Topic: Live Band Small Bar Setup?

[Shadow_7]

That's a bit of a tight squeeze.  It also appears to have high ceilings.  So low tech solutions are pretty much out.  Access to the more ideal realestate by mic stand alone.  Or human subbing in as a mic stand.  Which gets old quick if you want the whole set and not just a key song or two.  Taking a feed from the mixer is probably as good as it gets.

You could rig up some 9'-15' mic stand with a boom arm to swing over the band.  But you'd probably have to tuck a leg under one of the heavier amps.  Not ideal as those vibrations translate through the stand.  And shock mounting a H4n or other recorder might be easier said than done.  Plus suspending the recorder from the boom arm.  With all necessary safety precautions of course.  Extra crazy since the bathrooms seem to be right next to and behind the stage.

I'm used to more converted bowling alley type bars.  Where the stage is a divot in the structure between a storage room and the kitchen, followed by the bathrooms and pool tables all down a long stretch of a bar.  But still a relatively small bar.  At best 3x pool tables.  Normally 1 or 2.  With the usual 12' ceilings with 9' of human space after the drop ceiling.  A couple of cheap clamps and some string or coat hangers to rig up just off the ceiling there.  And fairly safe outside of any wild arm flailing type dancers.  Or 7' basketball types.  Obviously not an option for you.

[Gutbucket]

Go with your initial thought.  Zoom on a waist high-ish stand somewhere around the front of the stage with a clear view of the bass amp and drums, and hopefully the guitar amp as well.  Move it off center so your body doesn't block it's sightline to the drum kit, especially the snare.  Record the PA feed to the additional stereo track on the Zoom for vocal reinforcement.  Use only the one recorder to save yourself the agravation of alignment and sync.. if you want to run the second recorder, run it seperately slightly farther back in the room where you get the best combined sound from an audience perspective including the PA.

The most challenging part could be keeping the drunk erotic dancer away from the waist high recorder on a stick.

[HarpNinjaMike]

Go with your initial thought.  Zoom on a waist high-ish stand somewhere around the front of the stage with a clear view of the bass amp and drums, and hopefully the guitar amp as well.  Move it off center so your body doesn't block it's sightline to the drum kit, especially the snare.  Record the PA feed to the additional stereo track on the Zoom for vocal reinforcement.  Use only the one recorder to save yourself the agravation of alignment and sync.. if you want to run the second recorder, run it seperately slightly farther back in the room where you get the best combined sound from an audience perspective including the PA.

The most challenging part could be keeping the drunk erotic dancer away from the waist high recorder on a stick.

Sounds like a plan.  This will be very easy for me to setup and arrange...barring drunk people.  At least it will be close enough to the band to catch if need be, lol.

[HarpNinjaMike]

Got there and it was wall to wall people...there was no way I was going to have time/resources to set up the Zoom and figure out the PA out to the recorder....I sorta panicked as I was not sure how to get a feed from the PA and was in such a rush, I had no time to experiment.  Added to that was an issue getting my monitor to work.

I set up the Zoom in front of the band and got a wonderful bass/drum mix.  The guitar amp was in a bad spot for the recorder.  The vocals were ok, but the mains were so high, I wasn't getting much with the mic volume set so low since it was close to the bass/drums.

I had thought about putting it in the room and getting a room recording, but there were so many people - many not sober - I didn't want to risk it.  Between sets, I was so busy talking to people I put off trying to experiment further.  At the end of the night, I took some time to figure out the PA head and could totally take a line from the PA next time. 

I would have never thought of having the recorder so close to the band like that, but the bass/drums sounded fantastic on the Zoom.  I loved having the recorder close to the band for its safety, and we had plenty of outlets so I didn't have to use batteries.  Awesome!!!  Thanks!!!

[Chris K]

did you figure out the qsc monitor issue?

Next time you rehearse take a bit of time beforehand to set up the recorder just like you would for a gig. It will help calm yernerves next time and remember practice makes perfect.