coplinger said:
I'm recording a band live at a club & want to split the vocal mics to send to both myself & the sound man.
I've had good luck with these. You can buy them for about $70 each at many different online vendors. Fullcompass, Music123, Sweetwater, even Amazon. They sound good and are nearly indestructable.
http://www.procosound.com/images/MS2.PDF#search='Pro%20co%20MS2%20mic%20splitter'
They also sell a 4 channel and an 8 channel version.
DON'T take the directs from the FOH board. It's WAY too easy for the house sound guy to screw up what he's sending you. Many, many house boards have direct outs that are post-EQ or even post-fader. And even if his are not, he can still screw you up by tweaking the channel trim pot while you're recording (thereby messing with your levels). Not a good idea.
You can sometimes get by with a simple Y-splitter (which you can make yourself if you really want to save some money). But it's a much better idea to use a transformer, and you want to make sure it's a decent one, because a cheap one can really kill your sound. If you decide to try it without an isolating transformer, make sure that you and the sound guy take your electrical power from the same point to avoid ground loops.
Have you checked with the club to see if they might already have a split that you can use from their main stage box? Many of the clubs where I record are already set up for me that way. It's really nice when you don't have to haul all that extra snake and related stuff.