Topic: First time out taping Saturday, suggestions needed

[wsphansam]

First time taping this Saturday, one acoutic guitar player, no vocals. Show is at a small coffee house in town, and I can pretty much have my pick of where I'd like to setup. I'm running akg 391's>AD-20>JB3 I've seen that DIN is a good setup for the 391's, any other ideas/suggestions/(some what) last minute adivce?

[pfife]

How are you powering the mics?  Don't they need phantom power?

You know...  if it was just an acoustic guitar, no vocals, I would close-mic it, like I was in a studio.    Look into that online...  This is just personal preference, but I think your quality would be much better if you close mic'd it then if you were going recording it after it went through the PA/AMP (if that's what's happening).   Acoustic guitars close-mic'd properly sound wonderful!

Wether you close mic it or not, here's something I run into with quiet shows often:  They are quiet, so I set my levels pretty high to record it loud enough, then they play something that gets louder than my levels can handle, and peak it out.    If you can, and you know the person, I would, before the show, set your levels to his/her loudest tune, if he/she will do that level check for you.  If this is not possible, be sure to leave yourself headroom for louder parts.

ANd I always have to normalize my tapes from quiet shows... prolly cause I run the levels with a little headroom.  My preference is to have to normalize than to peak it out.  


Hope this helps dude.

[pfife]

Oh yeah, and +t for preserving audio history!

[wsphansam]

Powering by two akg b18's, so yes phantom. I somewhat know the guy, so I may be able to get a little sound check from him. Although he's known for showing up like 3 minutes before he's supposed to start. Doesn't leave a lot of time for a level check. And I'm fairly certain he just plays through his amp with no vocals.

I'm going to look into the close mic thing also. +T for the help, and because I just realized I can now do that.

[pfife]

My personal preference would be to close mic it.  Acoustic guitar will sound way better close mic'd then going through the amp.  I think you are going to want to aim one mic toward the sound hole, and another right at the 12th fret.  Another option is 12th fret, and then a few feet way just aimed at the guitar...  these are experiments I have used in my basement studio w/ my acoustic guitar, and gottem pretty good results.

The other thing about close mic'ing is then you don't have to worry about chatter on you tape, in relation to quiet music.

[Chanher]

if this guy is somewhat of a local then you have a great chance to do some experiment tapes.  Plan out a couple different setups and try them at different shows.  this week you could try close micing, next show you could try the amp/pa etc etc.  Compare the tapes and you will know which method you prefer.

oh yes, pfife hit the nail on the head with the setting levels comment, all tapers eventually learn this lesson, a majority learn it the hard way...

[grider]

on a somewhat different note, get there early, take way more batteries than you need, take a good flashlight, get your rig running and recording when the house music is on because if it is not recording for some reason that is the time to problem solve not when the act you are recording takes the stage, a few minutes before the act begins go ahead and start rolling tape, if there are talkers in your area during the performance quietly offer them copies of the show if they will lower their voices (they will), if people hit you up during the show for copies, ask them to come back to discuss betwees sets or following the show (they will), expect problems because they are inevitable, get to know the tapers at the show if there are any there since they will have area shows you want, always exchange info with at least one other taper at the show before leaving because if your recording sucks you will want to get it from someone else, good luck, Grider

[Scuba Jeremy]

Close miking acoustic guitars rocks. Always had great results with that.

Anyway, your avatar freaked me right out.

[teajay]

These guys pretty much covered it.

But most importantly, have fun! No matter what the taping situation turns out to be. Your tapes should always be a bi-product of a great musical night. Not the other way around

travis

[Kindguy]

Grider how did the D7 work out?

Jeff

[grider]

sweet, although I'm not sure it runs off batteries, I could get no action from it with the batteries I tried, maybe they were old and had no juice though, anyway I indefinitely lent it to the band Signal Path for them to record their shows via board patch, they had nothing to tape with and I love them

[wsphansam]

this week you could try close micing, next show you could try the amp/pa etc etc.  Compare the tapes and you will know which method you prefer.

If I was point the mics towards the amp then what type of mic placement should I be doing? I will probably end up being 10-15 feet away from the amp.

Anyway, your avatar freaked me right out.

Second person to tell me that today.

[Chanher]

I know a lot of people here recommend xy whenever you're up close.  The last three shows I've taped, I've had two onstages and one dfc 15 ft. back.  I ran xy with cards (I don't have omni's yet) at all three because there would have been a whole in the middle if I would have used something wider like ortf/din. I'm pleased with everything except the stereo image, it's too narrow/mono sounding.  I can definitely hear an image, but it's not nearly as sweet as ortf/din etc. to my ears.  Next time I'm in this situation I'm gonna try xy with something wider than 90 degrees and see how that sounds.  I suggest to try different angles in xy too.  good luck.