Topic: Indoor Small Venue

[Geoff16Fryer]

Hey guys im new to tapeing but i have a lot of experiance in setting up the stage for shows. i was in a band. so i know a little about sound and audio. I was wondering if anyone has any tips for a small indoor venue. Types of mics? placement of mics in venue? any thing else u think will help. Thanks guys

[NJFunk]

Hey guys im new to tapeing but i have a lot of experiance in setting up the stage for shows. i was in a band. so i know a little about sound and audio. I was wondering if anyone has any tips for a small indoor venue. Types of mics? placement of mics in venue? any thing else u think will help. Thanks guys

What kind of equipment do you have at your disposal and what kind of music are you recording?  Personally, I record a lot of electric funk & rock bands in small bars.  I have a UA-5 that allows me to take a mic feed in the XLR inputs and a separate line feed in the rcas on the back.  The best tapes I've made in these circumstances have been by setting up a stereo pair of mics right in front of the stage and then taking a feed from the PA system in the line in in the back and then mixing them to my liking.  In the bars that I record in, typically all that is in the PA is mostly vocals, with a little horns, and a little kick drum.  The mic feed then picks up the rest of the instruments that are just coming out of the unmic'ed amps and drums on stage.  I then mix the PA feed with teh mic feed until I have enough to hear the vocals clearly.  The stereo image created by the mics right at the front of the stage mixes very well with the centered mono PA feed which is mostly vocals.

[CQBert]

Like anything else in this game... start with budget, then on to what your goals are for your recordings, what is the acces level of the room (open or stealth)....  do you know someone who you an borrow gear from, buy a ticket for and see how it works...  You can prep a rig for under $200 to get started and the sky is the limit on the high end gear. 

Small room, good acoustics, quite show environment - omni....  noisy crowds, cardiod...  Giant Squid, sound professinals are less expensive, DPA 406x are fantastic small mics..

From a stand - ADK 51TL's under $1k LD's, Peluso multi pattern SD's around the same I think.. then you need a stand etc..

Maybe search the member base, find a couple people close and tag along to a show and see how it all goes...make a friend, borrow some stuff, and then move into purchase mode.

Good Luck!!

CQBert