Topic: Recording a band in a backyard...

[acidjack]

For the past couple of years Dan and I have recorded bands that a guy puts on in his backyard.  Generally they are unamplified acoustic shows, but some have included amplified instruments.

Recently, I've taken to trying to mic most of the band using the DR-680.  For the last show of the year, I'd really rather just take it back to 4 channels.

I was considering trying something like M/S or even Blumlein - but I have the feeling Blumlein may not really make sense for an outdoor show.

The bands are typically arranged in a semicirclish pattern, facing out.  These photos should give some idea:  www.nyctaper.com/?p=6789
www.nyctaper.com/?p=6732

Just logically, I assume there is no way I can get away with not mic-ing the vocals, right? 

[Gutbucket]

Totally depends if the vocals are strong enough without reinforcement in relation to everything else at the position were the mics are placed, but that's a pretty obvious answer I guess.


Blumlein can work great outside.  I've done it a number of times and would certainly give it a go there for acoustic type stuff.  Issues to consider are wind protection since figure-8s are the most wind noise sensitive pattern, and placement of the sources around the mics.

On source placement, supposedly all sound sources are to be located within the front 90-degree quadrant. You can also locate other sources in the back 90-degree quadrant at the same time without phase issues.  Imaging will be reversed Left to Right for sources in back though, which is usually fine.  The supposed 'off-limits' zones for direct sources are the 90-degree quadrants directly to the left and right of the mics.

Having said that, I've heard excellent Blumlein recordings that had souces that didn't all fit in front and crossed well into the 'no-go side regions', so I wouldn't let that stop me, though I might put less critical instruments there if I had a say in arranging things.  OK to break the rules sometimes.

The other way to go with Blumlein-style crossed figure-8s that helps in getting close enough to the sources while still fitting everyone within the front segment(and rear too if you want) which follows the rules, is narrowing the angle between the mics to less than 90-degrees.  That widens the front inclusive angle at the expense of a slightly more center heavy image (slightly more mono), which can be a good thing anyway, depending on the situation since Blumlien tends to sound pretty wide to begin with and can sometimes be a bit lean in the center.  In that case, fit everyone into the angle which is defined at its outside edges by the side nulls of the mics.

[Gutbucket]

BTW, those guys rock! Diggin the 'Back In My Arms' sample.  Nice recording.  Keep in mind that a Blumlein recording of the same thing would have far more ambience and sound less dry, so as long that additional ambinece is cool, you should be too.  Coolness all around.

[page]

Blumlein can work great outside. 

I'll second the general comments and piggy back with a few thoughts:

1) Burn one or two channels on vocals (if you need more than 2, consider what sort of effort it would be for a mixer or pull those off of the "sound panel/board" as 2 channels)
2) Do an normal blumlein during soundcheck having someone monitor it to hear how loud each instrument is (to try and get some semblance of balance). Then once you find the most optimum spot you can setup in, switch to an MS blumlein (just like a normal MS pair but instead of the card pointed straight forward to the center, you use a figure . Then adjust the angle of of your figure 8s in post.
3) The blumlein pattern will naturally give space in the image well enough that being right on the stage isn't as necessary to get that intimate feel. In some ways it would be detrimental due to the rear lobes. Wander around a bit when doing setup (one person listening to the mics during soundcheck, one poking around with where to put the stand/mics).

Neat project.

[Gutbucket]

Agreed with Page on vocals if you got an extra track or two (and anything else that's weak at the mic placement point), can't hurt.

I wouldn't mess with switching to M/S blumlein, if you feel you need to adjust the M/S balance in post, you can do so with the standard X/Y blumlien just as well. You can do that to some extent with any X/Y setup but one of the unique aspects of blumlein vs other patterns is that the individual figure-8 mic patterns remain invariant regardless of the M/S ratio.

In fact, what I've described above about narrowing the angle between mics to fit everyone playing is pretty much the physical hardware equivalent of changing the M/S ratio later.

On the intimate feel thing though, I sort of feel the opposite.  I consider that 'intimate sound' mostly a factor of getting the mics relatively close where you want them, regardless of configuration.  Actually since Blumlein is going to pick up more ambience and sound less dry than the sample you linked, it will in that sense be less 'close sounding' and more open.  Don't worry about the rear lobes, that's all part of the magic.  But do consider that Blumlein picks up sound from all horizontal directions with the same sensitivity in 360 degrees around the mic (assuming a standard 90 degree angle), which can make it sound somewhat 'less close' than other configs for sounds coming from the front in a direct/reverberant sense, if possibly not a timbre sense.  Timbre sense of closeness depends more on the frequency response of the mics.  My apologies if i've misunderstood what you meant, Page.


I did a stagelip M/S Blumlein recording of a jazz trio last week and the drums and acoustic bass (somewhat similar to this) are absolutely smokin!  If you are wondering, I chose to do that Blumlein as a M/S instead of X/Y arrangement so I could use the mid and side oriented mic feeds as part of another array without having to decode them.  Otherwise I would probably have done it the standard X/Y way.