Topic: Did I do something wrong???

[ScottT]

First I have to thank Heath for loaning me his CSB's through the Gear Loaner program.  +T, man!!!

I taped Steel Pulse on Saturday.  They played a free show right under the arch in St. Louis on the waterfront.  There was an opening band (Trevor Hall, IIRC) so I was able to set the levels during that set:

I'm running CSB's pinned to a baseball cap into my D100.  The CSB battery box has a filter switch (labelled Filter or Flat - I had it set to Filter assuming this is a bass roll-off).  With the D100's input set to Line-In, I don't see any levels.  I crank the knob up to 10 and still no levels.  Switch to Mic-In with the 20dB pad and I barely register one bar.  With plain-old Mic-In I get levels that hover around -12 with no danger of going over - this is still with the recording level set at 10.

I figure the levels are fine so I try to find a nice sounding location.  The stage is on the riverfront and there are hundreds of steps that lead up to the arch.  I opted for a spot about 8 steps up from ground level, just behind the SBD tent.  The tent provided a slight visual obstruction, but the speakers were elevated.  You have to be fairly tall to see over the tent so I was able to stand alone for most of the show.  You can see my view here:



There were a couple thousand people out for the event despite the overcast and threatening rain.  The rain stayed away, but it was as chilly as July in St. Louis can feel, especially with a stiff breeze coming off the Mississippi River.   

The tape:  Well, the bass is all distorted when you listen.  Here are some sample tracks (I've included both mp3 and wav):
http://medicine.wustl.edu/~thornbus/steelpulse2004-07-24t10.mp3
http://medicine.wustl.edu/~thornbus/steelpulse2004-07-24t13.mp3

http://medicine.wustl.edu/~thornbus/steelpulse2004-07-24t10.wav
http://medicine.wustl.edu/~thornbus/steelpulse2004-07-24t13.wav

Track 10 is pretty representative of the entire show.  The bass thumps too much and there's some crazy swirling of the sound - part of that is my inabillity to stand still during a funky reggae show (I promise to do better next time!), but I believe a good portion of that is from the wind.
Track 13 is the start of the encore.  It's just keyboards and guitar so you can hear what the recording sounds like without the bass.

Now my questions are:
Did I do something wrong?
Is it correct to run Mic-In?  Would throwing on the -20 prevent some of that distortion?
Are the CSBs just not meant to pick up that much bass?
How much of this is wind-related?
I will be taping a number of shows at this same venue over the next few weeks.  Any way to improvise a windscreen for the CSB's?
Any other advice?

[Sanjay]

my thinking was that it was because you used the mic in not line in.  Whenever I had used mic in vs. line in the result was pretty much the same.  If you weren't getting any signal through line in did you have a good battery in the battery box? 

[ScottT]

Good suggestion!  I'll throw in a new 9v before I tape later this week.

In case you haven't heard, the city of St. Louis is throwing a series of free shows at the arch every Thurs, Fri, Sat through mid-August.  Full details at http://celebrate2004.org
This weeks lineup is Wyclef Jean, Taj Mahal Trio and Bruce Hornsby!!!

[Brian]

i'm gonna try to go to hornsby. we should meet up!  i'll be heading down there with a couple of the Euphio guys and their pops' .... pssobly my pops as well

[ScottT]

Sounds good.  I'm gonna try to be in the same spot.

Tip= If you aren't taking the metrolink, from northbound I-55 take the Downtown exit.  The offramp splits:  Left to the Arch, Right to the Riverfront.  FOLLOW THE RIVERFRONT SIGNS and you'll park in a lot away from 90% of the crowd.  Cost me $5 for Steel Pulse - same price I paid to park twice as far away (for the B-52s) and there I had to deal with the crowds in the Landing and a 20 minute wait to get out of the lot when it was all over.

Also, there are NO security checkpoints when you're walking in.  You just stroll down the sidewalk and the next thing you know you're in front of the stage!  You could bring in anything you want!     I bet you could set up a stand if you had enough blockers.

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Still looking for more taping advice.  Anyone have suggestions for a windscreen for small mics?

[Brian]

let's do it!  i'll see if i can get joe's sr77s or my old oktavas back from the kid i sold them to i St. Louis.  my TL's aren't exactly stealthy i bet we could pull it off with some smaller mics though like the ones i mentioned. 

[ScottT]

I'm totally up for giving that a shot.  We'll need to get there pretty early to claim a sweet spot.  Gates at 5pm, opening band (R. Scott Bryan???)at 7pm.  Opener will probably play 30-40 minutes with the main act playing 70-85minutes.  Just need enough people to surround the stand so it doesn't attract attention.

[Brian]

oh we'll keep it very low key (stand/mics not even up) until right before the main act when it will hopefully be darker out.  are you gonna do Taj Mahal too?  wouldn't mind seeing both.   

[thoman8r]

let's do it!  i'll see if i can get joe's sr77s or my old oktavas back from the kid i sold them to i St. Louis.  my TL's aren't exactly stealthy i bet we could pull it off with some smaller mics though like the ones i mentioned. 

sr77s are stealthy?  I guess compared to the tl's they are.

[Brian]

yeah they might be long but they're very skinny and black   who knows maybe ill be able to get er done with the TL's?  i'll go friday for Taj mahal and find out   apparantly security has been prety lax at these riversplash events. if i keept it low key enough i bet i could pull it off. who knows? we'll see

[ScottT]

Hey Brian, I'll probably head to Taj Mahal directly from work since my office is a few miles from downtown but I live 25 miles away.  Let me know what time you're heading down.  Send me your cell # sometime...

I have seen security around, but I've never seen them do anything except keep the main aisles clear.  I brought a couple of my own beers to Steel Pulse and I could smell plenty of puffing going on around me.  After a 'heady' caramel at The Dead the previous evening I needed to lay off    I can't see how security can suspect taping when they don't search people or bags.  Even of a mic stand won't seem out of place because people are bringing their own lawn chairs, umbrellas, hauling kids in wagons, etc.

[Brian]

exactly!   sending you a pm right now.   i'll bring my whole rig and a small stand for Taj saturday.  if anybody is busting me it's Taj's dudes that might be on the lookout. but i have a few good ideas on how to keep gear out of site at an event like this one