Hi tapers,
I'm brand new here so I apologize in advance if I'm doing anything wrong.
Anyway, I just recently bought a Zoom h2n (it arrived on the last day of June and before then I had no idea what went into taping a show, if that's any indication) as a spur of the moment kind of thing. Thus, I'm very new at taping, having only made 5 tapes of local bands, all coming out from listenable to outstanding to my ears.
Anyway, I was going to tape a local band that I've already taped a couple times (with permission, so long as I don't distribute anything), but in a new and possibly more challenging environment. A lot of the shows I attend are of local bands and in similar restaurant environments, so I had a couple questions, some of which are general and maybe could help others looking to tape in small environments as well and some of which are specific to the venue which I plan on taping at.
1) When taping in any small restaurant environment, is there a definitive way to avoid the talk from the waitress/waiter being picked up on the recorder that doesn't involve a SBD feed? I taped a blues-rock band in a much bigger restaurant than the one I'm planning on taping in, where I had more room to spread out, and used the lo-cut filter while having my recorder set up on a small monopod positioned on a chair facing the band (as opposed to on the table). This worked for a larger restaurant environment but I'm talking about a restaurant or bar that most would label as a "dive" (see attachment). Of course there are other "dives" out there too - many of which, including this one, have great food and host some amazing musical performances and/or open-jams which should definitely be documented in my opinion - I'm kind of wondering if it's even worth bothering in this kind of place though. Another musician who is a friend of the band wanted me to record though, or at least the songs he plays on, and I'd love to succeed in doing so.
2) I guess my next question is more of a specific positioning question for this venue, but based on the attached photo, and the knowledge that the band sets up in the far right corner from where the photo was taken (where the "Bud Light" banner is, guitarist closest to the street, bassist in closest to the restaurant, and drummer in the middle - the music is jazz and more specifically heavy jazz/blues-rock fusion, a la Larry Coryell), where would people recommend I position myself? Granted, this photo seems to be taken when they didn't do their concerts outside and had a different seating arrangement, but I was thinking somewhere on the guitarist's "side" of the venue, because the bass is very "thunderous" and could easily cause distortion with the sensitive internal mics of the h2n (I've gotten a good final output with no clipping when I taped them on the bassist's side with the gain knob set between 2 and 3, being probably 10 feet away at the least, but in this venue it'll be tougher to get that kind of "breathing room"), but was looking for more experienced taper's opinions based on the details I've provided and the photo.
3) What gain settings would folks recommend I use if kind of in the "middle" of the space pictured, with the band playing in the area described above? Do folks think my usual of "between 2 and 3" on the gain knob would be appropriate? Maybe a bit too specific of a question, but I'm just curious.
Thanks in advance for any and all help and I apologize for the verbosity of this post,
- Rosettastoned729