Topic: "on stage" mic configurations

[radioboy1977]

by some miraculous twist of fate, i scored a front row seat to tonight's john scofield show and i'm unsure of what mic configuration to use at such a close proximity.  i'm thinking X/Y right now.  any of you on stage kimock guys have any suggestions?

[nic]

its really going to depend on stage layout, specifically the drums.
also, how wide is the stage? does the band fill its entire width?

if the stage is wide and the drums are in the center I would run ortf. if a narrow stage then X/Y should be fine

[Craig T]

On stage, I typically use x/y 90-110 degrees.  ortf can sometimes give you a very exaggerated L-to-R image (panned so hard you have one instrument coming out of the L speaker, something else coming out of the R, thus preventing your speakers from doing that cool "disappearing act").    x/y actually gives the effect that the mics are a bit further away than ortf, but maintain the crisp clear dynamic on-stage/stage-lip sound.  If you end up more than 10' from the band, I don't think ortf gives the exaggerated stereo image problem.

[nic]

very true Craig, but he really needs to see the stage layout first.
if its a wide stage and the band is spread out then a X/Y could miss/loose the instruments on the edges.  the main key is to get the drums as close to centre of the stereo image as possible

[radioboy1977]

i've never been to the venue, so i'm not sure how big the stage is or what the layout will be.  guess i'll just have to see when i get there.  thanks for the help, guys.  +T's all aroud

[Craig T]

very true Craig, but he really needs to see the stage layout first.
if its a wide stage and the band is spread out then a X/Y could miss/loose the instruments on the edges.  the main key is to get the drums as close to centre of the stereo image as possible

IMO, drums have nothing to do with center.  You can have the center be wherever you'd like by adjusting mic configuration & stand placement.  About half the time I'm recording on stage, the drums are all the way to one side - seems very popular with jazz acts lately, maybe so they can see the other musicians' faces instead of their asses.  When on stage, drums can overpower the other instruments (exception is definitely Kimock where the guitars are usually louder than drums) so I tend to keep my stand away from the drum kit.  Sometimes that causes the drums to be off center in the image - that doesn't bother me a bit, but everyone has their own preferences.

Even if the stage is spread out very wide, x/y at 110 degrees should pick up everything without having too much come in off-axis (a bigger problem with the off-axis coloration of some LD mics I use).  Using ortf on a very wide stage setup is exactly what has caused me to shy away from using ortf on-stage.  I hate hearing instruments come out of my speakers - I like that floating image between them.

[nic]

point taken.

isnt one of the advantages of on-stage taping the better stereo image? remember, you'll also have monitor leakage...its not like you'll only hear a particular instrument in 1 channel only.
that said, I never run on-stage for bands with ANY vocals...sounds like shite even with the monitor leakage...of course, SKB and Scofield dont have vocals.

[Jason B]

very true Craig, but he really needs to see the stage layout first.
if its a wide stage and the band is spread out then a X/Y could miss/loose the instruments on the edges.  the main key is to get the drums as close to centre of the stereo image as possible

The stage would have to be extremely wide for this to be the case I think. XY on-stage pretty much captures it all.

-JB

[Swampy]

i've never been to the venue, so i'm not sure how big the stage is or what the layout will be.  guess i'll just have to see when i get there.  thanks for the help, guys.  +T's all aroud

Big stage...

[Simp-Dawg]

i ran cards xy about 120 degrees last night for a local band chronophonic, just did a casual listen on my headphones and it sounds tight!  they have vocals so yeah that part kinda sucks but not necessarily much worse than what was coming out of the speakers, it just sounds a little farther away than everything.
that was my first time on stage taping also, i'm quite pleased with the results so far.

[Gordon]

I've only done onstage once.   graja mahal at the orange peel. I did xy 90.  drums were far left of me.  came out fucking great!  fi you want to check it out it's on the etree archive.