Recording concert with G2

scorsesefan

scorsesefan

Veteran
I'm "one man banding" a show tonight at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. I need to get a decent recording of the music, but I will primarily be filming the band (handheld with an at-875r on my C100) I know ideally I should patch in with my F8, but I..

a). Can't monitor while I'm on the floor filming
b). Don't want to leave an expensive piece of equipment unattended.

I am thinking of either placing my g2 wireless mic near the stage, or plugging an SKP100 into the soundboard. Is the former practical or the latter even possible? Another possibility is that I have a professional recording of the band from a previous show and I guess I could try to match that to this performance?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
I probably wouldn't place the wireless mic too near the stage; the mix might be weird there and overemphasize some of the instruments. Better might be gaffed just behind and above the FOH mixer...since stuff will sound balanced near him/her and perhaps there will be a bit more security for your transmitter (if there's a booth/platform/something). Quality-wise, you'd get more of a guide track but that'd be useful if you decide to sync to the other recording.

Or a small Zoom-style handheld recorder near the same place? Pretty much what they were originally designed for. Could work fairly well...set levels during the sound check and hope for the best. Might be worth borrowing/renting one for a few bucks. Or draft a friend with one to babysit the levels.

Plugging into the soundboard has worked for me for some jobs. But will the person there say no, just be too busy and forget something, only have line level (not an issue with an adapter), or something? Will he or she make a board recording; might not be optimal (dry, maybe not all instruments are running through the board, etc), but could be useful. Totally worth trying to get the house mixer to help you out.

Never been to the Knitting Factory, but have heard lots of good recordings from there. Have fun!
 
When I need to make a cheap & easy band recording, I use my DR-40 at the house mix position. Two line level inputs from 'the house' console for the in yo' face presence, and the Tascam's two on board mics for the 'live' sound. In my case, I'm usually the FOH mixer though, so YMMV. If there are cameras involved, I'll set up a hop and/or just use the cam mics for sync.
FWIW- I've mixed at the Knitting Factory.. and many of the other legendary NYC nightclubs, but that was back in the 1980s. I started working with bands again about two years ago. "Just when you thought you were out of it.. they pull you you back in"
 
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None of the options you presented are likely to sound good. The shotgun on the camera is going to be changing perspecive as you move and is also probably going to pick up some handling noise but? maybe not. A small mic like your wireless is going to have pretty thin sound and it may well have freq bump in the upper mid that won't work well. Plugging to the console is always a crap shoot but compressing it down over the wireless hop may also be problematic for music. Post syncing a different performance is likely to be near impossible with out doing a lot of subtle time stretching/ shrinking and the last time I looked the best plugin for that cost about $600 so... I've done it and it is possible but it's a lot of work.

I would go with Jim and use a handheld, it is one of the things they are pretty good at. Most of them also have a tripod thread mount so you can either stick it on sticks or one of those gorilla mount things so you can get it up over the crowd (and harder to walk off with).

Good luck.
 
Thanks for the advice, guys. Looks like the best approach is a portable recorder (first time I've regretted selling my Dr-100 :(...
 
Rick R said:
FWIW- I've mixed at the Knitting Factory.. and many of the other legendary NYC nightclubs, but that was back in the 1980s. I started working with bands again about two years ago. "Just when you thought you were out of it.. they pull you you back in"
Click to expand...

Rick, is this you? 4:34 of what it's really like, man. :-)

 
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Yep, that was me back in the 80's. I'm not like that no more Jim. I can choose the bands I for mix for these days. Good players, so I don't have to be grumpy, except when they do something stupid.
 
I wound up borrowing a friend's h4n and putting it on the FOH mixer's table. The engineer was very cool and laid back. The sound is decent and probably as good as it gets with that recorder and not patching in. I'm glad I sought you guy's advice because the sound from the on camera mic was almost unusable (distortion)...
 
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