Topic: Taping in a VERY small bar -- close to P.A. stack or Healey?

[Jeremy Lykins]

I'm gonna try to tape in a very, very small bar tonight and I'm wondering if I should set up really close to one of the P.A. stacks or if I should set up my stand next to one of the vocal mic stands and use the Healey method? 

Some pics:

Pic taken from the "stage."  There's room for about three rows of people until there's a spiral staircase:


Pic taken from the top of the spiral staircase:



Pic taken from the middle of the spiral staircase:



The only places that I can think of to set up in there is on the far right or left by a P.A. stack, clamped onto the ceiling beams, or next to the beam that you see in pic 3.  If I set up close to the P.A. stack I would probably have to be less than twelve inches away, so I'm not sure if that would work (I've recorded 3' away from a P.A. stack and liked the result).  If I clamp onto a ceiling beam I would get a LOT of crowd noise and people tend to bang on those beams during shows, so that's probably not a good idea.  I've never tried the Healey method, but I'm thinking that might be my best bet for this particular bar.  Anyone have any suggestions or advice?

[Patrick]

I would stay far away from Healy method in that place.  I'd probably end up running onstage and hoping that I can get some vocals through a monitor or something.  It's about all you can do in a place like that...

[Dede2002]

Love the lady in red up on the stage. 

[cfox]

onstage+SBD

[muj]

near the stage as possible...not sure if omnis a good idea ( think of the reflections!)

[setboy]

stick one mic in a monitor and put the other dead center to the stage.

[Jeremy Lykins]

stick one mic in a monitor and put the other dead center to the stage.

I really like this idea, and I think that I'm gonna try that.  I'm already assuming that the recording is gonna turn out unlistenable, so anything above that will be considered a victory.  The third pic that I posted is deceptive, because it was taken at an employees' X-Mas party so not many people were there.  Tonight the area between the horizontal handrail that you see in the bottom left of the pic and the vertical pole that you see there will be about 30 people, kinda like in the first pic.  There's no place to set up a mic stand and the staircase in front of the stage area makes it awkward enough to see bands down there, much less try to tape 'em.  The band that I'm taping tonight is a three-piece bluegrass band with mandolin, bass, and banjo, so that's why I was considering going with the Healy method--the bass will be in the middle with no vocals and the mando and banjo will be on the sides with both of them singing. 

[anarkust]

Love the lady in red up on the stage. 

      

[setboy]

stick one mic in a monitor and put the other dead center to the stage.

I really like this idea, and I think that I'm gonna try that.  I'm already assuming that the recording is gonna turn out unlistenable, so anything above that will be considered a victory.  The third pic that I posted is deceptive, because it was taken at an employees' X-Mas party so not many people were there.  Tonight the area between the horizontal handrail that you see in the bottom left of the pic and the vertical pole that you see there will be about 30 people, kinda like in the first pic.  There's no place to set up a mic stand and the staircase in front of the stage area makes it awkward enough to see bands down there, much less try to tape 'em.  The band that I'm taping tonight is a three-piece bluegrass band with mandolin, bass, and banjo, so that's why I was considering going with the Healy method--the bass will be in the middle with no vocals and the mando and banjo will be on the sides with both of them singing. 

let us know what you run and how it comes out. T+ for taping in a odd place.

[Jeremy Lykins]

She's Cella Blue from the White Ghost Shivers.

http://www.whiteghostshivers.com/

[run_run_run]

Now thats what I call a Women

[Charlie Miller]

onstage+SBD

Exactly

[dorrcoq]

Those pics make me feel claustrophobic

[dorrcoq]

She's Cella Blue from the White Ghost Shivers.

http://www.whiteghostshivers.com/

CELLA BLUE - Vocals, fun havin', dancing, skirt lifting.  WOOOOOOOOOOO!

[mr qpl]

make sure you know where the exits are

[dmonkey]

make sure you know where the exits are

Man, this comment and the one about claustrophobia are what I thought of when I saw that first picture.

I've been in some small places for shows before, but I think you win!   

[Jeremy Lykins]

This bar is a ridiculously small place to have bands, and the fact that it's in a basement doesn't help things at all.  The band that I saw on Friday night (Split Lip Rayfield) and others still play this bar when they could (and should) be playing in larger venues.  They keep coming back out of loyalty to the owner, I guess, but it's a heck of a fun place to see a band.  Their motto is, "You WILL leave wearing someone else's beer and sweat--and you'll love it!"  LOL

As you can see from the pics that I posted, there isn't really anyplace to set up a mic stand which is why I thought that going with the Healy method on that center pole would be a good idea.  Or even to tape my mics on either side of the pole and use it as a kind of J-disc.  When I got there I saw that the only place for me to set up was on the far left side of the room behind the P.A. speaker.  I would only be picking up the stage monitors and the instruments themselves, but none of the P.A.  Because of that I figured that my recording would be horrible but I went ahead and taped anyway.  Luckily the musicians were set up in front of me in order of quietest to loudest--mandolin, bass, then banjo.  When I first set up I had two legs of my mic stand touching the left wall with the mics in kind of an AB configuration, but as it got more crowded I got people blocking the mics so I moved it up and to the left a little bit (toward the center and back of the stage).  I was on a small riser that went about three feet out from the wall, and two of my mic stand's legs were now on the edge of that riser.  The sound was surprisingly good where I first set up, but after I moved the sound was even better.  Instead of coming away with just a listenable recording, I pulled one of my best tapes yet (in my biased opinion).  Here are a few samples, a link to the show, and some pics that I took:

first song of the show: Flat Black Rag  http://www.filefreak.com/pfiles/66066/slr2008-07-11d1t01.mp3
after moving my mic stand: Redneck Tailgate Dream  http://www.filefreak.com/pfiles/66066/slr2008-07-11d1t13.mp3
later in the set: River  http://www.filefreak.com/pfiles/66066/slr2008-07-11d2t08.mp3

The first and third samples have the mandolin player on vocals (he was closest to me) and the second sample has the banjo player on vocals (farthest away). 

