Audio at reception

[Brett Weathersby]

What is the best way to get good audio of the reception. I have read several posts about people putting a DVR w/lav near the speaker. Anyone do this? How far away should you place it?

[Matt Bishop]

I personally try to plug right into the dj/ house audio whenever possible. I have acquired tons of connections / rca cables / xlr cables and a direct box to do this. It is more of a hassle to make time to hook it up and check it and get everything set but it's sooo worth it when you're editing and you don't have to mess around! Most of the time I simply run an rca cable from the dj to the direct box and an xlr from the direct box to my camera. Most dj's have a simple output for you to do this. The feed is usually pretty hot so the direct box (and camera in my case) have levels at which I can attenuate the signal. I always try to suggest that the dj use his mic for toasts and such and most of the time , they will. I've come to realize that I just have to make it happen if I want good audio. Now this takes care of toasts, intros and any other times they would be using the mic. As far as music audio..I always dub the dance songs over anyway. 90% of the time this gives me perfect audio throughout...the other 10% are those places that insist on using the house mic and the best man won't hold the mic to his mouth so you aren't getting anything anyway! :-) Still working on finding a decent solution for that...you can only control so much.

Matt

[Mark Von Lanken]

Hi Brett,

You have to be really careful with putting a lav mic near the DJs speakers. A lav will easily distort at loud volulmes. I have some friends that use a Sony ECM-DS70P mic with their iRivers at the reception. It's about $50.

I use a Samson Q7 XLR mic with the Sennhieser wireless transmitter and run the sound to my camera. That way I can monitor the audio throughout the night, but I know many people who use DVRs for the reception.

[Don Bloom]

after trying every method there is including going right into the DJ or bands mixer I found that for ME (YMMV) the best system is to use the hypercaroid mic on my camera for room noise and the higher end of the spectrum and then I setup a Sennheiser E604 drum mic on a mic stand with my plug in transmitter going back to my wireless receiver which picks up a clean audio track on the lower end of the spectrum. By setting the hypercaroid to -10db and the drum mic to -6db (on the transmitter) I have found 1)it never and I mean never clips. 2) I rarely have to do anything to the audio in post, it's virtually a perfect mix. the only thing I MIGHT have to do is either raise or lower the level very slightly when someone is speaking. Raise it for the non professional speakers doing the toasts (I love when they hold the mic at their waist even after the DJ tells them to hold it at their chin) and lower it slightly for when the DJ is speaking as most of them are good at projecting.
The E604 is set up about 4 inches in front of the top speaker and about 2 inches below the bottom of the speaker. I found this works the best for me.
The reason I stopped pluging in to boards at weddings is 1) some DJs don't like it and won't let you and 2) more importantly some are idiots and can really overload you. This way IF something DOES go wrong I got no one to blame but me.
Again, YMMV.
Don

[Matt Bishop]

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

The reason I stopped pluging in to boards at weddings is 1) some DJs don't like it and won't let you and 2) more importantly some are idiots and can really overload you. This way IF something DOES go wrong I got no one to blame but me.
Again, YMMV.
Don

That is a good point that I didn't mention...I haven't run into too many that have a problem because I try to always call the owner and talk to them if we haven't worked with them before. That helps a lot! But, yes, some are definitely idiots and good luck if they even know what you're talking about. They're hired to hit play and keep the music going and usually don't know much or anything about the equipment that they're working with. So I do go out of my way to make it work due to potential situations like that.

[Tim Harjo]

Originally Posted by Matt Bishop

They're hired to hit play and keep the music going and usually don't know much or anything about the equipment that they're working with. So I do go out of my way to make it work due to potential situations like that.

I feel bad when this happens. I always hope that they did not pay much for the DJ when I see very poor quality. The last wedding I went to, the DJ actually had nice equipment, but he showed up in sweatpants and a T-shirt. And I've often seen the DJ's that are not smooth what so ever, as in awkward pauses and music so loud through cheap hand-me-down speakers that it's distorted beyond recognition. Although I've only encountered that a couple of times. Most all of the time I get to work with really great professional people.

If I mic the speakers, I don't dangle them over the speakers anymore like I used to. Instead I put the mic so it is sitting at the edge of the speaker, resting on top not overhanging. Although I still prefer to hook up direct.

