mics/technique for Recording live concert?

T

Toker41

Better Than You
I'm producing (and performing in) a rock show this weekend. It's 14 bands, and we expect to sell out at 1500 people. I'm thinking about recording the show via PC. My plan is to use two lines direct outta the main board, have 2 mics back where the soundboard/lightbooth is (about 40 feet back from stage), and maybe 2 mics on the front of the stage facing the audience.

My question is:
Any suggestions on what type of mics I should use? My partner in this wants to throw up sm57's (cuz he thinks it a do all wonder mic), but I'm wondering if maybe my LD mics may be better (MK319, and SP B1), or maybe my ECM800, or MXL603's.
I'm also open to better suggestions of mic placement/recording technique.
 
The ECM 8000 is omni, so it's going to pick up a lot of everything. Not sure if that would be a good thing for live recording. Cardioid mics at the sound board in x/y would focus better on the stuff you want to capture in this instance, imo.

57's would probably work if you had nothing else. The 603's would probably do okay. Wider frequency response, flatter, brighter and more detailed than a 57. I don't have first hand experience with the other mics you mentioned.
 
Yes SDC in X-Y at sound board and I guess if you want the audience in the mix one SDC on either side of the stage UP HIGH or you'll get that one person louder than everyone else giving his opinion on everything.
 
Don't forget the time delay to the Front of house mix position. Take a distance measurement if you can and you can in fact calculate the delay time later or if not align the peaks in the waveforms, I have found that you have to experiment a bit to get the ideal sound.

I have recorded a live show of my band for a demo video clip exactly this was. L & R from the mixer, L & R mics above the mix Engineers head. Did some eq on each one and some compression then mixed the 2 stereo tracks together bumping the mic tracks in line with the direct mixer tracks to eliminate the time delay which was causing phasing issues. Then mastered the final mix of both stereo tracks. Come out very well.

I would not bother about the audience mics as the 2 above the mix position will pick up crowd.

Alan.
 
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