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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: melontracks on April 18, 2019, 05:21:36 PM

Title: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 18, 2019, 05:21:36 PM
Coming up this fall, I have an opportunity to record a great singer songwriter, and I’d really like to get the best tape possible. I have permission from the musician, who will be singing and playing an acoustic guitar with both the vocals and the guitar separately mic’d by the venue, running to a pair of small PAs. The hall is actually the basement of a guitar shop and is maybe 20 or 25 feet across by 50 or 60 feet long, rectangular, with maybe a 10-foot ceiling. The stage spans the entire front end of the hall, elevated about 10 inches, and seating consists of maybe 100 folding chairs. I have permission from the artist to record, and permission from the venue to record, including “a line out from the PA, which you are welcome to tap into. It's RCA type jacks right now, though there is a chance we'll replace our PA between now and then.”

My modest setup includes a Tascam DR-05, a Tascam DR-22WL, Church Audio ST-11 mics (one set of wires with a pair each of card and omni caps), and a Church Audio CA9100 preamp.  I also have a pair of Core Sound LCB omni mics, but rarely use them.

I would be inclined to just run the line out from the PA to the DR-22WL, hang the ST-11’s with the omni caps in an X-Y pattern from the ceiling by a super clamp and magic arm about 15 feet from the stage, run that through the CA9100 to the DR-05, set both recorders so the input is just below clipping and call it good. The last time I saw this guy in this space, the crowd was attentive and silent (all 20 or so of us) so audience noise should not be a concern.

Even though I’ve been taping live music for almost 20 years, my “good” or “great” recordings are always a mystery to me. I’m an amateur in the truest sense of the word. I’d really like to get the best recording possible, so please help me out with any advice you have about how I can improve my chances here.

What would you do with the gear i have in this setting?

Thanks in advance for your tips!

Chris
 
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: DavidPuddy on April 18, 2019, 05:49:15 PM
I would take the sbd out and run 3ft spaced omnis right in front of the performer.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 18, 2019, 06:41:06 PM
I would take the sbd out and run 3ft spaced omnis right in front of the performer.

Man, I hadn't even considered that. If you did an A-B like that right on stage, would you also run the X-Y omnis above and mostly behind the audience? I usually covet the sbd line out because i feel like it's an insurance policy against me making a bozo mistake on mic placement.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: aaronji on April 18, 2019, 06:58:15 PM
Running omnis XY doesn't really make sense; it will be essentially mono. I would do beegar's suggestion or, with a good crowd, you could also do the spaced omnis from the ceiling. You might also consider a near coincident arrangement with the cards from the ceiling or stage. If you can borrow a four channel recorder, with two from the board/PA and two from the mics, that would be great, as everything would be time synced. Six channels (omnis, cards, and board) would be even better, as you could mix to taste afterwards...
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 18, 2019, 07:42:10 PM
Running omnis XY doesn't really make sense; it will be essentially mono. I would do beegar's suggestion or, with a good crowd, you could also do the spaced omnis from the ceiling. You might also consider a near coincident arrangement with the cards from the ceiling or stage. If you can borrow a four channel recorder, with two from the board/PA and two from the mics, that would be great, as everything would be time synced. Six channels (omnis, cards, and board) would be even better, as you could mix to taste afterwards...

My thought on the XY above the audience was that I would be using less of those two channels in the mix, so the stereo image wasn't as important as continuity on the two tracks, but that's just me thinking intuitively, and probably incorrectly. I'm kind of limited to the gear i have, unfortunately, so I'd have to dig out the old minidisc or rockbox'd iRiver if i wanted six channels. I've gotten pretty good at cropping, matching, and stretching recordings to correct for clock speed differences between multiple two-track recorders. But yeah, you're right...I should just get a 4-track recorder. Not a starving college student anymore. I had thought about cards in an ORTF arrangement, but this has always been my most hit-or-miss arrangement. I read somebody's post not too long about about pointing cards directly at the PAs. Didn't really get the thought process behind that. Would that be similar to the spaced omnis on the ceiling, only with less audience noise? That's probably something I can find more info about elsewhere in this forum...
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: capnhook on April 19, 2019, 10:06:02 AM
Spread your omni's and record them stereo with your Tascam DR-05.  XY omni is mono.  If you need mono, you can sum your stereo later.

