Topic: can i get your thoughts on taping a marching band??

[kingfish]

heres the deal, i will be taping a marching band this friday night.  i would like to get your ideas on what setup, though i dont think anything is going to be ideal.  its a room that is longer than it is wide, with a balcony upstairs with space to clamp.

the real difficulty here is that the band actually marches during the show.  not all of them at once, mind you, but if you take your eyes off the stage, all of a sudden there are 4 trumpet players behind you.  i have nak 300's, and was going to run in the middle of the floor as high as i can with omni caps.

or i could run cards, aim them at the front, and rent from a local av supplier a pair of at 853's and run them into my d8 (the naks feeding the mt24/96)

or should i run the cards from the balcony hoping that noone gets behind me, and just hope to capture everything that goes down on the floor.

thoughts??

[George2]

Put the Omnis on seperate stands about 5-6 ft. apart right in front of the band. If you go too high, there won't be any depth in the recording, it'll sound flat from everyone being the same distance from the mics. Omnis will have a more natural sound, especially during the audience's applause. Forget about miking the trumpets in the back, unless you have more than 2 tracks and you want to go through the setup trouble......and then mix them in later.

[SparkE!]

Baffled omnis as high as you can reasonably run them would give you a recording that would sound right over speakers or headphones.

[kingfish]

thanks.  i am gonna run the omnis about 1/3 of the way back.  if it turns out decent enough, i will post the show on bt.etree next week.