I can relate to the difference in sound depending on the company and equipment used. Location is key. Some people swear by stack taping using Omnis. Others will swear by using cards (in an open rig) up by the soundboard. I had a similar situation a couple of weekend's back: on the Friday, my buddy and I open rolled on the lighting side of the soundboard/lighting area with stands at 8.5 and 10 feet respectively. My stand had the CA-14 omnis at 8.5 feet, my buddy had the AKG 480 HC's at 10 feet. Strangely, as I posted in another thread, the CA-14's smoked the AKG's.
The next day, I noticed my stand was busted so I moved up about 1/2 way from the board, and rolled on the first act. Rolled the omnis again. The mix was thin (keyboards were prominent), bass was booming and mids were nowhere to be heard. By the time the headline act was on, I was about 8-10 rows from the barricade (about 30-40 feet from the stage). That recording was possibly the worst one I ever made. It didn't help that it was very humid, either.
The third day, I ran my stand at 10 feet over the soundboard side of the soundboard/lighting area. Ran the omnis for two acts and the cards for the middle act (Jon Anderson solo). The cards sounded artificial. The omnis sounded fuller. The sound on the third day was the best and the sound on the recordings with the omnis was nice when I played it back.
The moral of the story - it's a crapshoot.... it really is.