Topic: My First Soundboard show tonight? Newbie Central

[Hellion]

Good afternoon!  Tonight, I am going to see Great American Taxi in Dallas and I got the okay from the band to patch into their soundboard.  I am recording with an Olympus LS10 and I have never had the chance to record from the soundboard before.  I have yet to be able to afford a good set of external mics - so I was hoping that I would be able to pull down a better recording from the board than my internal mics.  The LS10 came with a cord which I believe was intended to bypass the speakers and alllow me to record directly into the recorder.  Both ends are the same size on the cable (small).

1. Is this cable something I should upgrade before tonight's show? If so - what should I look for?
2. Is there a certain size plug I need to hook up to the soundboard?
3. Is there anything I should be careful of while recording?
4. Am I better off using the mics that came with the LS10?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Chris

[runonce]

Non-device specific advice:

If there happens to be another taper with better gear and who knows a little more about what he's doing - let him have the board patch and you take the signal from him. And take notes.

[Hellion]

Sounds like great advice - thank you!

[run_run_run]

The board will likely have RCAs or 1/4ths or XLR outs and you need to get that to an 1/8th I'm guessing

[acidjack]

I would also add, as I tend to do, that unless the SBD feed is a custom feed prepared specifically to be recorded and listened to (vs. simply a feed of what's going to the PA), an SBD is probably not going to be all that useful.  Though admittedly, nor are internal mics.

To follow what runonce said, your best options, in order are:

1. Patch out of another taper using the mini>mini cable that I think you have.
2. Use internal mics
3. Patch out of SBD... though you will need lots of cables, potentially. At minimum you need nice long 1/4" to stereo mini.  You could also need anything from RCA>stereo mini to XLR(F)>stereo mini. 

If you are planning to record a lot of shows where you can't patch out of other tapers, I'd recommend buying some of your own inexpensive mics and a battery box, like one of the Church Audio setups or Sound Professionals' line of Audio Technica mics. 

Patching out of SBDs without having an AUD feed as well is, generally, not going to yield pleasant results.

[Hellion]

Thanks to everyone for the great advice - I did get what I felt was a good soundboard recording of Great American Taxi - at least for a newbie...  I'll try to get it up on the Archive early next week for anyone that is interested.  I did run into a very helpful taper at the show - He helped alot!  Thanks again to all of you for your advice and for all you do to help those getting started!

Chris