I'm a new member to the board but have been lurking for a bit. For a little background, I play in bands and have spent a little studio time working on records and have some experience with home recording and live recording of practices and gigs. I am certainly no expert and could use some help. I live in Dallas, TX and there is plenty of live music here but I've noticed that not a lot of it gets recorded. I am beginning and new hobby / hopeful business opportunity with a local show promoter. We want to offer live performance recording to local artists. This will include video and audio recording. I'll leave any video questions for another section. I'm getting into this because I started out with recording my own band play gigs and the results have been hit and miss, I've experimented some but until recently hadn't put a lot of serious research into it. I'd like to be more active in the local music scene and I think this would be a great way to contribute and maybe get some free beers now and then. Plus, recording my own band keeps me pretty limited...what with being preoccupied with the whole playing the gig part.
I currently own a Zoom H4n. The unit has a stereo mic pair and inputs for two additional lines. It can record true 4 channel 24 bit audio that can be exported and mixed.
I am planning to purchase 2 mics. I am currently considering a pair of Rode NT5 mics. A used pair should run me about $250 on a good day. I can budget in a little more, but from the limited research I've done as of yet I've come to the understanding that these are a good choice for the money. If you disagree and can offer an alternative, please do, and if you're so gracious to offer some explanation so that I can understand better I'd be very grateful.
As for set up...My current plan is to simply plug the additional mics into the H4n and capture 4 channels. I am not currently planning to incorporate an 8 channel mixer and such, maybe next year. I've recorded with the H4n setting at the mixing booth and taking two channels off of the board before. I wasn't super excited by the results. With the H4n sitting so far back from the stage and just two feet above the crowd there was a lot of audience noise and the board signal wasn't that great...obviously, it was mixed for the room and not for my recording and who knows what kind of cheapo mics and board I might run into at any given dive bar, I'll trust myself to provide decent mics and position them well.
So...with the H4n and 2 additional mics how would you set up? Would you go with the NT5 or would I gain a lot with the NT55 or something else completely? My budget for a pair of mics is in the $300 - 500 range and I'm not too proud to buy used gear. If there is an absolutely killer mic pair that I can pick up for $600ish and you can convince me, I'll seriously consider it.
My plan right now is to set the H4N somewhere near the front middle of the stage and another mic to both the left and the right of stage. The most unobtrusive thing I could do would be to either set them on drum mic stands low to the floor or to possibly set them on larger stands and get them up to about 8ft off the floor (though that would probably only be an option for the out edge mics). I had also considered keeping the H4n and other two mics all close to the front center and aiming the outer two out towards the edges, but I'm not convinced that is a better idea.
The majority of the music will be fairly loud rock genre music, mostly indie, punk, metal, etc. I don't forsee any chamber music or rap any time soon. Typical stages around here might range from 12'w x 12'd up to 24'w x 18'd. Usually the stage is pretty cramped and when the act has an opportunity to take up more space on a larger than normal stage they'll gladly do so.
Any useful insight and advice you can offer will be highly appreciated. I'm working a gig in about 2 weeks and would be happy to share a link to results whenever I get it all put together....if anybody cares to see what is going on in the Dallas rock scene.
Thanks!