Thanks mccordo,
I just took some photos of that particular setup which I'll post in my long running 'oddball mic techniques' thread once I get a chance. The single forward facing center directional mic plus spaced omnis works especially well at a distance, which is why I think it applies to this thread..
OT festival golfcart ride time-
However, as you know that wasn't an issue last weekend since I was up front FOB in the heart of it for what I recorded. Although it down-mixes really well to 2-channel stereo, that particular rig was primarily designed as a 4-channel surround rig, with a backwards facing supercardioid as well as the forward stage facing one, meant to be placed at the point of the triangle between stacks, in the 'impact zone' at the center of the crowd, yet capable of being snatched out quickly to safety if necessary. The point of it is to get a sense of crowd excitement all around from up there as well as the dynamic and present FOB sound, but in a Marvin Gay "What's Goin On" cocktail party background sort of sense with no one voice in the crowd standing out, rather than the more typical, annoying distracted conversations we all hate to hear on our tapes. It's pretty cool IMO when the crowd is really into it and start chanting and hooting from all around in back or sing back to the stage in unison. It is alive, not simply live. As I told one curious wide-eyed audience member who wandered up and asked, "It's a current moment harvester for a teleportation time machine." Which was probably the most accurate answer I gave to that question all weekend. I told someone else at the Bootsy Collins set that it was a FunkDAR- a Funk Direction and Range detector, and that previously I could never find the funk, but now I always know the direction of the funk flow! Those answers always seem more satisfying to random audience questioners who aren't tapers or soundguys then a straight tech explaination. I have treads at TS like this one I can derail for that!
Believe it or not, I was running farther back the last two years than I used to do there. I did run this way FOB at the stage-rail for one set last weekend. I used to do that more often there, but it only works well for instrumental bands, or when I know I have the SBD too, and was easier when the festival was smaller and I could often walk up, plop the small stand on-stage and extend the then four omnis to wherever they needed to be.