Topic: Gear testing/practicing...

[funk_pie]

I'm up at my brother's house this weekend and since I'm kinda looking for a new set of mics and a little practice with the new jb3, I'm going to do a comparison test on some mics at my brother's sound gig tomorrow.  He borrowed a C1000 to go along with the one he already has, and I've got my sony ms907 single point.   *ms907 vs. C1000s*    battling it out!!!   .  i haven't heard either mic set through the chain I'll be running:  by bro's m-audio mobile pre to my jb3.  i've always been mic-in with the single point to an MD up till now, so i'll see what the mobile pre is like as well.   i was thinking switching mics out between sets and than if there's a third set, try a different mic configuration with the C1000's.  I'll try to keep the other things I can control as constant I can.  I've been taping shows here and there since early '02, but a newbie on running a preamp, but I'm pretty sure you start at 0 and go up from there and brother Bill will be there for support.  Any comments, advice, recommendations?  mic configurations to try with the C1000s?  I'm not sure what the room will look like, but I think it will be in a small to medium sized pub, hopefully with the board in a good spot, as I'll be setting up near the board to power for the mobile pre BUS style from my bro's laptop. 

[funk_pie]

yeah so anyway, test was a disaster/non existant.  small club, hardley anyone there, set up DFC, about 20 ft from the stage, crowd noise will be minimal if any.  hook it up and the jb3 is not getting a level.      so, checking connections and everything looks fine.  just can't figure it out.  switch from 1/8" out to 1/4" out.  nothing.  switch from stereo mic in to XLR in.  nothing.  I check the jb3 with straight mic in, bypassing the mobile pre.  levels are up.  patch to the soundboard.  levels are up.  Bill opens soundforge and records through the mobile pre to the lappy.  levels are great.  he's used the thing many times to the lappy, but never for what I was trying to do. we still don't know why it didn't work, but not a big deal.  I wasn't planning on getting one of these anyway.  But, kinda upset as the room sounded pretty darn good, bill had the band sounding good, the mics were set up in a perfect place, and the minimal crowd chatter due to the sparse crowd would have made for a great comparison test.       oh well.