Recording my live comedy

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omnomnom

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Hello!

Bit of a strange request this. I'm a professional stand up comedian in the UK and I'm looking at recording my sets, editing them into albums and putting them on Spotify. I'm looking for an audio recording device that'll deliver crystal clear audio in a variety of different room sizes. Not only does it need to record me, it needs to pick up the laughs in the room too.

I've also heard there's some audio equipment that will hook up to the sound desk and deliver even better quality audio, so if possible I'd like to have that feature.

Budget wise I'm looking to spend no more than £150 ($250). My friend recommended a Zoom H1 but I've been looking and perhaps I'd be better off getting a Zoom H2N?

I'm completely new to this so any advice would be really helpful. What audio recording device would be best for me to get? What kind of features should I be looking for?
 
Zoom H4n. With that you can record the direct line from the desk plus use the built in mics to capture the audience in stereo. It will require thoughtful placement for optimum results. The mic should not be too close to the audience (so it isn't dominated by the sound from one person) and it should be either precisely centered between the speakers or well off to one side primarily capturing one speaker. What you don't want is the sound arriving from the left and right sides of the PA at slightly different times and near the same volume.
 
The Zoom H2n should do the job nicely, especially in Mid/Side mode where you can adjust the input level for the performance area then dial in how much volume you want to get from the sides and rear. I have one of these set to M/S on top of my Nikon D5100 when I shoot video; it gives me very good results with the main sound source with a really good ambient sound from the sides and rear.

This video shows the technical details. You'll need to listen with headphones to fully appreciate the difference.

The files that the H2n saves to the internal SD card come out looking like normal stereo so you'll need to use a mid-side decoder to process them into normal stereo, but this decoder comes with the unit, and is also downloadable from Zoom. It is in the form of a VST plugin that will work in almost all digital audio workstations (DAWs). If you're doing this job yourself I recommend the inexpensive ($60) DAW called Reaper. It's far more fully-featured than you'll need right now but will give you good results that you can export as a WAV or MP3 file.
 
Firstly, thanks very much for the advice so far. I think it's firmly between the H2N and H4N. Can one of you kind folk enlighten me to the main differences between the two so I can make a judgement to whether or not it's worth the extra investment? If there's going to be a noticeable difference between the two in terms of quality I upload the tracks to Spotify, I'll by all means fork out for a bit extra. If it's just adding extra features I probably won't use then I'd think twice about it. Does the H2N have the ability for me to hook it up directly to the sound desk?

Greg_L - There's not an awful lot of me online, despite a few youtube clips of me dicking around in clubs. If you'd like I can happily recommend some comedy that's accessible via Spotify and Bandcamp?
 
omnomnom said:
Does the H2N have the ability for me to hook it up directly to the sound desk?
Click to expand...

It has a 1/8" TRS (stereo) output socket. It can also be used as a USB mic on Windows, and presumably on other OSes, but a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter straight into the sound desk is possibly your best bet. You'd best get the desk engineer's thoughts on this.

Here are the H2n specs: H2n | ZOOM
And the H4n: H4n | ZOOM
 
Thanks Garry.

Forgive my ignorance but what exactly is a "1/8" TRS (stereo) output socket"? When might I need that?
 
omnomnom said:
Thanks Garry.

Forgive my ignorance but what exactly is a "1/8" TRS (stereo) output socket"? When might I need that?
Click to expand...

A little research has squashed my ignorance. Basically am I right in thinking it means I can hook it up to a sound desk for the best sound but I might need an adapter?
 
omnomnom said:
A little research has squashed my ignorance. Basically am I right in thinking it means I can hook it up to a sound desk for the best sound but I might need an adapter?
Click to expand...

You'd just need a cable, you can buy, or have somebody make at low cost, an XLR-1/8" cable, and probably a 1/4" unbalanced-1/8" balanced cable for insurance.

The H4n does have a lot of features you don't really need, but it's ability to blend your track from the soundboard with room sound from the built-in mics, and mix them as separate tracks would give you a serious increase in flexibility, producing a better product.
 
ermghoti said:
The H4n does have a lot of features you don't really need, but it's ability to blend your track from the soundboard with room sound from the built-in mics, and mix them as separate tracks would give you a serious increase in flexibility, producing a better product.
Click to expand...

Yep. With the vocal mic on one track and the audience on another stereo track you can produce a very professional result.

You could even put a splitter right on the mic cable on stage to feed the H4n independently of the house system, and put the recorder down at the foot of stage to capture the audience.
 
Okay.

