im trying to figure out the best mic config for a somewhat noisy bar/restaurant. the venue is 202 market in roanoke va and from past experience i may have to set up towards the back of the venue. i usually use ORTF or DIN90, so im considering something different to maybe make up for the not-so-ideal location. any help is appreciated. oh and BTW the band is blueground undergrass, and bluegrass/country rock type band and the venue is a small room with the stage/dining area on one side and a bar on the other(about 10 ft from stage right).
try a baffled A-B like a Jecklin disc or other barrier
http://tinyurl.com/6y25yv
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http://tinyurl.com/3ssgu5
Have you run cards ORTF and DIN from the not-so-ideal location before? Did you like the results, generally? Those configs have a sterephonic recording angle (SRA) of ~±50º. If you liked the ORTF (17cm / 90º) / DIN (20 cm / 90º) results from that less than location, but found they had too much reverberant sound, you might try a config with similar SRA. For example, 30cm / 45º has a similar SRA of ~±50º, but since the included angle is smaller, more of the sound from the music is on-axis, and more of the reverberant sound is off-axis.
(There's a link to the Stereophonic Zoom stickied at the top of the forum, if you want to explore other spreads / angles and their associated SRAs.)
...or you can ask for a SBD patch as I do believe they are cool w/ that.
...DINa always works for me in those situations, but as Brian mentioned, if you work the angles, you can get rid of the garbage
FWIW, many small bars will only run a few instruments through the board (vox and keys, for example)