Topic: to run on-stage or not?

[caymanreview]

well, i have a few shows coming up this weekend, both local bands..

i have yet to run my TL's in anything but hypers (only had 2 shows, phish at alpine)

im thinking Blumlein this weekend for my first show...

local band, no huge P.A. or anything, just basic setup with a small p.a. on stage and them playing through thier amps, drums arent mic'd

i will be able to run wherever i want, no regard for being in anyones way or anything, basically anything goes for me...

Blumlein on-stage or say 15ft away from the stage... il be dfc either way...

they usually have the drums in the center, set back a bit and guitar on the left, and bass on the right side of the stage. it will be all open- outside location with ALOT of drunk people yelling and screaming im sure...

any ideas for setup here? maybe other than Blumlein... im open to anything

[caymanreview]

second show...

kind of like a mini amphitheatre, with some permanant wooden benches a few trees way back but a decent place

mono p.a. (if it is the same people hired for the sound system as last year it was fairly decent and big) in a fairly quiet place with alot of mellow teenagers for a annual teen music festival... no drinking, no drunks at all

i know, i know a "teen music festival" has got to suck... but a buddys band is headlining  (thay are all about 17 years old and still in H.S.) but they are DAMN good

hump the stack? maybe XY cards?

[highwayjill]

this weekend..... teen music festival.... that doesnt sound like the euphio campout 

[caymanreview]

nahh, i dont think i can make it....

a guy quit at work, and there is basically no way around me having to work sunday, i would have to be 5.5hrs from the campout by 6:30am... thats not gonna work

ive got 2 local shows here

[caymanreview]

bump... any help here?

[highwayjill]

my only suggestion is to skip work sunday and go to the euphio campout 

[silverbullet]

bump... any help here?

As for bar recording and drunks. I do a lot of bar recording myself. Depending on the bar... I prefer to have my mics close to the stacks to drown out the drunks and chit chat. I use a pair of cards;one mic point to a stack and another mic point somewhat across the stage at the drums. I once set up the cards center of stage and I didn't get good vocals since they mainly come from the stacks so be careful about that. My best recordings so far have been making a matrix of omni's set up at the center and blending it with the cards. Both sets of mics are taped up pretty high near the ceiling. Because the mics are in different locations the timing of the vocals may sound off but I think it's pretty cool, sort of like adding a little harmony. The soundguy at one particular bar always tells me to have my mics back further near the soundboard for better sound in particular better bass. I've done that a couple of times but I really don't like the crowd noise my mics pick up back there and I'm not convinced that the sound is better back there as well.

Question: Is it always a good idea to use windscreens on mics in a bar with smokers? I would think that it would be to protect the mics from smoke. your thoughts?

[caymanreview]

my only suggestion is to skip work sunday and go to the euphio campout 

this however is not a possibility, small dept and they would be w/out anyone to do my job, in which the whole place depends on very much. no one else trained to do it, and frankly not too many smart enough to do it either... bunch of pbr drinkin rednecks that are waaaay to dumb to be doing this stuff

bump... any help here?

Question: Is it always a good idea to use windscreens on mics in a bar with smokers? I would think that it would be to protect the mics from smoke. your thoughts?

definantly ALWAYS use windscreens, smoke is VERY bad for you mics!

i wont be in a bar, rather an outdoor gathering/party of sorts. and i only have the one set of mics and pre/ad to do it

the p.a. is generally split mono into 2 p.a. speakers on either side of the drum,s. so im thinking up close dead center, cards... i think the XY fig-8s would pick up waaay to much drunks with a deal like this

il just wait till the moment, and do a little testing during soundcheck... always a plus to get to do a soundcheck so the taper can get everything perfect... i love bands who love tapers

[BC]

on stage sounds like a good idea to cut out the drunks talking, I usually run XY on stage to narrow the exaggerated separation one usually gets from running on stage, but this depends on the size of the stage and amp/instrument positioning. If the stage is really small maybe ORTF or DIN might be ok too. Spaced cardioids (positioned depending for best balance of stage amps and drums) might be interesting to try too, not a true "stereo" configuration but might give better instrument balance.

If there will be a lot of talkers I would not run blumlein, I would think the rear-pick up lobes would get a lot of chit-chat.

Happy taping,
Ben

[Tim]

outside with no roof? open those bad boys up! try cards ortf or split omni's!

[Brian]

have fun tis weekend Dustin, we'll be thinking about you

run a wide XY with cards

[caymanreview]

theres still a chance for me to be hitting the euphio campout... tonight is our weekly meeting for the dept... we will see

[highwayjill]

my department is shorthanded as well (we all have to work 10 hour days to cover all the shifts)... you could always pull the "i need this day off or you're going to be even more shorthanded" thing   It's worked pretty well so far for me

[caymanreview]

its a dept that im the only person working in at any given time, there is only 1 guy on duty during the day,a nd 2 @ night

if i called in, my boss would just tell me to get my ass in there or i was fired

[bush]

At the first show, if there are no or minimal vocals, I'd run ontage ORTF cards, if the stage is small, go XY for a big stage.
Personally I'd run Blumlein at the second show. Outdoors with farly decent sound, only worry is all the teeny boppers talking it up the whole time. The stereo config will still sound better on a mono PA than a stack tape

good luck