Topic: Omnis or cards or both for that particular venue and spot ? (pics inside)

[fandelive]

Hi everyone,

I'll be attending an intimate show in a very special venue tomorrow and I'd like some advices. The stage setup will only consists in a singer with his acoustic guitar and a pianist. No bass, no drums. Both will be amplified tought.
The best seats were already gone when I bought mine. I won't have the opportunity to move to a better spot while at the show, so I'll have to deal with that.

The venue looks like it has been acoustically built for that kind of performances. I have high hopes that the sound rendition will be near perfect.

So here are two pictures of the venue with my seat marked by a cross. Which do you think will be the best mic choice ?
I'll be wearing the mics on a hat.

Many thanks

[bryonsos]

Seems like a perfect situation for omnis, but I always say that.

[yates7592]

I'm an omni nut but instictively looking at that picture and knowing its going to be not loud without bass or drums and hence increased audience noise possibly I would say cards, or even better, both. How far back is your seat?

[jagraham]

If running 4ch is plausible then go ahead and do that if you want. But if you were to choose one or the other, I would personally go with cards due to the reasons above(crowd, somewhat quiet show). In my personal experience, I find a lot of places "acoustically designed for best sound" really don't sound all that good, especially in regards to cards vs omnis. It's possible the omnis pick up quite a bit of roomy sound, but it's all subjective.

[adrianf74]

This is tough... regardless of pattern choice, the crowd will likely be louder than the performance; keeping that in mind, I'd likely choose omnis for this one based on the venue acoustics but would run both patterns if it's doable (call it an insurance policy if you must).

[fandelive]

Many thanks to all for your help. I'm back from the concert.
I was really really really tempted to use omnis because of the venue being acoustically built for that kind of stripped down performance that I attended.

BUT I finally choosed to run cards, which ended up being the right decision because :
* quiet show = increased crowd noise (best advice - sooo true)
* cards were theorically better suited when taping from my spot anyway

Results are stellar. Thank you very much !

[capnhook]

Many thanks to all for your help. I'm back from the concert.
I was really really really tempted to use omnis because of the venue being acoustically built for that kind of stripped down performance that I attended.

BUT I finally choosed to run cards, which ended up being the right decision because :
* quiet show = increased crowd noise (best advice - sooo true)
* cards were theorically better suited when taping from my spot anyway

Results are stellar. Thank you very much !

Great news....good job fandelive   

[Marshall7]

"The best seats were already gone..."

I don't know, that looked like a pretty damn good seat location to me.

[fandelive]

"The best seats were already gone..."

I don't know, that looked like a pretty damn good seat location to me.

It was a pretty damn good spot to run cards.
Omnis would certainly have been a better choice when taping from the front rows section (that's what I wanted to say).

[2manyrocks]

It seems to me that the problem is that a venue like this is large enough that the sound is dependent on the PA system including the mics and sound engineer.  Even if you were on the front row, omnis might not have been optimal  depending on where the musicians were on the stage, how loud they played, how far away you were seated, where the PA speakers were located, and the audience noise around you.  And it's not like you get a sound check where you get to decide on which mics to use after listening to comparison recordings. 

[rocksuitcase]

On a related note: that venue LOOKS cool. I hope it sounded as good as it looks.

[bombdiggity]

Looks like quite a room.  I'd have been pretty happy with that spot since you needed the PA to capture it right.  I'm all card, all the time