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Brett Weathersby

What is the best way to get good audio of the reception. I have read several posts about people putting a DVR w/lav near the speaker. Anyone do this? How far away should you place it?

My most recent wedding (early Nov) was the first weddign I used my AudioTechnica 1800 series UFH lav system. I dangled one of the lavs in front of hte DJ's speakers and I got AMAZING audio of the toasts, etc from the reception. IF it is wireless, or flash / MD recording, I highly suggest this method of micign the reception. No hassle of havign two mics on the speakers; anyone can just pass the DJ mic around and it doesn't affect you at all. Very very low stress (just remember to pick up the mic before the DJ cleans up his stuff).

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Mark Von Lanken

Hi Brett,

You have to be really careful with putting a lav mic near the DJs speakers. A lav will easily distort at loud volulmes. I have some friends that use a Sony ECM-DS70P mic with their iRivers at the reception. It's about $50.

I use a Samson Q7 XLR mic with the Sennhieser wireless transmitter and run the sound to my camera. That way I can monitor the audio throughout the night, but I know many people who use DVRs for the reception.

ni kidding. when I did this in Nov, I have the AT1800 receiver (with a countryman lav) cranked down to practically off in order to get a clean signal.

[Don Bloom]

Lavs are really not the thing to use in front of a DJs speaker. They can't take the high SPLs and in most every case they'll clip. You were lucky to get useable sound.
If you use a mic like an SM58 or even a shotgun then I suggest that ypu place the mic BEHIND the speaker about 6 inches or so. While it will be a bit muffled, it worked for me in the past. It cuts down the high pressure that can cause problems and while it's not as good as using a mic meant to take the sound levels it works better than a lav mic.
Of course YMMV.
Don

[Tom Hardwick]

On a wedding last month the audio from my DVD was a lot more intelligible than that heard by the 150 guests through the sound system. I simply taped my little radio mic to the venue's hand-held radio mic and effectively bypassed the room's boomy acoustics.

[Nathan Nazeck]

I've always tapped right into the dj board. rca or xlr cables, depending on the board into a impedance matching transformer and right into a sennheiser plug on transmitter. Great sound every time and I haven't had a dj say no in 6 years... sometimes they just need an little explanation.

[Michelle Genrich]

I've always had the best luck with putting a mic where needed, plugged or sent wireless into a Shure field mixer, then sent to the camera or audio recorder. Gives me much more control of levels and allows for a number of mics to be placed. (never had much luck plugging into anyone's board as they control the levels and you get what they give you)

[Brett Weathersby]

Ok, right now I only plan on using my camera and 2 Olympus DS-30's. There is not a whole lot that I want from the reception. It's not a sit-down dinner so there is not much that I need. What do you think would be the best way to go?

[Michael Liebergot]

Brett there are several way to go about this. Most have been mentioned.
We liek to do a combination...We ahve several options open to use as we have 4-track SD recorders (Edirol R-44), wireless systems (two Sennheiser G2 systems), as well as several small audio recorders (Marantz PMD620, Edirol R09, Zoom H2).

The simplest solution is we will mount 2 sources of recording to one mic stand.
1. Rode M3 mic (with G2 wireless plug in transmitter) going to the camera for constant monitor/backup/sync audio).

2. Recorder clamped to mic stand (usually oom H2 or Marantz PMD620)

We like to do the combo route so we always are able to monitor our feed and have something on tape and also have a constant audio recording of the entire night that we will generally use for our master audio.

Sometimes we will take a board feed to another recorder for backup purposes. And there are times when we will use the 4 track recording of the Edirol R-44 and two Rode M3's micing top tweeter horn and lower recording woofer horn. The use a stereo AT822 mic and face this out towards the crowd and record to CH3/4. Then send a wireless mixed dow feed from the R-44 to my camera for monitor/sync/backup audio.

Although it's by far easier to only use the audio from our camera. I find that since we record HDV to tape, the audio isn't that great and is compressed too uch. So I prefer to use the audio from off camera recorders, which allow me to record at a greater fidelity. Then I simply sync and mix in post accordingly.

[Rafael Gonzalez]

what do you mean direct box? is that wireless to the camera or wired.
really appreciatte your help
Rafael.

Most of the time I simply run an rca cable from the dj to the direct box and an xlr from the direct box to my camera.