Topic: Taping a marching band

[willyjbrown]

I am open taping a marching band Monday night at a local exhibition with my stealth rig, since it's all I have (SP-CMC-2>SP-SPSB-8>iRiver h120). The exhibition is at a local high school's football stadium, so I'm guessing the bleachers will be average sized for a high school.

So what's the best way to do this? I've got a stand and everything else I may need, but I'm clueless about where to set up and what kind of angles to use. It's a college band, meaning 350+ people marching on-field with a full pit section in the very front of the field. Any ideas or recommendations? Anything would be helpful honestly. Thanks!

[anodyne33]

As a former band fag extrodinairre I recommend setting up on the 50 yard line at least 1/2 way up the bleachers, further if they are small. There's a lot of sound that come off of the field for a good corp, and it comes from everywhere too.

[F.O.Bean]

As a former band fag extrodinairre I recommend setting up on the 50 yard line at least 1/2 way up the bleachers, further if they are small. There's a lot of sound that come off of the field for a good corp, and it comes from everywhere too.

you were a band fag?

[anodyne33]

As a former band fag extrodinairre I recommend setting up on the 50 yard line at least 1/2 way up the bleachers, further if they are small. There's a lot of sound that come off of the field for a good corp, and it comes from everywhere too.

you were a band fag?

I was king of the band fags dude. marching band, symphonic wind ensemble, percussion ensenble, indoor drum line, jazz band..... and i had friends outside of the band room, so all the underclassmen though i was the shiite. silly band fags.

[rdflash]

shane, how did band camp treat ya, i can see you as one of those guys bringing an inflatable pool and lounging in it between practices...lol

me on the other hand, i would go by band camp in between football practices and ask:

"I have seem to lost my rusty trombone, has anybody seen it?"

or other key phrases that most certainly included "rusty trombone"

"Hey, how many rusty trombone players are there in the band this year?"

and the younger kids would be lke "uhhh, we arent really sure."

      I amuse myself waaayyyy tooo easily.

[F.O.Bean]

As a former band fag extrodinairre I recommend setting up on the 50 yard line at least 1/2 way up the bleachers, further if they are small. There's a lot of sound that come off of the field for a good corp, and it comes from everywhere too.

you were a band fag?

I was king of the band fags dude. marching band, symphonic wind ensemble, percussion ensenble, indoor drum line, jazz band..... and i had friends outside of the band room, so all the underclassmen though i was the shiite. silly band fags.

were you drummer in all of them, what else did you play?

[anodyne33]

shane, how did band camp treat ya, i can see you as one of those guys bringing an inflatable pool and lounging in it between practices...lol

I just kind of hung out with the instructors when we weren't practicing... talking about Jetro Tull and taping up blisters!

As a former band fag extrodinairre I recommend setting up on the 50 yard line at least 1/2 way up the bleachers, further if they are small. There's a lot of sound that come off of the field for a good corp, and it comes from everywhere too.

you were a band fag?

I was king of the band fags dude. marching band, symphonic wind ensemble, percussion ensenble, indoor drum line, jazz band..... and i had friends outside of the band room, so all the underclassmen though i was the shiite. silly band fags.

were you drummer in all of them, what else did you play?

Just percussion. One year I was in the pit in marching band and I had an entire 4x8' cart full of stuff. Bells, toms, hand percussion, chimes, cymbols out the wazoo, gongs... we did Borgy and Bess that year. I got to write half of my own parts for that show.

[stigs]

i gotta see pics of you in a band uni

[j5brock]

I have this same opportunity.. The band director at my son's high school knows we tape and asked if we could tape an upcoming competition. I feel comfortable with where to tape from.. but I'm wondering about caps - hypers or cards - I'm leaning towards cards.. and mic config - thinking ORTF.. any thoughts - all advice or help welcome..

Jeff

[willyjbrown]

I used my little stealth rig with a mic stand and slanted the mics in around 30 degrees or so and it turned out great in my opinion. If anyone would like to hear it, let me know. The 3 songs from the band's halftime show that they performed were Star Spangled Overture, Adagio For Strings, and Fanfare For The Common Man.