Get a SBD patch and record with the DR-22WL.  Use some -20dB attenuators or an in-line -20dB stereo attenuator cable as insurance against a really hot board signal.  Ask for a stereo feed if it is available.

Have fun, and make great tapes man.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 19, 2019, 12:00:29 PM
Thanks for all the input so far.

It sounds like spaced omnis are the way to go. Perhaps I run two pairs in different locations in the hall and press one of my old recorders back into service to get the sbd.

More specific to placement, if i were to put a pair on stage, should it be roughly at the height of the guitar? He'll be seated.  I don't want my equipment to be in the way. This video of him https://youtu.be/y13ijvXZBPM (https://youtu.be/y13ijvXZBPM) isn't ideal because it's not just him, but if you disregard the dobro player, this is how he'll be playing the night i'm taping. at around 1:15 you get a good picture of the mics they were using to record, and while i know their goal here is different than what mine would be, is the height of the pair of mics on the guitar about where i'd want my pair of spaced omnis on the stage? At the venue, iirc, they have just one mic on guitar and one for vocals. Assuming the vocal mic stand is a couple feet in front of the artist, would i be okay clamping my stage omnis to the vocal mic stand?

Also, if i hang a pair of spaced omnis from the ceiling, in a hall like this, are there considerations beyond managing audience noise that would dictate the optimal distance from the stage? If someone has a favorite general guide for this, i'd appreciate a link. I use Paul White's "Basic Live Sound" but everything else i can find is kind of brand-specific.

Thanks for your patience.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: Gutbucket on April 19, 2019, 12:02:44 PM
What beegar and the good Capt'n said.

Record the SBD + a pair of spaced omnis.  Generally you'll want to space omnis around 3' apart if you can.  If you are recording the SBD as well you can actually space them wider than that.  But since this is a solo act, shoot for 3-4' apart placed on stage between the performer and audience.

Pointing the mics at the PA speakers (or hanging each omni say 6' directly in front of each PA speaker) is a good strategy when you cannot record the SBD directly.  When you can record the SBD directly, mics pointed at the PA or hanging directly in front of it will produce a recording which is in large part a redundant duplication of that same direct SBD sound.  That's one reason why spaced omnis on stage are a good option for this - they will provide what the very close-placed PA microphones feeding the SBD recording do not. 

A coincident X/Y microphone arrangement (both mics in the same place, angled apart) can be appropriate for directional mics, but not omnis.  But since the SBD recording will provide lots of clear monophonic center-heavy sound, a spaced microphone arrangement becomes more attractive for the on-stage or AUD microphone pair.. because the spaced arrangement will provide a type stereo which the SBD does not. 

The idea is to create two recordings which complement each other nicely rather than being mostly redundant, such that when mixed together they produce a superior recording in combination than either one on its own.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: Gutbucket on April 19, 2019, 12:14:33 PM
Spaced omnis from the ceiling will provide good room and audience "your are there-ness".  That can work well especially in combination with SBD. But spaced omnis on stage in front of the performer will also provide that, as well as delicious direct sound + early reflections from both his voice and guitar.  So I'd go that route if you can.

Best if you can space the omnis a bit farther apart and further away from the PA reinforcement close-mics which are directly in front of the performer, rather than mounting them on the same mic-stand.  But if that's what works practically for you, no worries.  Don't sweat their height too much, they can be anywhere from right down at stage level up to ceiling level.  Just try to keep them from being right at audience mouth level so you don't get spotlight focus on the closest audience members right up front.  Ideal would probably be between guitar and mouth level of the performer as long as that doesn't put them right in the face of the folks in the front row.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: Gutbucket on April 19, 2019, 12:21:27 PM
Just followed your youtube link to discover the artist is Malcolm Holcombe.
He's great, a true appalachian treasure! 

Like Capt'n says, have fun and make great tapes man.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 19, 2019, 01:23:34 PM
Excellent! This is great stuff.

