Mic and mixer recommendations

R

rjkrash

Member
Need to mic an outdoor football stadium to record marching band's performances. Have a limited budget $2 - 4K. Any suggestions. Are shotguns the way to go? Mic positions will be limited to sidelines or press box (top of stands). Would love to capture sound to 2 sideline and 1 press box cameras via wireless if possible/advisable.

Really a novice re sound so be nice:happy:
 
Dave_Fisk said:
So, you need to record to cameras, is sounds like. Are you using a mixer of some sort?

-Dave
Click to expand...

The purpose of the effort is to record the bands' performances on video. I will be doing at least a 3 camera shoot - 2 sideline and one from press box. I did this last season just using Sony's ECM-HS1 (a small camera mounted shotgun) which was surprisingly good but I know better sound could be captured.

I would like to capture the best possible sound and will be editing the 3 cameras footage in post-production. If the sound is the same on all 3 cameras it would be great but not required I guess if I have one good recording.

The camera in the press box would be the most logical one to receive the sound from external mics. Not sure if I need a mixer or not. Suggestions on that would be appreciated.

The cameras for the shoot will be 2 - Sony DCR HC85 and my NEW! Panny 100A. The sonys have mic input, mini plug, and of course the DVX has standard XLR.
 
with that many instruments playing at once i would think your best audio would be recorded a slight distance away to avoid distortion and with a shotgun mic like the sennheiser me-66

if you want to factor in sideline/audience sound then a second mic pointed at the audience and then you can mix later on a combination of part band and part audience.

i've done a lot of live shows like a circus where there is a lot of audience reaction and i'll typically plug into the soundboard with a wireless transmitter to get a direct feed of the prerecorded music and the announcer.

then i will point the on camera shotgun mic toward the crowd and then later mix it 80% sound board and 20% audience noise.

if you have an event where there are few instruments and there all mic'ed you can get a very clear soundtrack off the soundboard but it will be very sterile.

if you then mix in the sounds the way they sounded in the room/stadium etc. (especially if there is a live audience) you will get a more natural sounding project.

your case is unique because the instruments are too many and not really open to micing them directly.

if i had a wireless lavalier i would probably put it on the person in front of the band directing them as his vantage point would probably have a good mix of the whole band sound. and then i would still have a shotgun pointed at the crowd.

matthew
 
I've actually done some of this, and your best bet for mic placement is on top of the press box. Use a nice stereo mic, and you'll be cool. You can send a wireless link to your other two cameras as reference tracks when you are cutting the picture.

-Dave
 
matthewd5 and Dave_Fisk , thanks for the responses.

matthewd5 - I'm not sure what you are recommending here - " i'll typically plug into the soundboard with a wireless transmitter to get a direct feed of the prerecorded music and the announcer."

matthewd5 - As far as mic on the drum major (directing the band) they change during the performance. Also right in front of the band is a stationary percussion section (aka the PIT) that is all you hear if you stand right in front of the band at field level.

Dave_Fisk - do you a recommendation for "nice stero mic"

From the input I have come to these ideas:

  • 1 or maybe 2 shotguns aimed at the field from the press box
  • A stereo mic aimed back at the audience from the field. Yeah capturing audience reaction is a must.
  • the 3 mics go into a sound board that has the mixed output going to the camera in the press box
  • 2nd mixed output to a transmitter
  • field cameras have recievers into mic inputs
Now,
What equipment should I consider for this setup?
Should I look for mics with variable directivity pattern capability?
Who makes the transmitter and recievers I'd need?
Is there a particular reliable, portable sound board recommendation?
Should I rely on the recording to the camera or should I record to a deck?
If to a deck what do I need to keep sync?

enough questions for one post :)

Hope you can help and i really appreciate any feed back on my ideas...
 
all you need is two fairly basic shotgun mics.

the first one on a camera that is filming the show from ground level, maybe 25-50 feet away.

i would have this camera/mic pointed straight at the band and not have it move so that both the picture and sound are constant/steady

i would have a shotgun mic on another camera or even plugged into the same camera as the first one, pointed at the audience.

i guess it depends on your camera placement.

you don't really need wireless.

i would concentrate on having your main band mic somewhere that stays a near constant distance from the band so it won't vary in volume etc.

why worry about stereo? just two mono tracks.

why worry about a mixer?? get separate mono recordings and mix later on the computer.

never make mix decisions on location when you don't have to. you usually have the luxury of recording two tracks on the dvx-100 and mixing later on.

i normally only use one mic per camera and use the second input because with the second input you can have it goto both channels and set the levels a little bit different. one higher and one lower just in case.

then i would put the other mic on the second dvx.

but in your case it could be quite doable to have two mic's plugged into the dvx, one shotgun mic on input 1 and the other on input 2

i have used the sennheiser me-66 quite a bit and just recently upgraded to the sennheiser mkh 416 because i'm doing shorts with extensive boom work and i had a chance to work with a 416 on another short and the sound was superior with the boom over the limited boom work i had done with my me-66 in the past.

matthew
 
Well, if it was me (a lot of this is opinion, style, resources, etc) i would put a M/S stereo mic about 10 to 15 feet from the band. A little more if they are moving and I have to be stationary. Throw a hyper or two on the audience and record all onto seperate tracks of an external recorder. I am the first in line to laud the superiority of the DVX audio but for music recording it's not quite up to snuff (IMO).

If the band is moving around a large area, I would try and follow them at a consistent distance with the mic, keeping in mind to not cross the stereo mic.

For post sync puposes I would send a timecode feed via wireless to the 3 cams. If your editing in Avid (not sure with other NLEs) you can use the timecode track to edit in a multi-cam fashion (of course since they are not locked, there will probably be drift after 10 to 20 minutes). If I didn't have a timecode audio recorder I would send a reference track to the 3 cams and sync by hand.

That would be my ideal approach (mind you I have never recorded a marching band). But now that you bring it up, you got my juices following. Come football season I think I will give this a try.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 
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