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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: greggorypeccary on April 06, 2009, 08:38:56 PM

Title: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: greggorypeccary on April 06, 2009, 08:38:56 PM
Hey tapers, I'm new here but I've been enjoying your work for over 20 years now - thanks!

I'm looking for a set up to record practices and bar gigs for the band I play with.  I'm looking at the Tascam DR-07, or Edirol r-09 and starting out with the built-in mics, at least to set in the room for practice, but I know I'll want better quality mics to record gigs. 

What do the pros here recommend?  I'd like to keep it under $500, and small, something we can just set up in the corner of the bar with a friend and let run for the night.  I just want to get decent sounding recording so we have something to put on our website, listen to for evaluation, etc.

Thanks for any suggestions, and keep up the good work! 
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: run_run_run on April 06, 2009, 10:52:53 PM
AT 853s
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: sunjan on April 07, 2009, 03:29:02 AM
I'm looking at the Tascam DR-07, or Edirol r-09 and starting out with the built-in mics, at least to set in the room for practice, but I know I'll want better quality mics to record gigs. 

You'd be running mic-in directly without preamp? Church Cards +  mic stand/clamps.
Line in with outboard pre? Church combo (Cards +  ST-9100) + mic stand/clamps.
Still way below $500, and good enough for your needs.
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: fleish on April 07, 2009, 02:06:51 PM
AT 853s
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: Church-Audio on April 07, 2009, 03:09:05 PM
Hey tapers, I'm new here but I've been enjoying your work for over 20 years now - thanks!

I'm looking for a set up to record practices and bar gigs for the band I play with.  I'm looking at the Tascam DR-07, or Edirol r-09 and starting out with the built-in mics, at least to set in the room for practice, but I know I'll want better quality mics to record gigs. 

What do the pros here recommend?  I'd like to keep it under $500, and small, something we can just set up in the corner of the bar with a friend and let run for the night.  I just want to get decent sounding recording so we have something to put on our website, listen to for evaluation, etc.

Thanks for any suggestions, and keep up the good work! 

I would start with the R-09HR and a battery box and a pair of mics. That should be well under $500.00
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: run_run_run on April 07, 2009, 04:12:32 PM
Church Audio Cards, the 14s or 11s would also make a fine choice. Do some listening because you really can't say 853s are better or worse then CA mics its all taste.

Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: greggorypeccary on April 07, 2009, 08:54:12 PM
Thanks for the suggestions!  So I assume, generally, that cards would be better than omnis for this sort of thing?
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: Belexes on April 07, 2009, 09:24:02 PM
Cards in small bars, to try and cut down on the chatter.
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: SmokinJoe on April 07, 2009, 10:24:56 PM
Yes, cards.  I'm partial to AT853's but I've used Church audio CA11's and CA14's and they are a very good value.

Gear is important, but how you use it is more important.  When I hear "set up at a corner of the bar with a friend" I think "you are going to get a lot of drunken chatter".  I record in a lot of chatty bars.

My suggestion on improving your signal to noise ratio is to get closer to the music source.  Since you are in the band, you can do what you want, when most of us can't.  The average bar band has drums in the back, centered, a vocalist with a mic stand front and center, and guitar and bass off to the side.  If that roughly describes you, your best bet might be to clamp a small set of mics on that vocalist's mic stand, about waist high.  You might get a bit too much drums, but you won't get as chatter.  The reason I mention this because now you will want to think about size of mics, and how you will mount them.  I've done this a few times and it works pretty well.

A lot of musicians seem to like the Zoom H2.  I haven't used one, but other people seem to like them.  It's about the same size as the R09, but the mics built in are directional instead of omnis, so you can set it down with the mics pointing at the band and you will pick up more of what you want, and less of what you don't want.  I think most almost everyone will say that the R09 has better electronics than the H2, and that's probably true, but it's also costs twice as much.  The mics help determine the overall sound more than the recorder. If you have a budget of $500... don't spend $400 on the recorder and $100 on mics... spend $250 on mics, $50 on a battery box, and $200 on recorder.