Yeah, Malcolm is great! Although i record tons of stuff, from country to extreme metal, i kind of feel a responsibility to do an extra-good job here, considering the subject. The uncomplicated arrangement encourages me to think i can do especially well with what i have, so even though my ask here is kind a "teach me to play stairway to heaven" request rather than a "what scales should i practice" one, i feel like i'll still learn, even if some/all of the science behind it is beyond me.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: heathen on April 19, 2019, 03:30:55 PM
I'm not sure if this has been suggested yet, but if you get a sbd feed see if you can get vocals to one channel and guitar to the other.  Then you can mix them to your taste in post.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 19, 2019, 04:48:06 PM
I'm not sure if this has been suggested yet, but if you get a sbd feed see if you can get vocals to one channel and guitar to the other.  Then you can mix them to your taste in post.

That's a good tip. I've not asked for that before, but yeah, often the vocals are way heavier in the mix to the PA than the instruments in the small halls that I tape in, I assume because a lot of the sound from the instruments is coming from individual amps. Even with just a singer and a guitar, I can see where the mix for the hall might not be best for the tape. Thanks for that!
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 19, 2019, 11:18:23 PM
If I were to get a new pair of omnis for the occasion, what would most tapers use for a stereo pair of spaced omnis on the stage at artist-level? My wife and I are subscribers at the LA Phil, and they will have dozens of mics on stage when recording a performance. I haven't had a chance to ask them what they're using, but they're very small. I guess they're probably very expensive too, but I'm pretty sure they're omnis, because sometimes they're two to an instrument (piano or percussion, for example) and sometimes they're one to a group (violin/viola/woodwinds). I feel like that's probably what I'm looking for? I'd like something small, versatile and not too expensive, but then who wouldn't. If people have favorite mics for this scenario, i'd like to hear. I'll also go do more research on my own. If there's a good thread about it here, a link would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: heathen on April 21, 2019, 03:39:48 PM
DPAs (4060s might be fine here as it seems like the show won't be super loud) would be the ideal pick, and you can find deals on them on ebay or in the yard sale.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 22, 2019, 11:11:45 AM
Thank you. I'll look around. These mics are really small! Trying to learn about microphones (beyond fundamental principals) is a real rabbit hole to dive down. it's one of those things where it seems there is much to be gained from talking to people with lots of experience. I've been reading a bit the last couple of days, and ended up on a tangent researching "vintage" mics. Really interesting stuff, and like similar precision items (watches, for example) it seems that, if cared for, the classics still turn in outstanding performances.

Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: Jhurlbs81 on April 22, 2019, 03:43:44 PM
If I were to get a new pair of omnis for the occasion, what would most tapers use for a stereo pair of spaced omnis on the stage at artist-level? My wife and I are subscribers at the LA Phil, and they will have dozens of mics on stage when recording a performance. I haven't had a chance to ask them what they're using, but they're very small. I guess they're probably very expensive too, but I'm pretty sure they're omnis, because sometimes they're two to an instrument (piano or percussion, for example) and sometimes they're one to a group (violin/viola/woodwinds). I feel like that's probably what I'm looking for? I'd like something small, versatile and not too expensive, but then who wouldn't. If people have favorite mics for this scenario, i'd like to hear. I'll also go do more research on my own. If there's a good thread about it here, a link would be appreciated.

Thanks!

They're subcards, not omnis, but these might be worth looking at if you're looking for options that sound great and don't crush the bank...
http://www.lineaudio.se/CM3.html

They're about $250 for a pair.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: Gutbucket on April 22, 2019, 04:12:18 PM
My wife and I are subscribers at the LA Phil, and they will have dozens of mics on stage when recording a performance. I haven't had a chance to ask them what they're using, but they're very small. I guess they're probably very expensive too, but I'm pretty sure they're omnis, because sometimes they're two to an instrument (piano or percussion, for example) and sometimes they're one to a group (violin/viola/woodwinds). I feel like that's probably what I'm looking for? I'd like something small, versatile and not too expensive, but then who wouldn't. If people have favorite mics for this scenario, i'd like to hear. I'll also go do more research on my own. If there's a good thread about it here, a link would be appreciated.

Typically the main pair hanging over the head of the conductor are omnis, as are the wider-spaced outrigger pair hanging to either side of the main pair, if present.  Spot mics used for piano are generally omnis. Those for percussion may be as well.  The other section and spot microphones may be directional mics, but can be hard to tell the difference at a distance by appearance. 
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 22, 2019, 04:39:50 PM

They're subcards, not omnis, but these might be worth looking at if you're looking for options that sound great and don't crush the bank...
http://www.lineaudio.se/CM3.html

They're about $250 for a pair.