Is this all difficult to do? I'm always wary when something has loads of features on whether or not I'm going to be able to use it!

So to sum up, this H4N can essentially record two things at once. It can record my voice doing the funnies on one track and the audience laughing on the other. Then I can mix them together onto one track and it'll sound better. That about right? Would I need any extra equipment to do this? If so, how much is it?
 
omnomnom said:
Okay.

Is this all difficult to do? I'm always wary when something has loads of features on whether or not I'm going to be able to use it!

So to sum up, this H4N can essentially record two things at once. It can record my voice doing the funnies on one track and the audience laughing on the other. Then I can mix them together onto one track and it'll sound better. That about right? Would I need any extra equipment to do this? If so, how much is it?
Click to expand...

Not butted in so far but I had been thinking about this "self/audience" balance.

Extra equipment? Not really I don't think. I am sure the H4N can dump tracks into a computer via USB? Even if it can't all that would be needed is a connector finishing in a 1/8" stereo jack plug.

You will need some editing software (again, the recorder might provide even that, probably as a download) and Audacity is used and liked by millions of people and is free!
If you want to get fancier and spend a bit Sony Soundforge is very nice and you can download a 30day trial of that (but get cute'ish with Audacity first or you will waste 10 days getting to grips with basic concepts!) .

As for a computer to handle all this? Pffft! Almost anything will cope. Any PC that can run internet and XP or later will have the grunt.

A basic "safety" measure. Dump your tracks onto PC using Audacity then immediately "export" them (as ".wav") to a USB stick that you keep for that purpose. Now you have your performance on the H4N, and a PC hard drive and backed up on an external stick. You can edit and mash about with the PC version safe in the knowledge that if you FU you can copy it all back over and start again!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
A basic "safety" measure. Dump your tracks onto PC using Audacity then immediately "export" them (as ".wav") to a USB stick that you keep for that purpose.
Click to expand...

You could export them from Audacity, but why not just copy and paste backup copies to a safe location?
 
Easy one. Do it all the time. Your microphone goes to one channel of any of these recorders from the sound desk, and you record the room sound on the other channel - either from the recorder's own mic, or another mic fed into the sound desk and just routed to your recorder.

Plenty of big names do this all the time. Jimmy Carr, for example, records every single show - and the requirement is in his contract rider. It simply asks for a monitor feed of just his headset mic, and the emergency hand held, if used that can be sent backstage. His tour manager carries an audio interface and DI box, so can accept a mic or line level signal that the venue provides. For it to be useful it has to be the close mic. Distance is ok for the audience laughing, but your performance needs to be up close and clean. Quality wise, I've got some very old material from comedians that are no longer with us - like Bernard Manning, that were recorded originally on reel-to-reel tape then copied to DAT and the quality is virtually the same as the latest stuff we do recorded direct to hard drives. If you are concerned the venue audio people might not be up for doing it, then with a small recorder and a simple passive mic splitter, and an extra XLR mic cable, you can put your recorder stage side, and just 'sniff' a bit of what is going down the cable to the audio mixer. This works fine too, and is a simple thing to do yourself. The other mic can record the clapping and laughing!
 
bouldersoundguy said:
You could export them from Audacity, but why not just copy and paste backup copies to a safe location?
Click to expand...

If you can dump the files in as .wav yes, no problem, copy and paste ad.n. But if you have to record them into Audacity that does not save them as .wav by default but will export them as such.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
If you can dump the files in as .wav yes, no problem, copy and paste ad.n. But if you have to record them into Audacity that does not save them as .wav by default but will export them as such.

Dave.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. I think you just move the files via USB.
 
Thanks for all the advice so far, been really useful.

Went to purchase my H4N today only to stop and see it has the worst battery life of anything in the history of the world ever. Something like two hours. At first I just assumed this may well just be something that affects all audio recorders, however the H2N claims to have 20 hours of battery life?

Is there anything that I can buy to sort this out?
 
Why use the batteries, you could plug in the external power supply?

Also 6hrs normal mode recording is not bad? And 11 Hrs in Stamina mode (whatever that does LOL).

Quote: For situations where you require maximized, continuous recording operation you can select stamina mode which effectively doubles battery life, letting you record continuously for about 11 hours in 16-bit/44.1-kHz linear PCM format. H4n | ZOOM


Alan.
 
I'm pretty sure stamina mode turns off the lights and displays to save power.

Use the adapter to plug it into the wall and it's a non-issue. Buy an extension cord too, there is no garuantee that the sound guy will have an open plug big enough for the wall wart that powers the thing.
 
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