very 1st mobile gig; small church choir--please help

[michael.butler]

I will be taking my vs-2480 on the first mobile gig I've ever done. It is in a small church w/ a choir of about 20 or so. Accompaniment is from a digital piano and some taped music. I will be recording several numbers w/ just choir and piano, and a couple songs w/ "lead vocalists" backed by choir.

I know very little about the church's sound system except that they use a relatively new Peavey 16 channel mixer. The choir is miced using 4 of those very small overheads that hang from the ceiling. (sorry I don't know anymore about brand or model...neither did the soundman I spoke w/ over the phone). The digital piano and cassette deck are also routed through the mixer. The mixer has no outputs for individual channels. As far as I know, the only outputs are A/B pairs which they use for a pair of main and a pair of monitor speakers. There are also stereo RCA outs I believe, and, of course, a headphone jack.

As I said earlier, I've never recorded when a house PA was part of the configuration, so I'm not sure what the best approach would be. Should I do all of the mixing on the Peavey board and just use a pair of outs into the recorder? Or would it make more sense to bypass the board altogether and let the Roland do the mixing? Of course, then there's the issue of speakers. Also, I've no idea of the quality of the overhead mics they use. I wonder if I should use my own.

To summarize:

WHAT THEY HAVE: Mixer w/ limited outputs, digital piano, tape deck, and 4 "micro" o.heads.

WHAT I HAVE: The 2480 (plenty I/O's), preamps (dbx 386, presonus bl. tube, joemeek mq3) , a pair of Octava 012's, 4 sm 57's, an sm 58, an sm 94, AT 4047, BLUE babyottle.

THE ?'S: What's the best method for routing to the recorder still allowing use of their PA speakers? Which should mics I use?

I know these are super elementary questions for most of you. So any amount of help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
M. Butler

[Track Rat]

A lot of the Peavey mixers are equiped with channel inserts. If this one is, you can tap off signal of the individual sources to go to your multi track.

[michael.butler]

Track Rat--It IS a new mixer, so maybe it does have the insert feature. Could you elaborate on how that works?

Thanks
M. Butler

[Track Rat]

The inserts are in/out jacks configured on a stereo 1/4" jack. Instaed of left/ right on the tip and ring it's in and out. These are normally used to "insert" a device like a compressor or and external EQ. You can also use them to steal a little signal to send to a multi track. The signal you grab at the insert is right after the gain pot and before the EQ/Fader portion of the channel strip so the mix going to the mains doesn't affect what's going to the multi track (fader or EQ moves won't go to tape). You can do one of two things; the easiest is to plug a patch cable into the insert only to the first "click". This keeps the insert circuit unbroken and taps off signal. Or you can take a normal unbalanced cables and solder a 1/4" stereo phono plug on one end with the tip and ring tied together. This way you can fully seat the connector into the insert without breaking the internal circuit. This method is what I would prefere.

[michael.butler]

Thanks for helping. Forgive my ignorance, but, do you mean there would be a jack for every channel on the mixer, or just one pair period, because I'm fairly certain there are no 1/4" jacks at all for individual channels.

Thanks again.

[DDev]

Michael,

Typically the insert jack is located on each channel strip right next to the line input jack. What you normally find for each channel, then, is an XLR/mic input jack, a 1/4" line input jack, and a 1/4" insert jack.

I use this technique at our church to tap into the mixer without affecting the signals for our recordings and it works great. Just be aware that when you do this you do not get any of the signal processing that the mixer does (ie. eq, effects, etc.), you just get the straight signal after an initial preamp gain stage, which is controlled by the individual channel trim or gain pots, not the faders.

If the mixer does not have inserts, then use the 2480 as the mixer. You can get all the signals you need input there, and provide a stereo out for their monitoring system if needed.

Now for the rest of the question. Are you recording a "live" worship service or will it just be the choir and piano/tracks? If it is live, then tapping out of the mixer is probably the best thing to do unless you can get away with setting up extra mics that might get in the way (visually) of the congregation. If you're doing just the choir, I'd record the digital piano and tracks from the mixer, throw in the existing overhead mics just to see what you can get with them, and then use your pair of Octava's setup as a stereo pair in an X-Y configuration, a few feet in front of the choir, to add some extra dimension to the vocal recording. Just be careful how loud the stage monitors are, trying not to get much of them into the mic pickup range.

Also, if you're just doing the choir without a congregation to deal with, try one of your other condensers (the BlueBottle, for instance) for the soloists. You'll have to find a spot where they can sing with the choir but that provides a little bit of sound isolation so you're able to pickup the soloist by themselves without a lot of extraneous stuff in the background. If this won't work, use the trusty 58 for the soloists.

Sounds like a fun project. Good luck.

Darryl.....

[Alchemist3k]

Out of interest, how many tracks can the 2480 record simultaneously? Will be able to record everything in one go?

[michael.butler]

Darryl--

Thanks a lot for the input. I will certainly put your "sound" advice to work. I've about decided to use the 2480 as the mixer. I suppose then I could just send a pair of aux sends to a acouple of channels on the peavey.

I like your mic placement ideas as well.

Thanks again.

Michael