Hi everyone,
Firstly, I just wanna say this is an awesome resource. I've been digging around, and there's a treasure trove of info in here.
I'm mostly a studio production/recording engineer, and I frequent Phish shows; a few years ago, I walked up to the taper's section in an attempt to learn a thing or two about live taping. The tapers at MPP '15 were more than welcoming and accepting, answering all of my questions and taking me through their taping rigs at the gear level. Since then I've struck up a friendship with a few of them, and have continued to discuss taping gear/techniques as well as helping to run their rigs and give my two cents as far as position and room acoustics (I am a doctoral candidate in architectural acoustics, specializing partially in binaural hearing theory and perception of room acoustics). Notably, noahbickart and I have remained in close touch and discuss lots of stuff; he's helped me navigate the live taping world so far, and I've had the pleasure of learning from him while I assist him in running his rig.
With this upcoming Phish NYE run, I've decided to bite the bullet and get myself a rig. So I wanted to ask you guys a few questions about starting mic gear, based on the setup and budget I have in mind.
Firstly, budget. I'm on a graduate student stipend, so I don't have lots of money to throw around right now. I'm already planning on getting the Tascam DR-40, a 32-gig SD card, and a Jackery or RavPower battery pack; plus I have lots of long XLR cables to run up a mic stand. I plan on clamping off other tapers' bars for the time being, so I'll need to get a bar and clamp once I decide on the microphones I want. I'm looking to spend no more than
$400 + s/h for a matched pair of SDCs. I know that's not a lot for microphones, but it's what I can afford at the moment and I'll be buying knowing I'll upgrade all of my gear down the line once I'm no longer a graduate student. Eventually down the line, I'm thinking of getting a line-in mic pre/phantom power to run to the stereo line in of the DR40 to use in combination with the XLR/phantom inputs for four channels; and further down the line past that, I'll invest in probably a SoundDevices, Tascam, or Marantz field recorder.
Secondly, what I've heard that I already like (all of it WELL out of my price range). I'm a big fan of the Schoeps mk22, B&K/DPA 4011, Schoeps mk5, DPA 4015, Schoeps mk41v, and Schoeps mk4v. I've also liked tapes I've heard with AKG c480s if the room is dark or direct-to-reverberant ratio is low, Neumann KM84s, Sennheiser MD441s, and a smattering of other tapes that I'm sure are equally a function of location as they are mic/capsule. I know all of these are way out of my price range, and eventually I plan on running a 6- or 8-channel recorder with mk22s, 4011s, and mk5s. For live taping, I like the transient response and bandwidth of SDCs; LDCs, dynamics, and ribbons - while go-tos in the studio for me - are either too dark (LDC, dynamic) or too impractical (ribbons are too fragile) to use in a first live taping rig, I think.
Now, what I'm currently looking at. I know a set of Line Audio CM3s would do the trick, but I don't think I can get myself a pair of those in time for the NYE run. Otherwise, what has my eye right now is:
- AKG C1000s
- Electro Voice ND66
- sE Electronics sE5 (or MAYBE the 8, if I can magically dig up an extra $100 and they're that much better than everything else on this list)
- Blue Hummingbird
- Oktava MK-012
- AKG P170
- Samson C02
- Behringer C2
I've all but eliminated the C2, I've used pairs before and I've found they're just too noisy to make a great-sounding tape. But, can any of you speak to the merits of any of these mics, particularly the C1000s and ND66 which are front-runners in my purchase considerations, as far as usage and the tapes I can produce with them? And alternatively, is there anything I'm not looking at that you guys would recommend? I know my overall setup and the tapes I can produce with these are going to be heavily limited, and I will definitely upgrade in the future (expensive mics will definitely have a place for usage in my studio locker), but for a quick and cheap starting rig to start capturing shows, this is what I will be working with.