Thanks! Those look interesting. Makes me think I really need to do a lot more homework and refresh my memory on microphone fundamentals. Even though this scenario is one I commonly record, if I'm going to get a proper pair of mics, i should be researching a "best fit" for most of my taping situations, not just this one. As much as i'd like to get a big collection of mics, it's probably not going to be in my budget for a while. Looking at Line Audio's website, they speak to how each capsule is "trimmed" to close tolerances by them during manufacture. Now I have to go figure out what that means.... :)
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 23, 2019, 11:09:12 AM
I didn't mean for this to turn into a discussion of microphones, but if folks don't mind... I've wandered around the internet looking for versatile (i.e., multiple polar pattern) microphones and discovering that there are a lot of options. There's mics like the Shure KSM141 which don't require swapping caps, and many that are sold with interchangeable caps. The nakamichi CM-300 3-mic recording kits from years ago seem really neat...not only are they packaged for a specific purpose; the kit was sold with omni and card caps for the mics, and they're internally powered. I looked around for comparable setups from current vendors and found a number of matched pairs, then dug a little more, with an eye for "small shop" built stuff, like the line audio mics linked to above.

That eventually got me to Busman Audio and the BSC1 stereo kit. A pair of mics with three (matched?) capsules, built-in 10dB attenuation or bass roll-off...seems like a panacea. But are there compromises? If I invested in a pair of these, would i have a pair of mics that would serve equally well as spaced omnis on stage in the environment discussed here and work as a pair of cards on a ten-foot stand above the soundboard at a rock concert in a larger venue? Sounds almost too good to be true. Am i headed down the wrong path altogether here?
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: heathen on April 23, 2019, 11:36:08 AM
I didn't mean for this to turn into a discussion of microphones, but if folks don't mind... I've wandered around the internet looking for versatile (i.e., multiple polar pattern) microphones and discovering that there are a lot of options. There's mics like the Shure KSM141 which don't require swapping caps, and many that are sold with interchangeable caps. The nakamichi CM-300 3-mic recording kits from years ago seem really neat...not only are they packaged for a specific purpose; the kit was sold with omni and card caps for the mics, and they're internally powered. I looked around for comparable setups from current vendors and found a number of matched pairs, then dug a little more, with an eye for "small shop" built stuff, like the line audio mics linked to above.

That eventually got me to Busman Audio and the BSC1 stereo kit. A pair of mics with three (matched?) capsules, built-in 10dB attenuation or bass roll-off...seems like a panacea. But are there compromises? If I invested in a pair of these, would i have a pair of mics that would serve equally well as spaced omnis on stage in the environment discussed here and work as a pair of cards on a ten-foot stand above the soundboard at a rock concert in a larger venue? Sounds almost too good to be true. Am i headed down the wrong path altogether here?

You can, and will, get any number of opinions from people but the best thing to do is head over the Live Music Archive and listen for yourself.  Listen to as many examples as you can.

Here's a past discussion of them: https://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=141908.0 (I'd recommend paying close attention to the comments by burris and Todd R on the first page...they make good points)
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on April 24, 2019, 12:05:57 AM
...the best thing to do is head over the Live Music Archive and listen for yourself.  Listen to as many examples as you can.

Thanks for that reminder. As intuitive as it seems, I had really forgotten to consider actually listening to recordings over at the archive. I'll also check out some of those AT4041 tapes. Looking through my collection of live stuff from other people, I'm surprised I never noticed how often those show up.

Thanks again!
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on May 11, 2019, 01:44:28 PM
Fast Forward a couple of weeks and I'm in a new and more pressing quandary. Ha!

I did a ton of research and picked up some new (to me) gear, most of it from the yard sale. This includes a Tascam DR-701d, a nice set of three Nak CM-300s with the omni and card caps, and a pair of AT 4041s. I also got a couple of small tabletop/stage mic stands, one of those 10' Photek stands that people speak highly of here in the forums, a small AKG stereo bar, and a couple of cheap shockmounts and some cables. My goal was to not drop a fortune but to still get a kit i could use to record everything from a guy with a guitar to full orchestra, a black metal band, or a string quartet. We'll see how i did.

