analog field recording

[cannonball]

I'm recording in the field (clubs) using 6 mic's going into a Teac mixer then to a Nakamichi Cassette deck. I've got more mic's
than jacks; can I use a splitter and get good results? What are the pro's and con's about
using mic's as opposed to direct in? When using direct in is it best to go from the instrument or the amp?

[This message has been edited by cannonball (edited 02-05-2000).]

 

[jnorman]

recording in a live venue is as much an art as studio work, and there are a number of pros who make a good living by specialising in this. generally, they work with the sound engineer for the group, and do a fairly complex mix of FOH with accent mics, or they arrange to pull a secondary mix from the board (if the board has an extra set of busses). the DAT-heads try doing this kind of thing all the time to remotely record live concerts, but their results are often quite unsatisfactory due to their inability to get the mics where they need to be. if you are very careful with mic placement and mixing, you might be able to get a fair recording using your 6 mics, but it will take some experimenting. do not try to use splitters. get a small mackie mixer or similar. use good small capsule condenser mics rather than dynamics if you can. do some homework about live recording - there are several materials availble online that discuss the various problems associated with this type of work.

 

[cannonball]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jnorman:
recording in a live venue is as much an art as studio work, and there are a number of pros who make a good living by specialising in this. generally, they work with the sound engineer for the group, and do a fairly complex mix of FOH with accent mics, or they arrange to pull a secondary mix from the board (if the board has an extra set of busses). the DAT-heads try doing this kind of thing all the time to remotely record live concerts, but their results are often quite unsatisfactory due to their inability to get the mics where they need to be. if you are very careful with mic placement and mixing, you might be able to get a fair recording using your 6 mics, but it will take some experimenting. do not try to use splitters. get a small mackie mixer or similar. use good small capsule condenser mics rather than dynamics if you can. do some homework about live recording - there are several materials availble online that discuss the various problems associated with this type of work.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for your reply. Most of the bands I record do not have mixing boards (some do).
they bring their amps and speakers and play and sing the blues (thats all I record is blues bands) the other night I did a gig where I miked the bass guitar amp (10"@30 deg), the guitar-same, the drum kit (12"
over the toms & snare, the kick drum (12" from skin), vocal & a room mike (10' in center) It came out pretty good, except I can see I need a better vocal mike; probably a Shurre SM58. Thanks again for your comments.

Cannonball

 

[jnorman]

with that information, let me suggest that in adddition to your individual instrument mics, you borrow or rent the best matched pair of small condensers (or even better, try some ribbon mics) that you can find and use them as a stereo pair out front to capture the overall feel of the group (position the mics in ORTF at the spot where you would want to stand to listen to the group play). then start by monitoring just the stereo pair through your headphones - if the group has a good feel for each other, you should have a fairly well balanced sound. then bring up the instrument mics as needed to complement the mix. by doing this, it will tell you where you most need to place the accent mics. spend lots of time experimenting with mic placement - find the sweet spots for each instrument/microphone combination. for this type of live performance, an sm58 should be a good choice for your vocalist.

 

[hixmix]

Splitting is routing one mic into more than one input.

By inputting two or more mics into one input would be bottlenecking. It's about as appealing in the studio as it is on the freeway. You probobly won't like the results.