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Gear / Technical Help => Microphones & Setup => Topic started by: cashandkerouac on May 18, 2011, 05:45:48 PM
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Monday and Tuesday I was at the Great American Music Hall (GAMH) recording the Melvins and all went very well, but the GAMH is a very old historic building, the venue does not allow use of mic stands (on the floor or in the balcony), and the balcony does not have the accomodations that we've come to expect in most venues.
a) there is no balcony railing, so clamping onto a rail is not an option.
b) the ledge around all three sides of the balcony has an extremely shallow lip (only about 1/4"), so it's too shallow to accomodate a clamp.
The top of the ledge is deep enough to accomodate a mini tabletop tripod, but i don't own one... so i was basically caught with my pants down and had to quickly improvise with the materials in my backpack. Thank goodness for tape and interchageable pieces and parts. The attached picture shows the setup that i ended up using. It's pretty funny looking, but it performed beautifully.
I'll definitely be purchasing a mini tabletop tripod so I'm prepared for my next outing at the GAMH. Aside from sharing an interesting story and posting a funny picture, the real reason for the post is to find out what types of innovative setups others have used after arriving to the venue all ready to record only to find that the conditions are not what you expect.
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Glad I read this. I'm going to a show there in September and I'd like to record.
What do the locals do there? I'd like to be prepared.
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Glad I read this. I'm going to a show there in September and I'd like to record.
What do the locals do there? I'd like to be prepared.
i'm local to the Bay Area (i live in Oakland), but had never taped at the GAMH in an open taping situation. i just assumed that one of my clamps would work (and i was wrong). there were no other tapers that i saw (i'm sure there were a few people with stealth rigs, but no open taping rigs), so i can't tell you what other folks do. i'd say that if you come prepared with a mini tabletop tripod you'll be all set. if you choose to forego the mini tripod you better have some tape ;D. also, be aware that the GAMH can be picky about open taping even for bands that allow it. best of luck. who are you going to see at the GAMH?
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There is a tiny place in St. Pete Florida, like 9' across, and maybe 25' deep (but almost 12' ceilings). In the back there was a really tiny storage room that was maybe 5'x5' and 9' tall, even had a small ceiling so I extended my 396 arm, put the superclamp on the back, and slid it up on top of the ceiling of the short room in a canterlever type plan. It sort of looks like I'm clamped to a pole about 3' back from the edge but I'm not hooked to anything.
(http://imageshack.us/m/822/3350/20100409185448.jpg)
and standing on the stage looking toward the back of the room:
(http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/4264/20100409161319.jpg)
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There is a tiny place in St. Pete Florida, like 9' across, and maybe 25' deep (but almost 12' ceilings). In the back there was a really tiny storage room that was maybe 5'x5' and 9' tall, even had a small ceiling so I extended my 396 arm, put the superclamp on the back, and slid it up on top of the ceiling of the short room in a canterlever type plan. It sort of looks like I'm clamped to a pole about 3' back from the edge but I'm not hooked to anything.
page: what place is that? i grew up in Sarasota, just down the road about 40 minutes.
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There is a tiny place in St. Pete Florida, like 9' across, and maybe 25' deep (but almost 12' ceilings). In the back there was a really tiny storage room that was maybe 5'x5' and 9' tall, even had a small ceiling so I extended my 396 arm, put the superclamp on the back, and slid it up on top of the ceiling of the short room in a canterlever type plan. It sort of looks like I'm clamped to a pole about 3' back from the edge but I'm not hooked to anything.
page: what place is that? i grew up in Sarasota, just down the road about 40 minutes.
The Rock n Roll Academy or something like that. The building is split down the middle and the inner bay side is what you see while music lessons are conducted on the other side. I gather they hold shows there as fundraisers to subsidize lessons for kids.
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I'm nearly a year late for your show, but ...
At the GAMH, my favorite method is to
- Go to the rear of the left balcony (near the toilets so there's a little light and it doesn't get crowded)
- Clamp an extendable pole onto a *chair* (and put my bag on the chair so it's heavier)
- Run a safety cable (usually a nylon strap) to a second chair just 'cause I'm flying over people's heads
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I'm nearly a year late for your show, but ...
At the GAMH, my favorite method is to
- Go to the rear of the left balcony (near the toilets so there's a little light and it doesn't get crowded)
- Clamp an extendable pole onto a *chair* (and put my bag on the chair so it's heavier)
- Run a safety cable (usually a nylon strap) to a second chair just 'cause I'm flying over people's heads
Chairs, really? I dunno what kind of chairs they have up there, but all I can picture in my head is the worst-case-failure-scenario where gear followed by a chair or two goes sailing over a railing and into the crowd below :-\
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Yeah, chairs. When I first considered it I thought, "No way, that's crazy" for just those reasons. Then I futzed with trying to attach to the wooden rail with no lip or use my tabletop tripod or folding the magic arm around into some kind of mini stand to put on the "rail" or table there.
I wasn't happy though 'cause none of that was secure. If I clamped on the rail too hard the wood could be damaged and could easily give way and putting it on some mini-stand meant that it was easy for someone to nudge it or, even, pick it up and toss it over on a whim. No likey.
Attaching to chairs means that there's a lot more weight on the chair end and even with equipment failure someone's going to have to intentionally pick up the chair and toss it over to get my mics to fall. On top of that my bag or I will be sitting on it, so they'll have to fight me too. (I can think of lots of permutations on the idiot scenario but they all involve an idiot and intention. And, regardless of what I do, if Idiot has decided my gear's going over, it's going over.)
FWIW, this won't work well in other parts of the GAMH because people want to get there and stay in the other parts. Here, sight lines are bad *and* people don't want to hang out in the light near the toilets.
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I hear ya. I don't think it's really likely, my head just went straight to the WCS. Nevermind sightlines & toilets, if it sounds good (y)