BitTorrent of the show: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=516634

Original mic stand placement:




New mic stand placement:






Yup.  That's a gastank bass.


http://www.splitliprayfield.com/

[ljsurfer2002]

AWESOME!

but yeah, that place looks like a fire-marshal's nightmare... I would hate having to escape that place in a hurry..

[stantheman1976]

Sounds surprisingly good.  Seeing photos of who the mics were set up I wouldn't have expected suh good results.

[Dede2002]

Well, it's not a surprise, really. Nothing sound as good as the instruments themselves, and no P.A.
+T for your efforts.BTW: this place looks like a lot of fun.

[newplanet7]

Is that cat playing a bass made of a gas tank 

[Dede2002]

Is that cat playing a bass made of a gas tank 

Yes

[newplanet7]

Truly sick stuff!
Will the said show be upped somewhere?
One would hope there is air conditioning down there?

+ muthas fuckin' t

[Jeremy Lykins]

Is that cat playing a bass made of a gas tank 

Yup.  It's made of the gastank of a '78 Mercury Grand Marquis and it's called "The Stitchgiver" because of its bass string that's made of a weed-whacker line.  If you look closely in the last pic you can see the packing tape on his fingers, but even with that he played 'til he bled that night (and kept on playing).  I can't remember when it is, but during the show you can hear someone in the crowd say "you're not playin' 'til you're bleedin'." 

Here's the link: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=516634

[dmonkey]

Recording sounds great! I've heard folks talk about Split Lip Rayfield for a while, and I've always been curious. Cool stuff. I'm grabbing it now!  Thanks!

[indietaperwloo]

That venue kinda reminds me of two venues I frequent here in Waterloo, ON...The Starlight Club and Trepid House.  The Starlight is basically a fairly large club with that same kind of back/side lighting setup.  Trepid House is well....a house that hosts shows.  How awesome is that?

www.janebond.ca
www.trepid.org

[Jeremy Lykins]

Update on Auntie Mae's Parlor....I've stack taped from the left, the right, I've set up behind the PA stack and recorded off of the monitors, and now I've given recording from the center a shot.  I went to this show intending to patch out of the soundboard, but the band said that the board was a POS and that the drums weren't mic'd so it probably wouldn't turn out very good.  With that in mind and knowing that I was gonna see 'em again the next night I decided to experiment on a new mic placement (plus the bar was too full to try to stack tape).  The left PA speaker was a little behind my mic stand so I probably didn't pick up much of it, but the drums were over there so they fill in that channel nicely.  I thought that it would just be an unlistenable recording of crowd noise, so I was pleasantly surprised.

http://www.archive.org/details/oakhurst2009-02-19

I would've gone higher, but people bang on the rafters to applaud so I wanted to get a little bit of separation from the ceiling.

[mikesalvo]

ha ha,
Nice to see this thread again. I remember seeing those pictures and feeling sick just on account of how small it was.

def. gonna check this place out if Im ever in the area!.

[su6oxone]

Update on Auntie Mae's Parlor....I've stack taped from the left, the right, I've set up behind the PA stack and recorded off of the monitors, and now I've given recording from the center a shot.  I went to this show intending to patch out of the soundboard, but the band said that the board was a POS and that the drums weren't mic'd so it probably wouldn't turn out very good.  With that in mind and knowing that I was gonna see 'em again the next night I decided to experiment on a new mic placement (plus the bar was too full to try to stack tape).  The left PA speaker was a little behind my mic stand so I probably didn't pick up much of it, but the drums were over there so they fill in that channel nicely.  I thought that it would just be an unlistenable recording of crowd noise, so I was pleasantly surprised.

http://www.archive.org/details/oakhurst2009-02-19

I would've gone higher, but people bang on the rafters to applaud so I wanted to get a little bit of separation from the ceiling.

Sounds really good!  Kudos on getting a good tape in a challenging venue.

[mikesalvo]

ya I forgot to mention, the taps sounds great! Streaming it now...

[mikesalvo]

just got to Die Die Die! nice! very nice cover of The Avett Brothers tune!

[jacobmyers]

It's a bummer that people bang on the floor joists; I was going to suggest clamping to them (or that huge beam, which shouldn't budge unless someone hits it with a truck). A C-clamp and some gaffer's tape would be the "cheap" way to do that. I did a few recordings like that in my basement and they worked out pretty well. But no one was banging on the floor joists like crazed chimps. You have shock-mounts, though, so the vibration may or may not be an issue.

You might get the venue to OK a semi-permanent installation of a microphone "gooseneck" (the flexible "payphone cable" looking thing) onto the beam using an appropriately-sized plumbing strap, some scrap rubber (a bike inner-tube) for vibration dampening, and screws. That way, it'd be there every time you went back.