Topic: Recording stand up comedians

[Nigeria]

I have a few Robin Williams shows coming up that i'm considering. I have never been to a live stand up show before.
Any tips as to how to make this come out alright?
I will be using my friends iRiver with CSB's.
I know, boring cheap rig, but it gets the job done.

[rhinowing]

get as close to a stack as possible

[travelinbeat]

I'd advise that you keep in mind that you are there to record the comedian, not the crowd...  What I mean is, set your levels to the volume of the comedian's voice; I suspect that the laughter and applause will be WAY louder than the performance, in my opinion I would rather have way clipped laughter which I'll envelope down in post-production than a way too quite comedian (who should be the focus of the recording) who's quality may well become distorted when amplified later. 

That' just may two cents.

And, of course, the above reply is super logical aswell-- as the closer the better.

[sec1968]

I recorded Gilbert Gottfried last month at a small casino. Aside from Gilbert not being all that funny IMO until the very end, I had 2 OVERLY loud assholes just being hysterically loud while laughing which pissed me off to no end. I wasn't able to move and even if I could they were going to be "visible" no matter what.

So keep in mind you'll still have to deal with stupid people in this stealth situation like you would for music!!

shane

[Nigeria]

I'm hoping that the crowd will be a little more mature than your normal stand up gig at a hole in the wall.
It's going to be at the grand ole opry in nashville.

[Nigeria]

My seat location is in the *edit* on the *edit* near the *edit* of the *edit*.
I'm thinking it should be loud enough there. Never been to the venue before.

[DaveG73]

You might want to edit your previous 2 posts given that we are talking about a low profile recording.

Never know who is reading here.

Dave.

[Nigeria]

I'm not really paranoid about these things. I've posted on other boards about this stuff before and have never been caught. Besides, it's a relatively small city. But if you're implying that there's rats here, i'll edit it anyway.

[morst]

I'd advise that you keep in mind that you are there to record the comedian, not the crowd... 

This is true

What I mean is, set your levels to the volume of the comedian's voice; I suspect that the laughter and applause will be WAY louder than the performance, in my opinion I would rather have way clipped laughter which I'll envelope down in post-production than a way too quite comedian (who should be the focus of the recording) who's quality may well become distorted when amplified later. 

That' just may two cents.

I could not disagree more completely with this advice. Clipping is much more likely to produce annoying distortion than post-production amplification.
 Set levels so that clapping and laughter are not peaking "over" and then reduce dynamic range in post production using a limiter plugin.

And, of course, the above reply is super logical aswell-- as the closer the better.

Yes. Taping the speaker stack will give you a sound as close to a SBD feed as possible, and the loudness of the PA system should overcome the sound of the "distractions" of the crowd response.