Topic: Newbie looking to improve on recording setup and results

[rocksuitcase]

^ I don't think anyone really cares anymore about openly talking about stealth. There's threads about what IEM that Bob Dylan is using, etc. The days of keep stealth stealth are long gone.

I love you guys......

[fanofjam]

^ I don't think anyone really cares anymore about openly talking about stealth. There's threads about what IEM that Bob Dylan is using, etc. The days of keep stealth stealth are long gone.

Long ago, I practiced the 'keep stealth stealth' advice, but I've done a 180.  To wit...

1) In my 25 years here on ts.com, I've only known of one instance, maybe 10 - 12 years ago, where a club owner cared enough about stealth tapers to come on ts.com and 'discover' what people were talking about and try to use that information to combat the run-of-the-mill stealth taper.  And even in this case, there were no consequences.  I think that club owner came on here a couple of times and bitched.  Otherwise, I don't remember that he used any information gained here to actually ferret out and shut down stealth taping in his place.  In fact, IIRC it just ended up costing him patrons because tapers ended up just staying away from his joint.

2) As discussed here many times before, it's debatable as to the illegality of ANY live music recording in an undercover manner...every situation merits its own considerations.  Furthermore, for bands and venue's that allow taping, it's fair to say that it's completely OK to wear your recording rig.  Lots of people simply like having taper anonymity.

3) Really, if you're good at doing it and have a small enough rig that's not going to set off the metal detectors, what difference does it make if anyone knows what our best undercover techniques are?  It's kind of like if you were naked in a crowd, but invisible...nobody notices and and nobody cares. 

4) Who are we kidding thinking that we're all this close-knit secret society of like-minded 'tapers' that share secrets, only amongst ourselves, over the internet that nobody else that's not a taper can figure out.  As if, using a symbol like  is going to fool anyone that's trying to figure out how to keep stealth stealth.  Or if someone really wanted to discover some secret decoder ring language or ours (DIN, DINa, NOS anyone?), they couldn't pose as a taper to figure out our most super secret James Bond 007 recording techniques.

5) Most of the information we share about undercover taping is just common sense.  It's not like there's a whole stealth technology revolution happening and there's certainly no trade secrets being given away.

My two cents...which is always what my opinion is worth.

[VibrationOfLife]

I don't tape stealth for personal reasons, but I find the discussion and debate about sharing basic practices about it amusing.  Does anyone want a link to how to synthesize DMT?

[opsopcopolis]

I've never cared about openly discussing stealth methods. It's all pretty obvious, and if somebody wants to try to find the one guy with mics in his shirt, he's welcome to check everybody with a shirt

[aaronji]

^ Finding the guy with the Kangol Ventair is a lot easier, however...

[rocksuitcase]

I don't tape stealth for personal reasons, but I find the discussion and debate about sharing basic practices about it amusing.  Does anyone want a link to how to synthesize DMT?

Well... that takes this thread in a different direction altogether!

[fanofjam]

^ Finding the guy with the Kangol Ventair is a lot easier, however...

Kinda like wearing black socks and sandals, or bermuda shorts with a plaid shirt

...or all three at once.

[cj.flac]

Well, I've abandoned the dummy idea. I might try using a foam head in the future, but who knows. Here's a standing rig I fashioned for a few shows coming soon - likely room for improvement here, but it seems functional.

AT943 cards w/4.7k mod on AT8438 stands -> SP-XLRM-MINI-2-PHANTOM -> Tascam DR-40X
CA-14 omnis -> Deity PR-2

on a 11" Utebit flash bracket attached to some tripod I can no longer find on Amazon. This will probably inhibit proper spacing, although I can angle the stands.

One of the things I like about this setup is that I can just pull the PR-2 and omnis off the tripod for more discreet use if the venue doesn't allow tripods to be brought in.
There's a lot of great information in this thread, thanks everyone!

[rhinowing]

Either way, you'll need to not turn your head much or you will hear that on the recording.  Omnis allow you to look up and down and nod your head or whatever without a problem, cardioids less so.

This is why I've ended up consistently opting for upper chest rather than head for mounting tiny omnis (and moved to 100% omni for stealth recording). Allows me to look around, bob my head, etc with little to no effect on the recording

Couldnt agree with this more. Set mics on shoulders and find a place where you dont have a person six inches in front of you. That said my recording philosophy is that enjoying the show is always more important than getting a good tape, so YMMV

[Niels]

Couldnt agree with this more. Set mics on shoulders and find a place where you dont have a person six inches in front of you. That said my recording philosophy is that enjoying the show is always more important than getting a good tape, so YMMV

Same. I have stopped putting my Ambeo headset in my ears. I clip them onto the front of my shoulders. Much more relaxing experience and a better recording.

[Gutbucket]

Liking your ability to adjust the upward angle of directional mics mounted atop the shoulders, Steve!

If anyone wishes to achieve a bit less rear pickup using omnis, mounting them at front of shoulders or in the pit between shoulder and chest (which better avoids up/down arm angle movement) will have your torso act as a baffle, converting the omnidirectional pattern to more of a forward-oriented-hemispheric sensitivity pattern, making them somewhat similar to directional mics mounted atop the shoulders. 



I further leverage that method of torso baffling omnis to produce four channel recordings that are as "fully omnidirectional" or "forward biased" (or biased toward whichever direction) as needed, by mounting a L/R pair of omnis on the outside of my arms just below the shoulder, and a second Center/Back omni pair at the center of my chest and center of my back.  All four are then directionally baffled, but the forward facing center and rear facing mic are made most strongly directional due to the much larger baffle surface area, while the L/R pair are more open yet well baffled toward the opposite side in addition to being spaced farther apart to acoustically "make room" for inclusion of the Center/Back pair in the mix.  Rearward facing channel is used to taste, sometimes none at all, usually some, more in great acoustics with respectful audiences, imparting a very nice 3-dimensional sense of depth, dimension and nice sense of the hall acoustic.

Only drawback I've found is that the mics are mounted a bit lower.  Fortunately I'm tall enough that it works really well for seated concerts, and well enough for standing ones as long as folks aren't too tightly packed.  After recording in this way for years it's been somewhat disappointing for me to go back to using just an LR pair alone again.  Still need to play around with syncing two PR-2 recorders in place of the former 4 channel DR2d.
^
Posting about this not so much as a recommended way to "improve Newbie setups and results" but rather simply to relate what's possible with these kinds of creative setups.  Think outside the box!