my Tascam video thing. Not sure if the OtterBox has any impact on that...

Anywho, if you're happy with it, that's all that really matters, and I'm happy to be proven wrong.
 
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