simple live recording question

[SC Multimedia]

Good Afternoon Slutz,

I have a recording gig comming up and me being a studio recordist, naturally I have a few questions.

What I am looking to do is use a Roland VS 2480 CD for recording a 5 piece jazz funk band directly from the FOH console. Can this be done by simply taking a line out from each active FOH channel and using the preamps available on board the Roland as inputs to the digital recorder?

[Chris Wilson]

If the venue is a large one, each instrument's sound must be mic'ed and amplified in its entirety to the audience.

In a smaller or even medium sized club, the instruments are quite audible from the stage. In this case, the amplified sound serves more as sound reinforcement. Drastic eq-ing is often employed to emphasize certain frequencies and attenuate problem frequencies. Some of these eq curves get pretty ugly.

In the first case, I bet you'll be all right. If the latter is the case, the sound coming off the board, even pre-fader, isn't really meant to document the performance and won't offer much of a recreation of the show.

[Roland]

To do this properly you need a microphone split feed. If this is agreed with the band, you need to approach the PA company to find out if they can/will give you a split. If it is part of a festival/venue and the PA is hired by the venue/promoter you will probably be out of luck, however if it is a PA hired by the band then they can either ask the PA company for the split or you can hire a split that you can use with the PA company. Either way you will need to discuss this with the PA people.


Regards



Roland

[SC Multimedia]

Thank you both. The information provided will serve me well. Roland, I have had great experiences with neutrik connectors. What do you think about whirlwind splitters?

[Roland]

i'm sure they will work, however I've heard mixed reports about whirlwind product quality, depending on which range you use. Personally most of the splits I use are custom made, passive, transformered or active. Just needs to be cleen and well made.

Regards


Roland

[Jay Kahrs]

Low-fi method is to take the direct outs from FOH... that can work if they're pre fader & pre EQ. If not... any move at FOH will be duplicated on the recording. Not so good...

If it's a small venue & I can get close to the stage a lot of times I'll run my own mics on the instruments & split just the vocals, maybe snare drum or some other things with "tight" placement.

Make sure the venue knows about this well in advance, as they usually don't take well to people just showing up with lots of gear, wanting to patch in and take over a large block of floor space...

[Roland]

Running two sets of mic's IMHO is not a good solution, two sets of cables, two sets of mic stands, etc, it gets messy and p**ses people off, important people, like the band, the FOH guy etc. Direct out's of the desk also can also be a problem as not many desks have them these days. The split is the safe, easiest, pro way to do it and will achieve the best result. If mic's being used by the FOH guy are not great and you as the recording company have better ones, often this is negotiated with the FOH engineer in advance, most of the time they are pretty accomodating unless what you are proposing is silly.

Regards to all


Roland

[AllThingsAudio]

Another option (not ideal but an alternative) is to use the inserts on the board (inserts are much more common than direct outs and are usually pre-fader) with an adapter cable that won't break the signal (these can be bought or made). Of course the inserts may be already used for outboard gear....

[Jay Kahrs]

Originally Posted by Roland

Running two sets of mic's IMHO is not a good solution, two sets of cables, two sets of mic stands, etc, it gets messy and p**ses people off, important people, like the band, the FOH guy etc.

Well it depends...

Last year I did a few gigs at a small upstate NY performing arts venue... capacity maybe 150. The FOH engineer at the center didn't want to put mics on everything and took like, kick & mono overhead for the drums... he also had just enough knowledge to be dangerous. I asked for a power drop and he plugged my rig into the same circuit the lighting rig was on... buzzmer.

The best solution in that case, and some other small venues is to run two sets of mics on things. That way my rig is self-contained and aside from maybe 4-6 channels I'm completely out of his hair... and he's outta mine.

For those gigs I built the rig at the artists rehearsal space, got most of my tones worked out in advance so we could roll in, drop the rig and get on fairly smoothly. The time sucker was finding the source of the buzz... everything else was smooth as silk and I was up and running in about two hours.

I agree... most times a split is the only way to go. But if you don't have that option for whatever reasons...

Best to communicate all this stuff well in advance of the gig.

Well in advance...