Topic: Videomics for LOUD live recordings

[Visionair]

Hi all,

This is my first post overhere.
I'm looking for a possible comfortabler way of videotaping concerts, both open and stealth.

I'm fairly new to this so I'm trying to be as specific as I can on where I am at the moment, I did a lot of reading though.
A while back I bought a dv camcorder because I got interested in videotaping events. After the first gig I taped I found out that the build in mics on camcorders are useless most of the time when it comes to filming loud concerts. Fortunately I was sitting in the back of the venue so the audio is far from perfect (distorted) but still audible. I upgraded cams by buying a Canon HV20 a little later and borrowed a Zoom H4 to record audio separately. The Zoom h4 gave me much better audio!
However I still feel I'm not completely happy with the way I work now and I need some advice.
First of all, you should know I work alone and would like to keep it that way when it comes to stealth situations.
I work now as follows:
I carry the Zoom in my jackets pocket, but while filming my arms block the mics of the Zoom a bit which obviously gives worse audio results when not. I also set up the H4 as an external mic for the HV20 but that leaves me still with the blocking problems.
Mounting the H4 to the HV20 is no option for me, because I find the H4 to big to mount.

Now my 2 questions:
1- How should the H4 be held to get the best audio recording? Vertically or horizontally pointing towards the stage? Or are both ways ok?
2- Let's say I would like to move on to a situation where I let go of the H4 and mount a small stereo mic to the camcorder. Is there any small stereo mic that can deliver a comparable audioquality to the H4? Keep in mind that I like to shoot from a balcony or the back from the venue and that I'm visiting LOUD (Heavy Metal) concerts.

Would love to hear some recommendations from experienced filmers.
I'm also open to other set-ups as long as don't have to give in on audio quality.

Grtz Visionair

[avrilfan]

Hi Visionair.

1 - I have used Zoom H2. I got best results when having it's microphones pointing the stage. Take a look at your recorder's manual, how the mics are placed here:
http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h4/
The recorder needs to be in horizontal position.

2 - If you mouth a small stereo microphone on the hv20, check what sort of input it has (Mic-in or line-in.). I have tried a lot of equipment and sound from videocameras was always bad. If it has mic-in, internal amplifier will perform bad compared to zoom h4. If it has line-in, you will still need an external amplifier or atleast battery box.

I would never let go Zoom H4 and use mounted mic plugged in the camera. I think that the best thing you can do is to get a pair of small microphones and mount them on a camera, but plug them in Zoom H4, which can be in your pocket. Or you can mount the mics on a hat or mouth them on glasses... In this case if you get caught taping, you can only take camera away and still record audio.

Hope that helped.

[Visionair]

Thank you for your input.
I will look into Chris' stuff. I found he has some mics for mini dv as well.

If somebody has more/ different suggestions, they are more then welcome.

[Jonas Karlsson]

Visionair: you got PM 

/Jonas "Jontebus" Karlsson