What they said. Either recorder will work well for what you plan to do. I use an Zoom F8 for this typo of recording regularly, like it and can recommend it.
Have you recorded using a rig on-stage before? Say, a standard stereo pair setup on stage or right up against the lip of the stage? That experience will be helpful in quickly developing a feel for what's great and not so great about recording onstage compared to recording from a position out in the audience.
There are a few ways to go about it, and basically the difference boils down to using a primary array for recording most everything, verses mic'ing lots of separate things on stage and assembling it all together via the mix. There is no hard and fast line between the two. You might add some stuff to the first (like sbd, a spot mic or two if needed, audience/room facing mics), and a stereo pair capturing a good portion of the stage content may be part of the second.
I prefer the first for a number of reasons: Ease of setup, quicker mixing, and because I find I'm able to produce a more natural sounding recording with more compelling sense of imaging and depth that way.
I do that by strategically placing a bigger mic array on stage in such a way that it picks up clear direct sound from each of the on-stage sources in way that's relatively well balanced in terms of level and position, along with room/audience sound, all from essentially a single location. In the right situation that's all that's needed, and makes for a great recording if/when the situation allows for it. Although it's essentially all in a single position (the array might actually span 3' to 6' wide depending on the situation), it incorporates multiple microphone channels, including a backwards facing pair picking up the room and audience. Still it essentially acts like a single rig in a single placement location on-stage. That helps with really good imaging and depth. Using mics which are sufficiently insensitive to sound arriving from the opposite direction helps greatly. The total coverage is collectively omnidirectional, while each "slice" is significantly directional excluding sound from the opposite direction. Keeping the rear room/audience facing mics together with the forward facing mics makes things a lot easier and happily maintains natural alignment, eliminating the need to delay the forward facing mics to match time-of-arrival with the audience/room pair. (If including SBD you may or may not need to delay that). It also makes for an enhanced and more realistic portrayal of depth, provides a more engaged and energetic audience reaction from the folks into it upfront rather than distracted talkers farther back, and makes for good integration of the various contributions from the array in the mix without extensive effort.
I like to place that kind of main array on stage relatively centered amongst the musicians, low to the floor and slightly to one side of the drum kit if present, with a direct line of sight to the snare drum. If that ends up close to the drums I'm careful to setup slightly over toward the snare side, somewhat off-axis from the kick drum, avoiding the potential of air-puffs from the hole in the kick drum head impinging on the mics. Guitar and keyboard amps placed on the floor can be pretty far away and will still strongly and clearly project to the recording position as long as they're relatively on-axis with it. Clear sound from a guitar or keyboard amp placed on the stage floor travels amazingly far along the stage surface. Closer physical proximity to the bass often helps, and to piano if there is one. If I can get all the instruments well represented from that single recoding location, the recoding often works out really nicely. If you have the opportunity to stick your head where you plan to place the recording rig, close your eyes and listen carefully for a bit while the band plays for soundcheck. That will tell you a lot and careful listening while moving around to find the best spot is super helpful.
If necessary and if available record a soundboard feed. I usually only use it for vocals or quiet close-mic'd instruments that are aren't otherwise well represented except through the PA and on-stage monitors.
If the musicians are arranged widely, or for some reason I'm unable get a good balance of some quieter instrument, singer, or whatever, I might place a separate spot mic or compact stereo pair near them to help get level from them. I mostly do that as an insurance policy (sort of like getting a SBD feed when there are no vocals) and may or may not actually use it in the resulting mixdown,. But doing so sometimes helps by keeping placement of the main recoding array focused on picking up most everything else in good balance, rather than picking up everything altogether including the more distant and/or quieter outliers of the ensemble.
I prefer that approach for a few reasons: Its simpler for me to setup and mix, and I find it makes for a more compelling recoding when everything works right.
The alternate method is spot or close-mic'ing more sources, and producing a mix using panned placement of the various channels (rather than reinforcing the main stereo pair with a spot or two). Closer to front of house style mixing, sort of making your own sbd feed in a way. That provides excellent control over balance and clarity, but like a sbd feed it can sometimes end up sounding overly close and flat, lacking really good imaging and stage depth cues. And it means you'll need to rely more strongly on your spot/close mics, making them more of a necessity rather than an option where needed, and the setup usually ends up being more complex.
Topic: Zoom F8N for recording live album (Read 271 times)