I've logged a lot of hours reading about mic positioning and matrix recording techniques as well. As luck would have it, I have the opportunity to make a recording tomorrow night, at a place in west hollywood (genghis cohen) that's a bar/restaurant with a separate stage area. The bill is "Bow Thayer with Val McCallum" and I confirmed that it will be Bow and Val w/ guitar and vocal, as here: https://youtu.be/yWlf1A7towk (https://youtu.be/yWlf1A7towk) and here: https://youtu.be/bX8L8lvLhtw (https://youtu.be/bX8L8lvLhtw)

I haven't been to the venue, but it looks like "your standard hall," which is good, imo. Carpeted with seats and stuff hanging from the ceiling, so i'm assuming it'll be pretty dry. I added some pictures I found online at the bottom of this post that give an idea of the space.

I was thinking that (based on the advice above) that I could run a spaced pair of the Nak CM-300s with the omni caps on (or right in front of) the stage, down low, avoiding the monitors, and use the AT4041s in a stereo pair on a stand, about 8 feet in the air in the middle of the hall (but how far back?) with an appropriate delay on the omnis. I'm kind of intrigued by the stereo zoom technique, and was thinking to use that instead of something like ORTF or X-Y. I also thought i might try to get a line from the board to one of my two-tracks, but i'm not too worried about that.


Thoughts?


Thanks for all the input so far.

The hall, facing the stage:
(https://res.cloudinary.com/dostuff-media/image/upload//c_fill,g_faces,h_630,w_1200/v1519010770/event-9085758.jpg)

A full stage:
(https://www.bmi.com/images/news/2015/cache/acoustic_lounge_jan_770_436_90_s.jpg)

Looking to the back of the hall:
(http://theloop411.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-Setup-Genghis-Cohen.jpg)


Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on May 13, 2019, 03:18:25 AM
I ended up just using hte AT4041s on a stand at the back of the hall about 7 feet up. There was no room on or near the stage for anything. I wanted to cover about a 50-degree area, and spaced the pair 25cm with a 50-degree angle. I have to listen to what a got tomorrow, but it sounds like i got a lot of resonance. More than i'd hoped for, I think.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: jerryfreak on May 13, 2019, 04:54:35 AM
the brah in the last pic be feelin' it

try not to setup near that guy!
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: Gutbucket on May 13, 2019, 01:23:27 PM
I haven't been to the venue, but it looks like "your standard hall," which is good, imo. Carpeted with seats and stuff hanging from the ceiling, so i'm assuming it'll be pretty dry.
Quote
I wanted to cover about a 50-degree area, and spaced the pair 25cm with a 50-degree angle. I have to listen to what a got tomorrow, but it sounds like i got a lot of resonance. More than i'd hoped for, I think.

A recording made with a stereo pair of microphones in a room tends to translate as having more reverb than you'd otherwise notice when placing your head in the same location and directing your attention toward the same sound of interest.  As such I consider all halls to be "reverberantly wet" in terms of live music taping.  For me the more useful general differentiation are those halls which provide good sounding reverb versus those which have bad sounding 'verb.

Second to that, the distance from the sound source to the recording location is the primary factor determining the ratio of direct arriving sound in comparison to the reverberant sound at the recording position.  The direct/reverberant ratio at the recording position is the primary influence on the dry/wet reverberant balance of the recording.. and that balance on the recording is a primary factor with regards to the recording sounding close and intimate intimate versus roomy and more distant.

Quote
I also thought i might try to get a line from the board to one of my two-tracks, but i'm not too worried about that.

Always good to record the dry SBD feed if you can.  That is 100% direct sound making it especially helpful for balancing an "overly roomy" microphone recording.  It may have artificial 'verb on it, but will be pretty much absent of room sound 'verb for the most part.  It reduces the need to get your microphones in close-enough proximity to the source to achieve a clear, intimate sound on the recording.  A really good, complete and well-balanced SBD recording can actually eliminate the need for ANY direct sound from your own microphones! at which point your microphones need only provide the appropriate balance of audience reaction and reverberant room sound, and perhaps on stage early-reflections.  But this will rarely be the case at a small venue where the audience hears not just the PA but much of the sound directly from the stage as well.

Quote
I'm kind of intrigued by the stereo zoom technique, and was thinking to use that instead of something like ORTF or X-Y.

