Topic: Advice on taping musical comedy

[stepeanut]

This weekend I plan on taping my favourite comedian, whose act is roughly split 50:50 between spoken word and keyboard-based songs.  Past experience tells me the performance itself will be fairly quiet, whilst the audience, at its peak, will be louder than the music.  So, something akin to an acoustic or jazz gig.  Still, I'm a little outside my comfort zone here.

The venue is a 750-seat theatre, and I have the same seat, front-row centre, for all three performances.

I am planning to try out my new CA Ugly II preamp, but I'm unsure which mics would be best for the job.  My choices are:

SP-CMC-25 (super-cardioids)
CA-11 cards
CA-11 omnis

I have AT853s (card and sub-card caps) on the way, but I'm not sure they will arrive on time.

Like I say, I have three shots to get it down.  I don't mind experimenting a little, but I'd like to get decent captures of all three performances.

So, what mics should I run, levels, etc?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[F.O.Bean]

I'm a hyper guy and would run the hypers, especially if you want to cut down on crowd noise I would run cards for the other performance, and then for the 3rd show, run which one you prefer!

[ScoobieKW]

with voice and keys, the low and highs won't be as important. hypers would work well.

[stepeanut]

Thanks, guys.

I'm a hyper guy myself -- the SP-CMC-25s are my go-to mics for just about everything -- but I wondered if I should try something different for these shows, considering my seat location.  The PA at this venue is quiet -- it's not a gig venue, more theatre, dance, and comedy -- and my front-row position will not afford me a direct line to the speakers.

The hypers have not let me down yet, so, further advice notwithstanding, I shall run them at the first show and see how I go.

Cheers.

[yousef]

I don't go to many comedy gigs but I've always been put off taping them as I have a horror of hearing myself chuckling away on the recording. Regardless of the directional pattern of the mics, it's going to come across loud and clear, isn't it?

Not that I have a particularly offensive laugh, you understand.

If there is any chance of a board feed, I'd look into that as a way of supplementing the mics, especially as the PA there seems to be a bit underpowered. Happy to lend a recorder and cables if needed.

Or just bung a Zoom on top of one of the PA speakers...  Actually, I wonder if this is one of the few times that this might give reasonable results...

[kylieshotpants]

I tape a lot of comedy/musical comedy & as you have said it is hard because of the variations in sound

I always go conservative in 24 bit so that nothing clips and you can ramp up the volume on the quiet bits

only downside is you can spend  a longtime editing and amending the files

[stepeanut]

I just got out of the first of the three shows.  I ran the M10 at level 6, and added 25 dB through the CA-Ugly II.  Levels were decent for the performance itself, but the crowd clipped quite heavily.  We'll have to see how it sounds.

I always run at 24/48, btw, and rarely (never intentionally, anyway) let the levels clip, but tonight I took a calculated risk.

The performer is a friend of mine, and he is keen to have a copy of the show, albeit in MP3.  He said that, if the quality is sufficient, he may consider putting it out.

[ScoobieKW]

The M10 limiter does pretty well on transient peaks (drum hits, clapping) try turning it on if you haven't

[F.O.Bean]

yea thats a good diea. would be better than just straight clipping

[stepeanut]

I'm wary of the limiter, as I've heard some shocking results from other recorders, but I may give it a try at today's matinee.

Will the limiter have an adverse affect if it kicks in, say, when the crowd is clapping along during a song?

I had a quick listen this morning to last night's raw master, and it's surprisingly good.  Decent levels, and the audience clipping doesn't sound too bad, although the waveform tells a different story.

Thanks for your input, guys.

[F.O.Bean]

Sweet and that was with hypers? Might as well try those again

[ScoobieKW]

I'm wary of the limiter, as I've heard some shocking results from other recorders, but I may give it a try at today's matinee.

Will the limiter have an adverse affect if it kicks in, say, when the crowd is clapping along during a song?

I had a quick listen this morning to last night's raw master, and it's surprisingly good.  Decent levels, and the audience clipping doesn't sound too bad, although the waveform tells a different story.

Thanks for your input, guys.

There's different levels of adverse.

1) No limiter - Hard Clip
2) With Limiter - Limited peaks - better
3) With Limiter and lower gain - avoid the peaks hitting 0

Best is still adjusting gain down.

[F.O.Bean]

I'm wary of the limiter, as I've heard some shocking results from other recorders, but I may give it a try at today's matinee.

Will the limiter have an adverse affect if it kicks in, say, when the crowd is clapping along during a song?

I had a quick listen this morning to last night's raw master, and it's surprisingly good.  Decent levels, and the audience clipping doesn't sound too bad, although the waveform tells a different story.

Thanks for your input, guys.

There's different levels of adverse.

1) No limiter - Hard Clip
2) With Limiter - Limited peaks - better
3) With Limiter and lower gain - avoid the peaks hitting 0

Best is still adjusting gain down.

The only thing about number 3 is that it's going to take a LOT of psy work to get clapping down and keep levels normalized

[stepeanut]

EDIT: Bean, you read my mind 

The problem with reducing the gain is that I would have to pump a *lot* of dBs into it in post, bringing the noise floor up higher than I would like.  I'm not overly concerned with the audience being acoustically perfect, if that means compromising my capture of the actual performance.

I've already planted the idea of recording the next tour properly -- SBD feed, stage mics, whatever it takes -- so, hopefully, that will come to pass.

About to head in for the last of the three shows.

[F.O.Bean]

EDIT: Bean, you read my mind 

The problem with reducing the gain is that I would have to pump a *lot* of dBs into it in post, bringing the noise floor up higher than I would like.  I'm not overly concerned with the audience being acoustically perfect, if that means compromising my capture of the actual performance.

I've already planted the idea of recording the next tour properly -- SBD feed, stage mics, whatever it takes -- so, hopefully, that will come to pass.

About to head in for the last of the three shows.

Best of luck and happy taping!