[Chuck]

I have seen/ heard many marching bands in competitions and in parades and have thought about how best to record them. I have had two ideas. I prefer to see/ hear bands like this when they are marching in a parade. So, I think for a parade I'd set up a pair of spaced (2-3 feet max) omnis on the parade route, to get the same feeling/ sound as a stationary observer would experience.

My experience being in the bleechers watching bands on a football field has been that it doesn't sound so good up there. So, I'd try cardioids in the first row of bleechers or maybe even closer.

I guess it all depends on what sonic effect you are trying to replicate. There's a lot of sound coming from a lot of different places in those band competitons. Being outside, there is lots of reflected sound too.

Ultimately, I think it's a very difficult thing to try to record accurately. I'd love to hear anyones recording efforts as this type of music is often disregarded and minimalized by those who are not close to it. When performed well, this music can be as moving and inspirational as any music made.

[anodyne33]

I have this same opportunity.. The band director at my son's high school knows we tape and asked if we could tape an upcoming competition. I feel comfortable with where to tape from.. but I'm wondering about caps - hypers or cards - I'm leaning towards cards.. and mic config - thinking ORTF.. any thoughts - all advice or help welcome..

Jeff

What type of mics?

I don't know if your configuration would be that inportant in this situation (I know, flame away) just because of the huge soundstage that is being presented in front of you (if you're taping from farther back that is).

My experience being in the bleechers watching bands on a football field has been that it doesn't sound so good up there. So, I'd try cardioids in the first row of bleechers or maybe even closer.

I respectfully have to disagree Chuck. Anything too close is going to get hardly anything but the pit and whatever section's drill has them past the front hash. I've never really thought about how something like BOA is recorded, but I'd be willing to bet there are a ton of mics up for one of those. I firmly believe the best way to capture a good representation with two mics is from some distance where you have a balance between the sections. Again, just my thought after spending years listening to and playing in these situations. YMMV

I used my little stealth rig with a mic stand and slanted the mics in around 30 degrees or so and it turned out great in my opinion. If anyone would like to hear it, let me know. The 3 songs from the band's halftime show that they performed were Star Spangled Overture, Adagio For Strings, and Fanfare For The Common Man.

I'd like to hear the Fanfare. What type of band? H.S., college, or corp?

[j5brock]

AKG 481's or 3's.. again - I am leaning towards the cards.. high school band competition in a statium - about 250 members - large pit - lots of music from lots of places - always moving..  Usually lots of crowd noise until the routine starts and then fairly quiet..

J

[anodyne33]

AKG 481's or 3's.. again - I am leaning towards the cards.. high school band competition in a statium - about 250 members - large pit - lots of music from lots of places - always moving..  Usually lots of crowd noise until the routine starts and then fairly quiet..

J

Oh yeah.. I guess it says so right there in your sig...

I'd probably go with cards as well, but mostly (if you're in the crowd) to keep the chit chat from the rear lobe to a minimum. Honestly, the best way to figure out where to tape from would be to scope it out beforehand and listen from 3 or four different distances up from the field and find the closest location that you don't notice the drill moves making a difference in the overall mix.

[willyjbrown]

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S7VTQT3J

Here's an .mp3 of Georgia Tech's marching band performing Fanfare (with a tag written for the end of the show). This was at a high school exhibition in Gwinnett County (north Atlanta). I'm a sophomore at Tech and I march in the band, but I had an alternate marching my spot for the night. The director didn't have anything left for me to do, so I just told him I'd bring my rig and tape it so everybody in the band could hear what we actually sound like when sitting in the middle of the crowd.

I will post the other 2 songs from our halftime show if you'd like. Also, I only posted .mp3 as opposed to .flac simply because I already had everything uploaded for people in the band to hear. I can post .flac if somebody would like.

Let me know what you think, both of the recording and the performance!