I expect this is a really great set of mics for the money.  The form factor might be kind of odd, but you can probably figure that out.  Put AA betteries in them, get a Y cable to run into your recorder, and you should be all set.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Audio-Technica-AT855-Condensor-Microphones-Matched-Pair_W0QQitemZ320350370280QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item320350370280&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A570%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A7%7C294%3A50

Just my 2 cents worth.
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: greggorypeccary on April 08, 2009, 08:34:03 AM
Thanks for the response joe!  How we set up really depends on the bar, and that will govern where I put the recorder too.  I know sometimes I'll get good results and other times, not so much.  I've looked at the H2 and it just feels way too cheep to me.  I've also read about some issues with plugging external mics in.  I'm going to go out and put my hands on all the different options and see what I like best. 

As for mics, I definitely agree that that is where the bulk of the budget should go.  I do some home recording so I've tried some different mics in different placements and am always amazed as to how easily the recorded sound can be changed. 


Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: atleast6characters on April 08, 2009, 11:14:14 AM
AT 853s

& SER crowd control, stand guards. Hire elwood.
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: atleast6characters on April 08, 2009, 11:15:51 AM
853's bar gig'd

http://www.archive.org/details/thebrew2009-01-23.AT-853.flac16
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: run_run_run on April 08, 2009, 01:11:09 PM
AT 853s

& SER crowd control, stand guards. Hire elwood.
Would Dave reimburse me personally?
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: atleast6characters on April 08, 2009, 01:42:39 PM
^ no. He'll de-imburse
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: BC on April 09, 2009, 02:25:39 PM
How about an AT822 or 825?

http://www.audio-technica.com/cgi-bin/product_search/wired_mics/mics_by_type.pl?product_type=Microphones%3A+Stereo

These run off battery power so it seems like you would just need a recorder and the appropriate cable adapters. Please correct me if I'm wrong as I haven't run one of these hands-on.



Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: rastasean on April 09, 2009, 02:58:30 PM
How about an AT822 or 825?

http://www.audio-technica.com/cgi-bin/product_search/wired_mics/mics_by_type.pl?product_type=Microphones%3A+Stereo

These run off battery power so it seems like you would just need a recorder and the appropriate cable adapters. Please correct me if I'm wrong as I haven't run one of these hands-on.





While I did hear a pretty decent sounding ween recording on LMA using an AT822, I don't think it would be the best. If you can get one for a good price, go for it but new they are ~$250 whereas you could go with the other options listed above for that much.

The mic is more for stereo ENG applications and it works well at that. 
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: deadheadcorey on April 09, 2009, 05:15:19 PM
you could always just patch out of the soundboard. if you are looking for aud recording, i suggest that you go with the church audio setup
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: greggorypeccary on April 09, 2009, 06:31:08 PM
you could always just patch out of the soundboard. if you are like for aud recording, i suggest that you go with the church audio setup

I wish!  We play places where we "garageband" it.  The only thing in the PA is vocals and maybe a bit of kick drum.

I was looking at recorders at Sam Ash today and the dude there told me they were having a 20% off sale this Saturday.  I'll probably be getting the recorder there and take a little time to further research the mics.
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: deadheadcorey on April 09, 2009, 08:29:54 PM
you could always just patch out of the soundboard. if you are like for aud recording, i suggest that you go with the church audio setup

I wish!  We play places where we "garageband" it.  The only thing in the PA is vocals and maybe a bit of kick drum.

I was looking at recorders at Sam Ash today and the dude there told me they were having a 20% off sale this Saturday.  I'll probably be getting the recorder there and take a little time to further research the mics.


if you are looking for some decent mics with a cheap price tag, check out the avantones ck-1s.

Edirol r-09 is good one, Micortrack 1 or 2 is good, i love the iriver series
Title: Re: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?
Post by: BC on April 10, 2009, 05:24:59 PM

Edirol r-09 is good one, Micortrack 1 or 2 is good, i love the iriver series

I gotta say that I am not that happy with my microtrack1, the thing is a POS that works most of the time but is flaky. Feels like a toy.