Topic: If you have to pick, mics or board?

[powermonkey]

Before I knew what I was talking about I would have said board alllllllll the way. But nowadays I'd say audience - soundboards often feel a bit flat... A good audience sh*ts all over a sbd, it woud appear.

[saxophoner]

a kid i know does the recording stuff in teh studio and sbd for concerts.  told me that what i run, along with all the other aud recordigns suck compared to the quality he is capturing.  are they recording at 24bit like the auds as well?  i mean they get the sbd and then put it on an audio disc, so isn't my wav better than their mp3 in the long run?

[Steve J]

I prefer audience recordings in most situations. The only exceptions I've found are outdoor shows with a low db level restriction. In those situations, I've found the SBD feeds to be very good, mainly because they're forced to feed everything through the board and balance the sound from there. Otherwise, the SBD feed can be very dry and colorless.

[NJFunk]

It's impossible to give a blanket answer, but mics more often than board.

[CQBert]

I was at a show the other night and was getting set up and the House Sound Guy who knows me came by and asked if I wanted a patch from the board....   Since I was only running 2ch and I know the band does a good bit of audience participation and some off mic singing I opted for my gear.  He looked at me like I was crazy but my recording came out great.

Same place - a month ago at a private event I was labeled "ambient mic guy" by Gusters' Sound Man...  He told me that my recording would not sound good as he was mixing for radio broadcast.... In the end his mix blew chunks, I was close enough to the stage to get solid sound and when they finished with a totally off mic song I was the only one who had it recorded...

One more - same venue, a show last Dec where the band was recording and selling...  I ran my gear and got a nice recording.   Same band, same venue 6 months later I ran into a guy who told me that the recording that the band sold had all kinds of static and pops throughout the first disc...  I gave him a copy of mine - clear...

Board recording can be a little fickle, static from output, unmiced instruments, or even having your feed be turned off by the engineer by accident... all those things turn a good night bad in an instant...

For my money when in 2ch mode I will generally go with my gear...  if more ch then I will grab a board patch when available.

CQBert