Topic: jam session setup - best mic config?

[kgreener]

Scenario:  I'm recording (and playing congas & percussion in) an improvisatory jam session in a big barn studio next week.  Most of these folks are jazz musician's, and for the most part everyone will be setup facing each other in sort of a "circle" (I use that term loosely...they might be gettin' down anywhere in the room for all I know).  This will include anything from a grand piano, to electric guitar, to bass, to drums, to sax, to you-name-it (vocals are not expected).

My question:  what all-encompassing mic configuration should I use to record this?  Set 'em up high above everybody and point 'em down, or go low and use an "on stage" technique?  BTW, this is a carpeted studio with high ceiling and acoustical tiles all around, not sure if this will make a difference where the mics should go.  Oh yeah, I will be using a matched pair of Josephson C42's running to my wmod UA-5 > JB3 as well.

So...any thoughts or ideas on this would really be appreciated.  Thanks man.

peace

[jpschust]

oh man, one of the few times a pair of figure 8's would be really handy.  

[kgreener]

Wow jpschust, that's a great observation, figure of eight's would work great in this situation.  As I don't have a pair of figure of eight's, what's the next best config using two small condensers?  I realize it ain't gonna be perfect, but I'm just trying to maximize what I've got.

thanks

[jpschust]

what might serve you best would be to group people into two halves as best you can and to send one mic each way- mix down into a mono mix, you can run a stereo mix, however i think you may be losing some of whats going on. running xy vertically might do something- im just thinking creatively here

[kgreener]

dude, your creative thinking is fantastic!  this is really getting my wheels turning too.  setting up folks in two halves actually is what will probably happen.  the last time i recorded there we did just that, had two guitarists and a bassist facing two drummers and a percussionist.  I mounted the mics in the middle and kinda pointed the mics down on 45 deg angles toward each side, and then crossed my fingers.  It came out pretty decent all things considered, but yeah, there was something missing.  i didn't think it was as vibrant or up front as it could be, and a bit "distant".

i like your vertical xy idea a lot, that sounds very intriguing!  i've been searching rec.audio and someone else mentioned running xy, but they did not mention the vertical part.  but vertical makes sense.  i assume if i ran this i would keep the mics down low?  or up high and point them down?  I have a Shure vert so this shouldn't be a problem.

not sure i understand the other part about one mic each way...is this kind of like what I described what I did last time, i.e. pointing them down to either side?

+T dude, thanks for the ideas, keep 'em coming!

[Simp-Dawg]

i'd say, if you can find a pair of adk tl's to borrow, run blumlein right in the middle.
otherwise, i'd run a "normal" config from over head...like say din, using the same idea of splitting the room into halves, except from up above.
also...since you have the ua-5, if you can find another pair of mics, you can run all of them at the same time, assuming you can find another pre that can feed into the ua-5's rca inputs and do 4 mics at once.
finally....if there's a mixer and some studio mics around...just mic everything and run a board feed!
good luck!

[kgreener]

another great idea, thanks Simp-Dawg.  Not sure if I can find any TL's to borrow, but I'll look around.  I reckon the normal DIN config from above might have to do for the time being.  Maybe I'll run my pair of AT853's into the rca's and set them up in a different config to offset the C42's and see what happens with that.

thanks again guys

[jpschust]

run them on an onstasge stand.  keep em low.  being in a small room will help in a strange way in that you should be getting a lot of bounce (unless its a phoneminal room) and that will create a wierd stereo thing going on

[kgreener]

jpschust, do you mean keep 'em low for the xy config or for the "din" config?  or both?

thanks again guys

[jpschust]

either config. id want them low