Topic: What's a good set-up for bar gigs?

[greggorypeccary]

Hey tapers, I'm new here but I've been enjoying your work for over 20 years now - thanks!

I'm looking for a set up to record practices and bar gigs for the band I play with.  I'm looking at the Tascam DR-07, or Edirol r-09 and starting out with the built-in mics, at least to set in the room for practice, but I know I'll want better quality mics to record gigs. 

What do the pros here recommend?  I'd like to keep it under $500, and small, something we can just set up in the corner of the bar with a friend and let run for the night.  I just want to get decent sounding recording so we have something to put on our website, listen to for evaluation, etc.

Thanks for any suggestions, and keep up the good work! 

[run_run_run]

AT 853s

[sunjan]

I'm looking at the Tascam DR-07, or Edirol r-09 and starting out with the built-in mics, at least to set in the room for practice, but I know I'll want better quality mics to record gigs. 

You'd be running mic-in directly without preamp? Church Cards +  mic stand/clamps.
Line in with outboard pre? Church combo (Cards +  ST-9100) + mic stand/clamps.
Still way below $500, and good enough for your needs.

[fleish]

AT 853s

[Church-Audio]

Hey tapers, I'm new here but I've been enjoying your work for over 20 years now - thanks!

I'm looking for a set up to record practices and bar gigs for the band I play with.  I'm looking at the Tascam DR-07, or Edirol r-09 and starting out with the built-in mics, at least to set in the room for practice, but I know I'll want better quality mics to record gigs. 

What do the pros here recommend?  I'd like to keep it under $500, and small, something we can just set up in the corner of the bar with a friend and let run for the night.  I just want to get decent sounding recording so we have something to put on our website, listen to for evaluation, etc.

Thanks for any suggestions, and keep up the good work! 

I would start with the R-09HR and a battery box and a pair of mics. That should be well under $500.00

[run_run_run]

Church Audio Cards, the 14s or 11s would also make a fine choice. Do some listening because you really can't say 853s are better or worse then CA mics its all taste.

[greggorypeccary]

Thanks for the suggestions!  So I assume, generally, that cards would be better than omnis for this sort of thing?

[Belexes]

Cards in small bars, to try and cut down on the chatter.

[SmokinJoe]

Yes, cards.  I'm partial to AT853's but I've used Church audio CA11's and CA14's and they are a very good value.

Gear is important, but how you use it is more important.  When I hear "set up at a corner of the bar with a friend" I think "you are going to get a lot of drunken chatter".  I record in a lot of chatty bars.

My suggestion on improving your signal to noise ratio is to get closer to the music source.  Since you are in the band, you can do what you want, when most of us can't.  The average bar band has drums in the back, centered, a vocalist with a mic stand front and center, and guitar and bass off to the side.  If that roughly describes you, your best bet might be to clamp a small set of mics on that vocalist's mic stand, about waist high.  You might get a bit too much drums, but you won't get as chatter.  The reason I mention this because now you will want to think about size of mics, and how you will mount them.  I've done this a few times and it works pretty well.

A lot of musicians seem to like the Zoom H2.  I haven't used one, but other people seem to like them.  It's about the same size as the R09, but the mics built in are directional instead of omnis, so you can set it down with the mics pointing at the band and you will pick up more of what you want, and less of what you don't want.  I think most almost everyone will say that the R09 has better electronics than the H2, and that's probably true, but it's also costs twice as much.  The mics help determine the overall sound more than the recorder. If you have a budget of $500... don't spend $400 on the recorder and $100 on mics... spend $250 on mics, $50 on a battery box, and $200 on recorder.

I expect this is a really great set of mics for the money.  The form factor might be kind of odd, but you can probably figure that out.  Put AA betteries in them, get a Y cable to run into your recorder, and you should be all set.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Audio-Technica-AT855-Condensor-Microphones-Matched-Pair_W0QQitemZ320350370280QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item320350370280&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A570%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A7%7C294%3A50

Just my 2 cents worth.

[greggorypeccary]

Thanks for the response joe!  How we set up really depends on the bar, and that will govern where I put the recorder too.  I know sometimes I'll get good results and other times, not so much.  I've looked at the H2 and it just feels way too cheep to me.  I've also read about some issues with plugging external mics in.  I'm going to go out and put my hands on all the different options and see what I like best. 

As for mics, I definitely agree that that is where the bulk of the budget should go.  I do some home recording so I've tried some different mics in different placements and am always amazed as to how easily the recorded sound can be changed. 

[atleast6characters]

AT 853s

& SER crowd control, stand guards. Hire elwood.

[atleast6characters]

853's bar gig'd

http://www.archive.org/details/thebrew2009-01-23.AT-853.flac16

[run_run_run]

AT 853s

& SER crowd control, stand guards. Hire elwood.

Would Dave reimburse me personally?

[atleast6characters]

^ no. He'll de-imburse

[BC]

How about an AT822 or 825?

http://www.audio-technica.com/cgi-bin/product_search/wired_mics/mics_by_type.pl?product_type=Microphones%3A+Stereo

These run off battery power so it seems like you would just need a recorder and the appropriate cable adapters. Please correct me if I'm wrong as I haven't run one of these hands-on.