Topic: Need a Little Help

[DaveG73]

A friend of mine is having an Accoustic artist playing at his birthday and has asked me if I can tape the show for him.

I naturally complied.

The guy is a kind of folky/bluegrass combination, just a single guy with a guitar or banjo, no amps or mics. The venue has good accoustics, the sound is usually very clear even in these conditions and holds around 100 people max, although I expect around half the amount there on the night.

I get a chance to do a bit of a dry run with another local singer at the same venue, so I can figure out a reasonable setting for my levels etc.

My main issue is that the guy I need to record has a habit of wandering through the crowd as he plays and sings.

My rig is, by necessity, stealth orientated, Church Audio Cards/Pre>iRiver, although I do have a stand available, even though I am going to have to knock up some kind of Bar to attach the mics to. (Any advice or pictures of this would be helpful).

I figure I am going to need to set up centrally at the back of the Room, running above the heads of the crowd, but my main issue is with mic configuration.

Any suggestions for the best set up to capture this singer with his wandering around the room would be much appreciated.

I have read through the different set ups, but to be honest a lot of it goes straight over my head and my usual configuration is either clipped to my collar or my glasses.

Thanks in advance.

Dave.

[dorrcoq]

Tell him you're taping, and would appreciate it if he stayed still

[guysonic]

Best NOT to try to change a live performer's style so his delivery is natural in the recording.

Although it sounds silly, consider head wearing the mics in next-to-aisle seat and just be prepared to follow him recording if he wanders too far away as not to be heard clearly from your position.   

Don't be shy to do this as you'll look to everyone else as this guy's greatest fan!

[Church-Audio]

A friend of mine is having an Accoustic artist playing at his birthday and has asked me if I can tape the show for him.

I naturally complied.

The guy is a kind of folky/bluegrass combination, just a single guy with a guitar or banjo, no amps or mics. The venue has good accoustics, the sound is usually very clear even in these conditions and holds around 100 people max, although I expect around half the amount there on the night.

I get a chance to do a bit of a dry run with another local singer at the same venue, so I can figure out a reasonable setting for my levels etc.

My main issue is that the guy I need to record has a habit of wandering through the crowd as he plays and sings.

My rig is, by necessity, stealth orientated, Church Audio Cards/Pre>iRiver, although I do have a stand available, even though I am going to have to knock up some kind of Bar to attach the mics to. (Any advice or pictures of this would be helpful).

I figure I am going to need to set up centrally at the back of the Room, running above the heads of the crowd, but my main issue is with mic configuration.

Any suggestions for the best set up to capture this singer with his wandering around the room would be much appreciated.

I have read through the different set ups, but to be honest a lot of it goes straight over my head and my usual configuration is either clipped to my collar or my glasses.

Thanks in advance.

Dave.

I would get a dummy head with a stick and follow him around. I would also use OMNI mics for this.

[Brian Skalinder]

I think it'd sound cool hearing the performer move throughout the soundstage, so my vote is to stay put in one location.  I'd try for maybe 1/2 way back in the venue to give him some room to move around in front of you without getting behind you too quickly).  If it's a good sounding room and the crowd will be respectful - as seems the case - I'd try ORTF.  For a less good sounding / chatty room, try DIN, or even a smaller included angle, down to say maybe 70º.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Why not mic the player and let him wear the mics as he moves around.   

[Church-Audio]

Why not mic the player and let him wear the mics as he moves around.   

Its really hard to do that when your talking acoustic guitar and vocal at the same time separating the mics.. Is not going to provide a natural sound.. And mounting them on his head might produce a vocal heavy mix. Its very hard with cardioids.

Chris

[DaveG73]

Thanks for the suggestions and advice.

A few things that were brought up.....

When we spoke to him about playing and recording the show, he did offer to do a seated performance on stage, but we discounted that idea, as part of the appeal of this guy is his interaction with an audience.

I also considered, micing him directly, but figured that it would be hard to get the guitar/vocal mix right.

Didn't consider following him around, although I did think of going dead center in the room where I could direct the mics in his general direction as he moved, although given some of the results when I have been bumped around while wearing my mics, I would suspect that the noise from the movement would be very noticable in the mix.

One thing that was suggested was to mic the guitar on one channel and the vocal on the other, then do some fiddling in post to split the L/R channels and create a "fake" stereo mix. Not really sure whether this is at all possible as my post skills are even worse than my taping 

Thanks for the PM Chris, will get back to you on that when payday comes around.

Thanks again to all for the suggestions.

Dave.

[SmokinJoe]

One thing that was suggested was to mic the guitar on one channel and the vocal on the other, then do some fiddling in post to split the L/R channels and create a "fake" stereo mix. Not really sure whether this is at all possible as my post skills are even worse than my taping 

If you choose to go that route, I'm sure we can help you.  I'm not saying it's the best way to go, I'm just saying don't be scared off by the post mixing problem.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

One thing that was suggested was to mic the guitar on one channel and the vocal on the other, then do some fiddling in post to split the L/R channels and create a "fake" stereo mix. Not really sure whether this is at all possible as my post skills are even worse than my taping 

That is what I was trying to suggest. I didn't mean to hang an ORTF mount from his brim although that is a funny thought.

I mic'd a guy who was seated, one cardiod pointing toward this mouth and one pointed toward the guitar body and I got a really good stereo image.  There was enough overlap that there was some vocal in the guitar mic and guitar in the vocal mic so that I really didn't need any post processing.  Your results may vary, but I think that is good way to go if you can figure out how to mount the guitar mic.  I was using KM184s so I had to use a stand.  With those little cards, can't you get one of those mounts that clips to the guitar body at the sound hole?