Micing a band at DVinfo.net

Marco Leavitt · July 31st, 2007, 08:40 AM

I'm doing a documentary about a gospel band and am trying to get the best recording I can with limited resources. Tapping into the board is impossible -- there are no outputs, except for what's driving the PA. I have been micing the drums (single SM57 overhead), and the PA (another SM57), and recording to HiMD panned left and right. A third mic, which varies by the venue, is placed somewhere in front of the band to pick up the rest of the room and the other instruments, and records either to minidisc or one of two cameras taping the performance. There's also an ME64 on one of those cameras recording to a separate track. Isolated, none of the tracks sound that great, but mixed together (crudely) it sounds surprisingly good.

Is there a better way to go about this? As I said, I've got limited resources and time. The band sets up amazingly quickly.

It would be nice to eliminate the second recorder, but I'm running into phasing issues. The crude nature of the final mix (done right in the NLE) doesn't seem to be as affected, I suppose because it's so imprecise.

July 31st, 2007, 08:40 AM	#1
Marco Leavitt Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Albany, NY 12210 Posts: 2,652	Micing a band I'm doing a documentary about a gospel band and am trying to get the best recording I can with limited resources. Tapping into the board is impossible -- there are no outputs, except for what's driving the PA. I have been micing the drums (single SM57 overhead), and the PA (another SM57), and recording to HiMD panned left and right. A third mic, which varies by the venue, is placed somewhere in front of the band to pick up the rest of the room and the other instruments, and records either to minidisc or one of two cameras taping the performance. There's also an ME64 on one of those cameras recording to a separate track. Isolated, none of the tracks sound that great, but mixed together (crudely) it sounds surprisingly good. Is there a better way to go about this? As I said, I've got limited resources and time. The band sets up amazingly quickly. It would be nice to eliminate the second recorder, but I'm running into phasing issues. The crude nature of the final mix (done right in the NLE) doesn't seem to be as affected, I suppose because it's so imprecise.