Recording a Musical - Need Guidance

M

markj

New member
Hello all. I have volunteered to video tape my daughter's high school musical. Will then make DVD master the school can copy and sell for fundraising. :shocked:

Anyways, I'm wondering what will be the best way to go about this. There is no sound man, there is no mixing board (or PA system) and I can not afford to hire a pro. All audio and video depends on me. I have high end Sony monitoring headphones. I also am a studio producer so I have access to a myriad of mastering tools for audio in post.

Should I use two mics (one left side, one right side)? Or just one directional mic? I believe the performance will mostly be a stereo system playing instrumental backing tracks and the voices of the kids-- some solo, some unison, some ensemble.

What type of mics should I use? Need to stay under about $500

What type/brand of tape should I use for DVXb?

This is in an auditorium so acoustics will suck. How do I minimize excess reverb/reflections bleed into mic?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Mark
 
Lots of good questions, and I don't have answers. But I do have a word of caution -- those instrumental backing tapes are probably copyrighted. The school could get in lots of trouble selling DVDs containing that music. Just something to be aware of.

For what it's worth, I had decent results using a couple of Samson C03 mics -- $99 apiece -- to record a band playing in a nightclub. That might be worth considering.

Good luck!
 
A fairly normal way to record something like this would be an X/Y or ORTF pair of small condenser mics. A pair of Octava mics with carotid caps would be fine, for example. For this to work, it assumes that the mix the audience is hearing is correct, like an orchestral concert or similar.

It is likely that you won't have a good way to control reflections, so you will just have to live with them. The only way to control that would be mic everyone with a lav and re-mix everything later. Really, you would still want that stereo pair of mics in the big room otherwise it would sound very sterile.
 
markj said:
What type of mics should I use? Need to stay under about $500
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If that's your rental budget, then you should probably look at wiring principal performers with `lav's or hair-mic's. I'm sure other forum-goers will be able to reccomend mic's well suited to musical theatre.

A stereo pair (X-Y, ORTF, or spaced omni) will be useful for catching the live atmosphere, as well as the reactions of an apreciative audience.

If you can, record to a multitrack recorder. If you have a couple unused tracks, you may wish to get a dry feed from the playback system providing the backing music, otherwise import the music in post and synch it up by ear.

If you can't afford wireless, get some heavy mic stands with long counterweighted booms (eg. Atlas stands), and use them to position overhead cardioid mics in such a way as to cover as much as the action as possible. Try to keep them above and slightly in front of the stage (without blocking the audience's line of sight, of course. Also be sure to pile a couple sand bags on the bases of the stands in case they get bumped, and tape off the area around them to keep them out of the flow of traffic.
 
Not to be negative here, but if they are using a musical they got through Samuel French or Dramatists or one of the other licensing services, they are all quite specific that they are not to be video taped in any fashion (even for archive). I've never heard of anyone being sued for an archival recording, but selling the recording will certainly raise eyebrows - unless you obtain the appropriate rights in advance (possibly available for purchase).

Phil
 
What ever happened to money for the arts in schools?
Harry Fox Agency is good at hooking up mechanical rights licensing. You can do that based on units sold. Tack on the license fee to the sale price and everything will be alright.


Kind Regards,
Teague
 
Well actually it's never been OK for schools to bypass copyright law. And there is a fairly long history of music publishers getting hard nosed about it. That said percentage wise your in good shape. But be very careful about the sales. If your just selling "pre ordered" copies to parents it's not likely to get anyone in trouble, unless one of those parents has some connection with the rights holder (happened at my high-school and cost a teacher a job). But if they are planning on "advertising" DVD's for sale they are asking to get hurt.
Also you don't say exactly where you are but in Canada the liability extends to the folks who use the music even if it was at the request of a client. So you would also be liable.
I would certainly check out the rights situation. Or at least get something from the "producer" that says they are responsible for obtaining all rights.
 
They like after school programs got hosed by legal stupidities and liability problems.
Rights holders are generally not too big a pain for live performance at a school. However they almost always draw the line at recorded performances. And that isn't compliantly un reasonable. First a really bad production on DVD/ Tape etc floating around out there could hurt future sales. It's also a very different thing to perform live, it's a one shot thing. They could (in theory) go on selling copies of the DVD for years. In reality neither is all that likely to happen. But they have to be paranoid. There are a lot of people involved in a production that have rights. An outfit like Samuel French is liable for protecting those peoples rights so it gets complicated.




teague said:
What ever happened to money for the arts in schools?
Harry Fox Agency is good at hooking up mechanical rights licensing. You can do that based on units sold. Tack on the license fee to the sale price and everything will be alright.


Kind Regards,
Teague
Click to expand...
 
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