Topic: taping busking?

[Will_S]

Any suggestions for taping buskers (street performers)?

An artist I've taped a few times wants a recording of him and a friend busking...it should definitely sound like they are out on the street, but still the music needs to be clear.  Acoustic guitar and fiddle, maybe some vocals too.

Looking for both configuration advice, also thoughts on placement.  Something with a single point LD stereo mic would be ideal, but also have cards, hypers, and omnis at my disposal although the omnis have to go into an iRiver analog in.

Thanks!

[tgakidis]

My LSD2 in the yard sale would be great blumein (Shamless Plug )

[Will_S]

sorry, already have one.  Was definitely considering blumlein.   

[run_run_run]

j-disc it.

theirs an idea 

[indietaperwloo]

Try binaural.  That's the way I've been doing it ever since I got into taping and every tape I've made sounds awesome (well almost lol).  It's more portable this way and you don't have to worry about grabbing gear every time they move.

[boojum]

Binaural is very good, but earphones re required to listen to true binaural.  The J-disc seems a very good way to go.  MS would be good, too, as you can play with the side and center in post.  If your mics allow the option of free-field that is good also.  For quick and dirty I'd opt for MS first and J-disc second mostly because of the bulkiness of the J-disc over the MS.

[illconditioned]

Binaural is very good, but earphones re required to listen to true binaural.  The J-disc seems a very good way to go.  MS would be good, too, as you can play with the side and center in post.  If your mics allow the option of free-field that is good also.  For quick and dirty I'd opt for MS first and J-disc second mostly because of the bulkiness of the J-disc over the MS.

If you put mics closer to the front of your head (ie., over your temples), hat worn mics can sound good on both speakers and headphones.  I believe this is the idea pioneered by GuySonic on this board.

  Richard

[Gutbucket]

Capture the feeling of street space, the openness of the busking environment - J-disc or head worn omnis instead of anything coincident. You'll be there smelling the diesel exhaust again as the bus passes.

[boojum]

I have done binaural with SoundMan DK mics in my ears: true binaural.  The sound played back through earphones is eerily real.  A passing truck in on a track I had recorded scared the living crap out of me.

[Will_S]

Thanks for the replies.  I guess I'll run my Sennheiser MKE2s HRTF, and also my LSD2 m/s for a few takes and Blumlein for a few more.  I was actually really looking for suggestions on placement, i.e. how far from the performers and how far apart should they be?  I guess I'll need to get right on top of them if it's unamplified.

[crackmc]

i've been wondering about this recently, too...i got a job in SF recently. i'm in the Powell Street BART station twice every day, and there's almost always a busker there doing something cool. so far i've seen:

an old Mexican guy with a cowboy hat and an acoustic guitar playing Rancheras
a 4-piece a cappella gospel ensemble
a guy with a harmonica/electric guitar/drum machine
a bunch of solo guitarists & sax players
a handful of crackheads preaching verses from the crackhead bible

i've been considering getting a larger Pelican case with wheels so i can take my rig to work every day.

[SmokinJoe]

If it's nice and quiet in the middle of a park, away from traffic, put a blumlein rig between them, that would probably be superb...

But if you are on the sidewalk of a busy street, my gut feeling is that omnis and blumlein will pick up too much external noise, and I would concentrate on trying to avoid that external noise.  I would use cards (or maybe even hypers), pointed directly at each performer... ideally they are standing side by side and you can run XY/DIN/NOS/AB pointed at them from a few feet away.

I'm not saying I'm right, but this is the strategy I would try first, and probably I would learn something from that so that I would get it right the 2nd or 3rd time.

[Will_S]

Keep the suggestions coming folks.

I should add, the artist wants the resultant recording to have the feel of being out on the street busking.  So some external noise is desirable, but I can still see how Blumlein or omnis would make it excessive.

[612]

Very cool thread. Working downtown Minneapolis there are people all up and down Nicollet. I've really wanted to try some stuff out with the SP-C4s.

+Ts all around

[digifish_music]

Any suggestions for taping buskers (street performers)?

An artist I've taped a few times wants a recording of him and a friend busking...it should definitely sound like they are out on the street, but still the music needs to be clear.  Acoustic guitar and fiddle, maybe some vocals too.

Looking for both configuration advice, also thoughts on placement.  Something with a single point LD stereo mic would be ideal, but also have cards, hypers, and omnis at my disposal although the omnis have to go into an iRiver analog in.

Thanks!

I'd go with binaural omnis....

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=38570