Mic for shooting concert (close to the stage)

[Fabrice Hoffmann]

Hi,

Yesterday i shot some rock band with heavy volume. I was approximately at 6m from the sound. And my Rode nt2 mic gave me a really bad sound. Probably to sensitive to be so close to the source (i had -6db ear thing in my ears).

This night i will try with my Sure beta58 singing mic.

But someone can give me an advice on which mic is good for this kind of shooting ?

thanks.

[Wayne Brissette]

Originally Posted by Fabrice Hoffmann

Yesterday i shot some rock band with heavy volume. I was approximately at 6m from the sound. And my Rode nt2 mic gave me a really bad sound. Probably to sensitive to be so close to the source (i had -6db ear thing in my ears).

You might still be able to use the NT2, but you're going to want to attenuate the signal before it hits the A/D stage in your camera. You can pick up various in-line attenuators (Shure, Audio-Technica, Whirlwind, and many others), which will help reduce the chance of you overloading the A/D section.

You're going to want to probably get some that will go down to at least -15 dB, maybe even -20 dB. While most cameras also have some sort of attenuation built into the camera, you probably want to use the in-line attenuation units and if you must, then use the attenuation on the camera.

Are there other mics? Sure, but even I have to use in-line attenuators when I put mics on stage with some loud acts.

Wayne

[Fabrice Hoffmann]

I'm trying to understand if my JVC GY-HD251 has a -12/-20 db attenuation but it's not clear (like it was one my old xl1).

If i don't find before two hours from now, i will do a test with my beta58, to see if it's better.

Thanks.

[Steve House]

Remember that the mic has a -5/-10 dB pad as well. Did you set it on before recording? I'd go with the -10dB position on the mic first as you may be distorting internally in the mic itself.

[Fabrice Hoffmann]

Are you talking about the nt2 which have a -10db pad ? I can't find where.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Fabrice Hoffmann

Are you talking about the nt2 which have a -10db pad ? I can't find where.

Was looking at Rode's current info on the NT2a studio mic. If you have the older NT2, I think the built-in pad was added in the upgrade. Sorry if I got your hopes up - my bad.

[Martin Catt]

I use Audio-Technica AT-2020 mics (two of them) for doing club gig videos. The important question is, are you monitoring the audio through headphones while recording? If not, then that's half your problem right there. Level meters lie like a cheap rug. The levels LOOK good, but sound lousy. A decent set of headphones, plus going off autolevel and setting the record levels manually makes all the difference in the world.

Martin

[Jim Boda]

Originally Posted by Fabrice Hoffmann

Hi,

Yesterday i shot some rock band with heavy volume. I was approximately at 6m from the sound. ....

At what input level did the JVC251 peak at? Are you set to manual recording level? Did you have the limiters turned on?

And as always...Please use hearing protection to protect your ears. Permanent damage can occur at those levels.

[Fabrice Hoffmann]

Originally Posted by Martin Catt

I use Audio-Technica AT-2020 mics (two of them) for doing club gig videos. The important question is, are you monitoring the audio through headphones while recording? If not, then that's half your problem right there. Level meters lie like a cheap rug. The levels LOOK good, but sound lousy. A decent set of headphones, plus going off autolevel and setting the record levels manually makes all the difference in the world.

Martin

Thanks for the headphone's info. No, i didn't use them (until now) and was just refering to the level meters, set manually, just before clipping, and sometime the limiter was on. Perhaps this is the wrong way. Next time i will use my headphone, to see if i can ear the distorsion.

[Nick Flowers]

First post from a new member of the forum! I was recording a restored Vulcan jet bomber taking off at an airshow recently and remembered what my old master (Peter Handford, mixer on Murder on the Orient Express etc etc) told me. Use a very insensitive mic on those occasions, an old moving coil mic is good. Modern mics are wonderfully sensitive but confront them with huge pressure waves and the front end can overload, before attenuators can do their stuff. As an experiment I put a Sennheiser MKH416 on one channel and an old AKG D25 on the other...the D25 won hands down. So, the moral is if you are going to do a lot of recording of loud noises, or music, try to get an old moving coil mic...ebay? Or at a rock concert get a feed from the desk.

[Fabrice Hoffmann]

Last concert, i use my beta58, and the sound was way better. But it wasn't in the same configuration, i was close to the sound mixer, and not close to the scene (and sound). But has people make me understand, i was messing things up when recording manualy BUT too loud (just before clipping).

I have to respect the -12 or -20 db reference point of my camera, and ear what happens.

But the thing to use a much less sensitive mic is probably the good way, and the beta58 is still probably to much sensitive if front of the stage (and yes, i use ear protection).

[Peter Ralph]

shotgun mics are not recommended in live loud environments - apart from the sensitivity issue - they introduce way too much coloration

regular headphones are pretty much useless for stageside rock recording - not enough isolation -

best is to use a stereo mic (set to mono) or feed a mono mic to both channels and set one channel 8db lower than the other. Using an XLH1 the stock mic does a decent job

[Fabrice Hoffmann]

Originally Posted by Peter Ralph

... Using an XLH1 the stock mic does a decent job

Perhaps i will have to make the sub-standard mic which came with the jvc hd251 to come back... :-)