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I are a engineer (electrical) played in a band in the 80's. So my sons have picked up guitar, drums and vocals, added two friends and boom they have a band. Played a high school gig it was great.

Now I want to capture the live events and record it has to be easy and quick and light.

The vid cam mics actually do a pretty good job but they have gain control and you can't do much with them. So what's the best approach gear wise?

I can pull stereo feed off the board sounds really dry but I have no problem synching this to a video mix.
What I'd like to get is that vid cam ambience but up the quality, headroom (ie no distortion better bass resp) and control in a stereo condensor mic? - i don't really know hoping someone btdt can point me in the right direction. Looking for a reasonably priced mic. We've got plenty of computers and laptops around. USB interface no problem was thinking of the Tascam 1641 style (8 ins)

Thanks!

Comments

Jeemy Tue, 12/28/2010 - 19:08

I are not really a live sound engineer but I agree, the vid cam mics are surprisingly good. If you are comfortable retaining that ambience then a stereo mic and 2-channel interface will do you fine. You will not need to go to an 8 ins setup, and if you did, you would need 8 mics, 8 cables, monitoring, etc etc and it would not become easy, quick, or light.

So a Rode NT5, Apogee Duet, and a Mac laptop will get you there. But you will not be able to separate crowd noise, bad EQ and volume mismatch from your recording. This is a costly process in time, weight and money.

Boswell Wed, 12/29/2010 - 05:10

One problem with recording a stereo feed off a live board is that the mix is done for a balance of live sound in the venue at the time and not for the recording. So, for example, the drumkit may not be miked in the PA either at all or how it would be for recording, when all you have to hear is the recorded sound. Also, loud instruments are likely to come out quiet in the feed from the board because of the amount of direct sound from the instrument (and/or its amplifier) reaching the audience and hence needing little reinforcement in the PA. You may well find that the sound from the board is dominated by the vocal channels.

Sound for video is not necessarily mixed the same as sound for CD, so, for example, a direct feed from the vocal mic would sound too immediate and unnatural against the rest of the band catured live in the room.

If the band is experienced at balancing themselves acoustically on stage, then Jeemy's advice to put up a stereo mic simply to capture the direct sound from the band will give a better balance than recording the mixing board output. However, if you have access to a secondary mixer with stereo inputs, you could record a mix of the main board output and a stereo live mic. In this way, you would capture the overall impression plus give a bit of definition to the vocals, which may give you a better sound track for video than either of these elements on their own.