Stereo Zoom is a method of figuring out which specific stereo-microphone pair arrangement is likely to be appropriate for a particular situation, and encompasses various ORTF-like as well as a few X/Y configurations.  The location of your recording microphones is the primary variable for getting a sufficiently high ratio of direct sound versus reverberant sound.  There is really no substitute for that except mixing in a decent SBD recording.. which comes from other microphones located very close to the sources.  Lacking a SBD recording, you can do your best to make the most of the direct/reverberant ratio encountered an otherwise overly-distant position by pointing a pair of directional microphones directly towards the primary direct sound sources - typically the PA speakers - and then making the most of that in terms of stereo by leveraging the Stereo Zoom to determine what the most appropriate spacing between the microphones would be given the angle between them.

See the link below to a thread topic outlining an approach which applies the Stereo Zoom to this problem specifically-
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=167549.msg2087409#msg2087409

Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on May 13, 2019, 11:38:44 PM
the brah in the last pic be feelin' it

try not to setup near that guy!

Ha! I wish that guy had been there. The crowd was pretty sedate. Made for a nice quiet audience but I wasn't thinking i was gonna be recording in a coffee house. Was kind of a restaurant/bar/venue place, all in the same space, but with the venue separate and enclosed with doors. The Moroccan Lounge downtown is like this, minus the restaurant. This place has a bar right outside the hall with its own sound system, that is kind of loud, but mostly invisible to the hall. Beyond the bar is a NYC-style (like, not szechuan or shanghinese..."new york style," old-school american chinese) chinese restaurant, which is the main reason for the place's existence. The LA-area has so many "value add" venues that are not the primary purpose. I love it. I  I will be back. The management is great and friendly as hell, the sound guy was super cooperative, and the bartender introduced herself to me and got me a shot, which she joined in herself, when i ordered a beer. It was a great night.

But yeah, that guy was probably shouting for freebird when that pic was snapped.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: melontracks on May 14, 2019, 12:00:31 AM

A recording made with a stereo pair of microphones in a room tends to translate as having more reverb than you'd otherwise notice when placing your head in the same location and directing your attention toward the same sound of interest. 

Man, is that ever true. The hall was tiny. there were maybe 25 people in there and it was half-full. I spent a lot of time comparing the sound with my headphones on to the sound i was hearing with my ears. The difference was profound. Listening to the recording, the hall sounds big,


Always good to record the dry SBD feed if you can.

Kind of kicking myself today for not doing this. I had originally planned to have a pair of omnis on the stage, but the stage was so small there was literally no place to put them. Aside from placing them behind the performers, they would not only have been in the way, they'd have been in the almost-direct line of fire of one of the two wedges that were set just in front of the low stage. The soundman offered me an XLR-pair of what was going to the PAs, and offered to use the record feature on his board, but I had no computer to put the file on at the end of the night, the run from his booth to my setup was across the single doorway in and out of the hall, which was tall. It just seemed like too much trouble, and he was a little harried.

Stereo Zoom is a method of figuring out which specific stereo-microphone pair arrangement is likely to be appropriate for a particular situation, and encompasses various ORTF-like as well as a few X/Y configurations. 

I used the charts in that guy's book you can grab here and elsewhere online and picked a spot on the curve that looked like it was the sweet spot for the degrees i was trying to cover and the mics i had. I think what interests me is the idea of the system being designed to record a sound to be reproduced optimally in a stereo arrangement that is pretty much exactly what i have in my livingroom. I definitely would do what i need to do to get less reverb next time, but the more i listen to what i have, the happier i am with it.

I have done some envelopes and levels and need to break the audio into tracks and share it with the artist. If he's okay with it, i'd love to share some of it here for people's feedback. This stuff has been solid gold. I made myself a note in my workflow to come back to this thread and read it again before i head to a show. Lots to remember.

Edit: while noting my reasoning behind arranging the mics, i realized that i measured a 50* field of view i wanted to capture...then used the +/-50 curve on the stereo zoom chart...i actually should have used the +/- 25 degree curve. Oops.
Title: Re: Advice on Setup for Specific hall and performer?
Post by: daspyknows on May 26, 2019, 06:01:58 PM
Depending on city, see if you can borrow some better mics and/or bring someone else along with better/more gear.  If you have permission, go all in.