Thanks to all who posted (Esp. rocksuitcase for pointing me in the direction of the c460b+ck22s & gutbucket for the eternal dedication to assisting others), and broadly to all who contribute to this site- Enter The Matrix + all your insights went so far towards making my run more successful than it might have otherwise been. Didn't end up having a ton of real estate on the stage, as I imagined might be the case looking at pics/vids of other performances at the venue- so my setup was as follows:
Tascam DR680mkii (24bit/48khz) at mixer (back right of the room next to the bar)
2x AKG460b+ck22 caps near stage corners under stacks/in front of monitors about 2 feet back from the crowd and 2.5 feet high on
these stands - fed into house snake, plugged into channels 3&4
2x Neumann KM184 ORTF ROS about ~16' high on a big ole concrete block (on
this stand) into channels 1&2 next to a gigantic watertower lookin' drum- the venue's a gorgeously re-purposed textile mill so might have been for dye? Anyway- this was mostly a backup- between the stage being cramped & the balcony requiring me to run an obscene amount of cable, it seemed like a decent spot. I was hoping that I'd be able to primarily mix the stage omnis w/ the SBD, and I'm pretty sure that's the route I'll go.
Postfade stereo feed via XLR female -> TRS into channels 5&6
Recorded w/ mic gain set to HIGH w/ trim set to (channel 1-6) -22, -23, -25, -28, w/ 2 & 2 for the line level feeds.
Recorded all to their own mono track- hard panned L R L R L R, going to try my hand at mastering it all up over the next few weeks.
I was travelling from AZ to NC for these shows, and travelling with all the gear was an adventure all its own- thankfully, spyder9 and KenH included the mics original cases, so I put those in my backpack & purchased
this bag for my DR680mkii, H4n pro, km184 ORTF clip, SD cards, batteries, some spare gaffer’s tape (small black rolls, as opposed to the large blue roll I purchased) my Church Audio mics & battery box, and various doohickies (Phase reversers, 2x superclamp, XLR FtM, ¼” to ⅜” adapter for superclamp & larger stand -> mic clip compatability and.. I think that’s it.
I then used
this duffel bag and filled it with the 4 stands (bought 3x the first stand I linked in case I wanted to use the neumanns on stage- brought it without the boom attached) & 224 feet of XLR cables (2x 50’, 4x25’, 2x12’) & a number of cables for the board feed- XLR -> TRS, TRS->TRS, RCA -> TRS, Digital.. Tried to prep for as much as possible.
I then stuck THOSE two bags inside
this bad boy along with 4x more 25’ XLRs just in case & a few days of clothes. Weighed out at 47 lbs- and Southwest’s carryon limit before fees is 50 lbs
I used my blue gaffer’s tape to write cable length along w/ L or R on half of each set and tape that to each cable- and practiced running cables & wrapping it up together a number of times to get comfortable with that aspect of things. This proved to be a great boon for convenience- however, I learned that I should have taped each cable individually before I left AZ- security had to check out my stuff and it would have helped if there was less wrappage. I secured ‘em each before I left for the venue/home and it helped a good bit.
I had a little freak out moment the night before the first show because I realized I didn’t have shock mounts for my omnis- and of course the sub was under the stage! Thankfully, upon initial monitoring during sound check & afterwords it doesn’t seem to have been too fatal. Board feed sounds good, omnis captured the lows that weren’t as prominent in the house mix and good crowd excitement between songs- funnily enough though, I wish that the omnis would have picked up MORE crowd noise. I was really surprised with how low the crowd sounds upon initial listens. Going to try to see if I can’t remedy that all via EQ but I have pretty limited exposure to mastering so that will be an adventure.
In retrospect, I wish I would have clamped my zoom w/ the CA14os somewhere central or clos to the crowd- I just kinda forgot about my zoom and it would have been nice to have some more direct crowd ambience. Also wish I could have found a better place for my neumann’s- seemed like kind of a waste (in terms of what I was able to pull off with them, not the mics themselves). I was thinking about clamping to the railing near the stage & pointing them at the audience- but opted not to so I had some sort of room ambience backup in case of catastrophic failure with my omnis.
Had a little freakout moment during sound check night 2- I adjusted the omnis very slightly to try to pick up the crowd more (didn’t help much) and during sound check heard some pops coming from the right channel on the stage. Tried to fuck with it a bit- unwrapped the XLR, used the clips to secure them rather than wrapping them around the base, uncoupled it and blew into it (this might have been idiotic- but I was panicking and opted for super nintendo wive’s tales) and I continued to hear really bad clipping pops during the opener. Thankfully, about 15 minutes into the opener, it totally sorted itself out- I am figuring it was because when I was messing with the mics, I pushed the XLR connection up into the mic, but it has some wiggle room and the noise was the result of the bass causing some contact funkiness until it settled as low as it could go??
Whatever it was, it totally disappeared for the last 30 mins of the opener, and they were INTENSE (consistently as loud or louder than the main act at their loudest) so that was good. Was still sweating once the show began, but it turned out great. Naturally peaked out around -6db, no clipping.
The venue staff were so incredibly patient, kind, and helpful- I really couldn’t have lucked out more in that regard. It had a real family feel- I spoke to the owner and she talked about how a lot of the staff have been working together for a long time- in some cases decades, from personal relationships (babysitting, etc). She was a huge fan of the main act- and NC is the main artist’s home state, so there was a really great energy for the shows. I also cannot overstate how wonderful the Haw River Ballroom is as a venue generally- the aesthetics & acoustics were great.
There was a bit of buzz from an amp on stage during the electric guitar bits that there wasn’t really anything anyone could do about- alas, seems like that’s how it goes. Going to also see what I can do about EQing that. Fingers crossed.
Just writing all this in the hopes that it helps someone else down the line some day.. It was quite the experience going from ‘zoom + basic board patch’ to anything more substantial. I’ll tell ya, I sure was sweating’ while I was setting everything up for the first time.
Once again, thx to all who contribute to this site, all who lended input, those who sold me their gear, and happy trails to anyone else reading this someday.
I'll post a sample sometime in the future- might be awhile though!