Topic: Which option for my soundboard tape?

[Sloan Simpson]

I'm going to see a taper-friendly singer-songwriter tonight who'll be playing solo, just guitar and voice (Vic Chesnutt).  I always run my audience rig, but Vic's shows at home in Athens are notorious for being talked over.  It's cooler not to actually appreciate the talent, just show up to be seen

Anyway, the last time or two I've seen him, I've run a board tape and post-mixed it.  Normally he has 2-3 people backing him up.  Since tonight is completely solo (I hear), I was wondering if I should take the standard RCA L/R outs, or if it would be better to get the individual vocal channel and the guitar channel, one to each channel of my DAT, so as to have maximum control of everything later when I mix with my AUD.

Thoughts?

[heath]

i would do option #2.  Take the gtr out and run to input 1, take vox out and run to input 2.  That way you can mix and process vox and gtr separately and create a much nicer mix.

[Sloan Simpson]

This is definitely the way I'm leaning; I've forged friendships with the house sound guys, and recently found out they don't have a problem doing it.  So that's what I'll do unless someone warns against it for some reason in the next few hours. . .

[Sloan Simpson]

clamp to the stage mic stand, xy. or maybe a second discreet stage stand?
plug into the snake, and then take your lead from the snake to your pre -> recorder, back at the board.

If you're slightly further back than the house foh mics (clamped to main stand, not boom. ), or a seperate stand, you'll get a bit more ambience.

Moke you just managed to really confuse me, not that that's very difficult . . . Are you saying to mix on the fly, or just skip the board?  I don't really have any good options for mixing it live, plus tweaking the mix for hours at home gives me something to do besides watch bad TV

[Sloan Simpson]

be the board, young jedi.

forget the whole board mix thing, and just get in close with good mics.

I was also referring to the snake, as a means to get your mic signal back to a recording location.
The house likely has a main patch snake that leads all of the stage mics back to the board. See if you can jump into that snake, rather than running a mile of cable to some recording location. Then pull your signal back out of the snake back at the board -> pre -> you recorder, avoiding the foh mix altogether.
If its a solo performer, theres likely plenty of opens on the snake to use.

I regularly confuse myself, so,... hopefully this clears that a bit.

Ah, got it now.  It'll likely be too much of a cluster to mess with the snake or stage micing.  Vic is taper-friendly but is co-billed/opening for Jonathan Richman (purported to be taper-unfriendly, but he gave me permission pretty easily a coupla years ago).  But the problem I didn't mention is that this is an early show, followed pretty quickly by a late show, Gang Of Four, and I'm assuming that band will already be setup/soundchecked on the stage. . .

But I tape at this venue (The Fabulous 40 Watt Club, in Athens GA) a lot, so I'll try your suggestion soon for a solo show that's less a "big deal" . . .

Thanks/+T

[HydroPANIC]

Watch out for option 2...  You may not capture any post effects.  Could be a very dry tape...

[heath]

Watch out for option 2...  You may not capture any post effects.  Could be a very dry tape...

isn't that the point?  capture discrete instruments/track (preferably dry) and then mix down yourself to your own liking.

[TNJazz]

That is EXACTLY the point.  DIY effects are sometimes better than what you get from the house.  Somehow the light reverb you hear in the room at the show sometimes translates to the "bottom of a well" reverb on a FOH tape.

Dirk

[HydroPANIC]

I'll have to agree it should help with a better matrix tape...

[Sloan Simpson]

Worked great!  Of course as luck would have it, it was the smallest/quietest artist I've ever seen for this artist in this venue, so it wasn't as necessary as some other times.  I may not even use the guitar channel, but just a dash of the vocal channel will add about 3% of sweetness to the whole deal.  Thanks all for the comments.