Distorted scratch track and other audio question.

[Black Shamrock Media]

Shooting live music in a club with a 60D and Rode videomic. Audio is set to manual and dialed all the way down. I still get horrible overload distortion on the scratch track. Makes it hard to sync with my good audio.
Here is an example.

Also I've tried plugging my recorder to an output on the sound board thinking that I'd get great balanced audio without the crowd. Instead what I got was heavy vocal and hardly any instruments. Has anyone successfully done this?

 

[Alex H.]

How loud was the club? That's analog distortion, so it happened in or before the pre-amps. If the PA system was too loud for the mic to handle, it'll distort. If the mic wasn't the problem, but the resulting signal was too strong for the pre-amps, the signal will distort. Did you try the -10dB or -20dB pad on the VideoMic? The switches under the 9v battery control that.

As for your problems with the board feed, well, that's pretty much to be expected. Many of the instruments have a bit of presence on their own because they're amplified on stage (like the electric guitar). And in a smaller venue like that, the percussion needs little amplification. So you'll get lots of vocal and acoustic guitar, and perhaps some bass, but little of anything else.

The best way to record from the console is to set up a custom mix using an AUX buss. This isn't always possible, and depends completely on the house engineer. If all the AUX sends are occupied, it cannot be done. And often the engineer won't have the time or willingness to help. Even if you can get that worked out, it's a "set it and forget it" mix more often than not, though it's better than nothing.

Another option is to take a copy of the house mix, which is what you did, but also to record the room on a separate device (or, if you're working with a multi-track recorder, using separate tracks). The board feed will pick up things that get muddy in the room (vocals, bass, acoustic) and the room mics will fill in the rest. it's not perfect, but blending them can give you something workable. And, of course, even if you have an AUX feed from the board, the room mics are still a good idea.