Topic: Notes from the road, or BMT

[checht]

Bizarre Mic Technique (apologies to Gut).

These days, about half of my recordings happen when working directly with a couple bands, Los Lobos and Steely Dead (you can guess what they play).

With LL, I generally set up OMT4 and take a SBD feed that I use RX to iso vocals on. Pretty straight forward.

For SD, I have 2 tasks: I advise the venues’ FOH staff to get the sound the band wants, and record shows. My setup is kinda weird but I’m enjoying the outcome. I run a pair of mk41s and a pair of mk22s, and get one or 2 channels of aux bus out from the Soundcraft monitor mixer for vocals that I record on a mixpre 6II along with. I also grab a 20 channel multi on USB just in case.

Over time (80+ shows) and trying lots of variations, I’ve arrived at running the mk41s ORTF @ 10’, located on the house R side of the drum riser. The mics point down and a bit towards the house, 20º from straight down. I think of them as uber-overheads, the R mic catches bass and a close sound on drum and cymbal hits. L gets drums and guitar cab. The 22s are positioned 1’ upstage from stage lip @ 9” off the deck, split on center with 4’-10’ spread  depending on stage size. L gets keyboard cab and some guitar, R is bass. Both get some drums. Also some room sound.  I have grown intolerant of crowd chatter, and that was my original motivation to move mics onstage. Photo from Palace Theater, Hilo, HI  attached.

I level-match the 4 vocal ins (everybody sings) during soundcheck. The web interface makes it easy to mix my out; I use vic firth isolating drummer’s headclamps headphones and also just observe levels on the mp6. It stays pretty much the same for each tour, unless someone buys a new vocal mic.

In post, I de-bleed the vocal tracks by running  vocal separation in RX, then add  a little reverb. I start the mix with the 22s, bring in the 41s, then the vocals. I resist the siren-song of mixing the full multi then adding in ambient, as it would take freaking forever for each show. I do grab channels if a particular show needs something, like more texture and tone on the guitar.

I realize this is a somewhat novel setup, but I think I’ve found a way to get a balanced sound and soundstage that capture the feeling of the show. Here’s an example, demonstrating the setup. Also shows how much a song rocks when the band loves playing it 😀

https://archive.org/details/sd2023-12-04/sd20231204.matrix.2448-02.flac

If the link doesn’t work, it’s for track 2, Viola Lee Blues. Curious what y'all think, don’t get much feedback except from the band.

[rocksuitcase]

Bizarre Mic Technique (apologies to Gut).

I have grown intolerant of crowd chatter,
https://archive.org/details/sd2023-12-04/sd20231204.matrix.2448-02.flac

I love that comment in bold   
I'm listening now on work PC speakers. Great separation of instruments. keys sound perfect in the mix. vocals have clarity and distinct placements. Well done

[Gutbucket]

Love it. Will give a listen later tonight.

Very much dig creative practical solutions derived by ear and optimized for the specific situation.


There have been a few times I've setup behind the drummer, a couple times up high pointed down and forward somewhat similar to your uber-overheads, once low and behind a scrim on the backside of a pop-up canopy over the band, completely invisible to the audience.  From the backside that one looked like the rig was pointed directly at a wall.  All of those were best-guess once offs without the opportunity to hear if it was going to work first. Sometimes worked great, overtimes not so much.

Thanks for the report and good to hear you've found a setup that gets the sound you want while being manageable and repeatable.

[checht]

Thanks both.

A benefit of this gig is the opportunity to experiment in a relatively controlled environment. Often our recordings are one-offs, but recording night after night in a config that doesn't include much room sound means that I can vary a factor and then listen for the difference. I have learned a lot about how my capsules sound and how to deploy them to best effect this way.

Also, repetition allows me to optimize gear. I don't carry a stand on tour any more, just a baby extension and a clamp. 3 - 15' active extension cables are super useful, in the usual way and also for omni split as I've put a pair of binder connectors on the L side of the actives for the 22s. That lets me split greater than 4' as needed. A 50' 2 channel cable, 20' 2 channel, and 2 - 10' cables, all made by Ted, round out the cabling. It's all super light. My suitcase including gear and all personal stuff except laptop weighs 38#, not too bad to drag around.

Just broke an a20 again, time for more super glue and teeny cable tie. Paging Volt, maybe time to go all Rycote...

[Gutbucket]

A benefit of this gig is the opportunity to experiment in a relatively controlled environment. Often our recordings are one-offs, but recording night after night in a config that doesn't include much room sound means that I can vary a factor and then listen for the difference. I have learned a lot about how my capsules sound and how to deploy them to best effect this way.

Those kinds of repeat situations, where the biggest variable becomes whatever we as tapers choose to do differently, are truly golden opportunities.  I've learned more, faster, and in far greater detail, over the course of reoccurring monthly gigs where the same band is playing in the same room, than I did over the course of years of recording different one-offs. 

A greater number of tapers are likely to have a similar experience via multi-night runs of a band playing the same venue.  It then becomes a much more condensed assessment loop, without as much time to determine how well a change worked and figure out what to try next based on that assessment.  Yet, if able to determine ahead of time which changes or comparisons one plans to make night to night, it makes for a super valuable opportunity as well.  I encourage other tapers to take advantage of it when they can, since its a somewhat rare opportunity for most to be able to try out things that would otherwise be too subtle to assess over the course of different bands, and or different rooms.

Similar but less tightly-focused and detail-specific is recording regularly at some venue, where extraneous variables other than who the band happens to be along with whatever is being changed up in the recording rig remain mostly consistent.  We of course learn a lot in that way too.  But at the same time, recording a very different band in the same room with the same rig can be significantly more different than some might imagine.

[fanofjam]

Steely Dead (you can guess what they play).

Jammy music from an unemotional vampire?

[vantheman]

Would you mind sharing your process for isolating vocals in RX? I’ve used the sliders in the music rebalance tool but I don’t know how successful I’ve been at it. Would love to be able to do better.

[u2_fly_2]

Sounds very nice indeed...well done!
Vocals are punchy and clear in the mix...
I also like the sound of the bass...you got it all covered = Bass/Middle/Treble

[Chanher]

Sounds like a cool gig. I personally will never stop experimenting with different locations, arrangements, and coming up with solutions on the fly. It's just too much fun.

Finally had a chance to listen to this, some impressions:

-I like the width and depth; I'm guessing a lot of it's the spread out mk22's, but it opens things up nicely. If you close your eyes while listening you absolutely get a feel for the stage layout.

-This is a great example of Schoeps mics. Sooo smooth across the frequencies. Nothing is hyped or exaggerated. Just a smooth, natural representation of the source, very easy on the ears.