Recording meeting and simultaneously routing for live output (with noise reduction)

  • Thread starter Thread starter nickharambee
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nickharambee

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Hi,

I am wanting to make a recording of a seminar/training session using up to 6 shotgun microphones which are placed some distance from the sound source (essentially they are spread around the room to pick up the voices of the trainers, but also those coming to the seminar).

For this purpose I bought a Tascam DR-680MKII recorder. This works fine. There is some background noise, but I can remove most of this using software at a later date.

As well as doing this though I now want to output the sound live, as some people at the seminar need some amplification in the sound in order to hear everyone. There are 2 considerations here:

1. Minimising the noise that gets outputted - using either EQ or some other live noise removal (i.e. routing through some software)
2. Having some control over how much of each channel gets sent to each of the 4 speakers, as these will be placed around the room, and people won't need to hear the sound picked up in the microphone that is nearest to them.

I hope this is clear!

I'm wondering if someone could recommend a mixer that I could use to route the sound and suppress the noise, in conjunction with the DR-680 and possibly some software too. If the best solution is not to use the DR-680 at all, but another system, then I would be interested to hear about this too.

Thanks,

Nick
 
If you have 4 speakers around the room, call two of them left and the other two right. Use the pan controls to route the appropriate mics to the speakers you want.

I'm not sure that shotguns would be my choice of mics in the situation. If the people are seated, I would use podium mics, if they are walking around, I would use lavalier mics on the person speaking. If there are audience questions, a coulee wireless handhelds is the way to go.

For the recording, just use an aux send to the recorder.

Just about any mixer with the right number of inputs will work in this situation.
 
Be aware that shotguns are poor mics for live PA, especially where you have speakers aiming at them - gain before feedback is extremely low, and the onset of feedback rapid. The usual way to do this is simply to hand colour coded radio mics about. We do lots of spiritualist shows and we hand a mic to the people at the end of a row and they pass them along, and we fade them up. Shotguns would not be useful - they're not torches so need careful aiming - I would not wish to use them in the audience with a PA with simple left and right, let alone quadraphonic!
 
This is the sort of thing I do for a living at the moment. Rob is correct, the shotgun mics are a bad idea. Wireless handhelds are the easiest. Lavaliers can get hard to control feedback, but are usable if you ring the room well.

I really think you are over-thinking it. Unless the space is really tight, you should be able to get enough volume without having to worry about routing the people on the left only to the speakers on the right, etc... But definitely dump the shotguns.
 
The most common grief for us is when a comedian leaves the stage and walks right in front of the speaker stacks - if the sound guy on the show is up to speed and concentrating, he simply does a quick pan away from the live mic, and then back to centre - but loads of times if the guy leaves the stage quickly, it goes honk - with four speakers it would be far more tricky to keep the system stable if you try to get decent volume.
 
In a meeting room situation, we don't need the same sort of volume that you would in a comedy club, so it works ok unless someone walks into the corner of the room right next to the speaker.

If you are going to use four speakers, have the trainers at the front of the room. Don't have any speakers covering this area, make sure the trainers are behind the main set of speakers. Farther towards the back of the room, add your other set on either side. If the audience needs to interact with the trainers, have a couple wireless handhelds on hand to give to the people with the question.

If you ring the room well, you should not have any feedback problems. (the better the speakers, the less problems as well) It also helps to get the speakers up as high as the speaker stands will go.
 
Who aims the shotguns? If you try one speaker with a distant shotgun, you will be disappointed at the volume before feedback. Adding a second mic, means turning the faders down, adding more is another reduction. For PA purposes, it's path length. And the attenuation of the sound on the journey. Annoyingly, the same thing happens to sound going the other way from person to mic, so the available gain is tiny. If they are seated at tables, could you simply use lots of small mics close in. We used to do radio panel shows with a PA feed for the audience with Beyer m201s and we could at least get something from the PA and still be safe?
 
I don't want you to feel ganged up on but I also do quite a lot of this sort of thing and I strongly encourage you NOT to go the route you're planning. Shotguns rarely work in a live sound situation. I'd only ever do it with standard microphones...wired can work if the trainers are a a lecturn or whatever but wireless if there's to be any movement.

I'd also suggest that you can't simply turn on every mic. You have to be in a position to mix which mic(s) are active at any given moment and turn down the others--in your case, without affecting your recording.
 
Did some of this DONKEYS ago shotguns existed but never saw one (had a parabolic using a Grampian DP4 the para seems to have been abandoned these days).

But "if people can't hear" it is because people don't/didn't project! But I am way out of date with modern kit. One thing however DON'T FFS give anyone a mic with a switch!

Dave.
 
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