idea for live event audio

[Anthony Wheeler]

At rehearsal set up a separate time to mix for the camera feed. First turn down or off the speakers to these house, floor monitors or stage monitors can be on. To get an exclusive feed to the camera would require a separate send to the camera from the sound board. Set the pro audio camera close enough to the sound board allowing the sound person to wear head phones connected to the camera headphone out. Having the sound person listen through the headphones, as the performance is rehearsed then setting the levels for the mix as it is heard comming back from the camera. If the audio sounds good to the sound person at this time it should sound good on the recording. These settings from this dedicated mix would be the mix recorded during the live performance. At the time of the actual taping of the event the pro audio camera operator would wear the head phones and watch for the recording levels.

[David W. Jones]

Generally the proper way to do this would be to use an aux send or extra buss from the console and send a 1k tone down the line into the camera for calibration.

[Paul R Johnson]

I think he was talking about using an aux to do this. If the band and sound op are up for it, it's far better than a 'guess' mix. I never seem to have time to do a soundcheck for the main mix properly - so getting the time to do a song just for the video feed would be real luxury. If the band want the video, I can see many willing to do this - however I've also had so many jobs with just enough time to get set up to make this idea just difficult to arrange.

[Robert Gordon]

I'm not sure I understand the objective here. If you simply want to record the main mix, then why not just plug a small recorder into the board? If you're concerned about sync, can't you just use a slate? I've been on music video shoots where slates alone were used and ones where both the (mono-summed) mix and LTC were transmitted wirelessly to all of the cameras. The LTC had dropouts and was a bit of a headache in post, but overall, the sync turned out pretty well. Is this just an economic consideration where the camera is the only means you have to record audio? If not, this is always a poor choice - to ask the cameraman to keep the subject in frame and focus and also ride the gain controls. It would be akin IMO to asking a boom operator to ride the mixer, clap the slate and keep continuity all at the same time.

[Calvin Bellows]

The mix for the room isn't always the best mix for watching at home on your tv. I've been to a few concerts where I couldn't hear the vocals at all.

[Greg Miller]

Originally Posted by Calvin Bellows

I've been to a few concerts where I couldn't hear the vocals at all.

Sometimes that's a blessing in disguise.

[Robert Gordon]

Depends on the type of music video. If it is a live concert performance then you probably won't want anything but live sync sound. And yes, you may not want the house mix and may prefer to run a separate mixer from a splitter on the stage. It's not unusual on a decent budget performance to have three mixers anyway - one for the PA, one for monitor foldback and one for recording.

If it is totally contrived, then it is a whole different strategy of playing back the recording you would use for the ultimate video and then just having the band lip/hand sync to it while recording nothing (save for a rough guide track). I still wasn't sure what the OP was trying to accomplish.

[Anthony Wheeler]

I'm talking about a separate mix and a separate send just for the camera. Would this approach replace a separate board to mix for the camera. I understand the mix for the house and the mix for recording to a camera are totally not the same. Just wanted soom feed back on the idea. Thanks very much for the input.

[Robert Gordon]

Is the mix for the camera just a guide track to assist post sync or is it your primary sound recording device?

[Anthony Wheeler]

Primary is the idea.

[Robert Gordon]

Ah okay. Then David's advice was good. It wasn't clear who would be riding the camera mix - the sound guy from the board or the camera guy. If the sound guy rides the aux send while listening to the camera during the performance then it should be fine. If the sound guy is just doing a pre-performance sound check and setting initial levels but then will focus entirely on the house mix, the cameraman will have to ride the gain on the camera while operating the camera - never a great solution, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Best of luck.

[Seth Bloombaum]

One thing I've done many, many times is to record each of the house board's channels via Direct Out to a multichannel recorder. Mostly, this has been an Alesis HD24, but there is newer gear, too. Typically 24/48. This takes the stress off mixing in a club environment, which will be difficult and might be impossible.

Even this takes some specific skills from the house engineer - typically a D.O. will be set for "pre" (picks up the signal right after the trim control and preamp), and many house engineers don't run their inputs hot enough, a few let peaks go by that they shouldn't.

If the house soundie isn't skilled and motivated about multitrack recording, or doesn't have time, then do bring your own engineer and take a split from the stage box, sometimes you'll have to rent/bring your own splitter. This separates the two worlds of recorded and live tracks rather neatly. But even with my own engineer I'd still want a multitrack recording, because a club is no place to mix a recording, and headphones really are way too far from the studio monitoring you want. If the mix matters, it really should be done in post.