I'm planning/hoping to record moe. tonight at the Ottawa Blues Festival. They're on one of the main stages, and from seeing other bands there (like the White Stripes on Sunday night), it can get pretty loud. If I end up FOB (fingers crossed, everybody), and use my Oktava MC-012 mics, will I need to use the -10db pads on them? I usually tape in clubs (capacity about 200), and am rarely more than a dozen feet from the PA, so I use the pads all the time, and have the gain on my Edirol UA-5 turned up to about 80%-90% of max (at which point the peak LED flashes every few seconds or so). But I'm thinking that outdoors, and with less gain on the UA-5, I should be OK without the pads; on the other hand, if I leave them out but realize I need them after the start of the show, I'm screwed, because I'll have to power down, take the mics apart, screw in the pads, reassemble everything, and power up/restart the recording.
The err-on-the-side-of-caution part of my personality says it'd be safer to leave them in, and turn the UA-5 up all the way if I need to, resulting in maybe a quiet recording, rather than leaving them out, and maybe getting a distorted and interrupted recording. Does anybody have any thoughts? People's experiences with moe. in similar situations with MC-012 > UA-5 would also be appreciated.
Aloha,
Brad