We just recorded an outdoor band concert. It was something we do on a yearly basis. I get one shot at doing the concert with no rehearsals and no retakes. This year's concert came off very well except that they "added" some vocalist to the program. They did this without letting us know about it in advance. I was able to take a feed from the pa provider but the feed was post eq at line level and was distorted. We were able to get rid of most of the distortion and now the only thing wrong with the performance is that the singers were flat for much of their portion of the concert. This recording is only used for the archives and the participants but I would like it to be a good example of the recordings we do.

We used three omni microphones (Behinger ECM8000s) across the front of the band stand and a RODE NT 4 mounted on a beam to pick up the percussion that were located on a built up platform tacked to the back of the bandstand. It was the best recording to date (this was our 5th year doing it) and except for the "problems" with the singers came off very well indeed.

The bandstand was built for doing small concerts but will only hold about 10 musicians comfortably and in this case we had over 30 musicians on the bandstand and the percussion platform. It was a bit crowded and it is to the credit of the musicians that they could play as well as they did under the conditions imposed on them.

Next year we will bring along some extra microphones and stands just in case AND we will be after the conductor to keep us informed of the changes BEFORE they are thrust upon us at the concert.

I just ordered a eight microphone two way splitter from ProCo so we can take the various solo microphones and split them so we have more control over the quality of the feed.

There is always "next year"

FWIW