What's on your digital camera?

[Lazerface]

Latest shots from an outdoor gig. Recording a marching band for video, sync in post. Didn't get any shots of the mics unfortunately, I was too busy battling rain and severe thunderstorm warnings.

For those interested, that is a Roland REAC digital snake. 16 channels and 8 returns.

[Dan Steinberg]

Here's some pics of a recent remote recording I did for local Maryland blues outfit "The Kelly Bell Band".

Very interesting and fun gig, it was an acoustic trio (but through a PA), along with guest blues Musician Linwood Taylor, in a small Italian restaurant courtyard space. Performers played "in the round" with folks eating at tables in a complete circle around them, everyone very snug.

My photos don't really capture the overall crowd setup really well because my SLR camera only had its 70-200 lens on it and I could not zoom out very far, plus everything was so tight that once the gig started I was kind of trapped at my recording station, no room to get out anywhere without climbing over a patron


Recording Rig: 16 channels of outboard mic pres (Mackie Onyx 800R and an original Focusrite Octopre), each of which have the handy ability to send their 8 outputs in triplicate: Two duplicate ADAT feeds, plus a third analog feed on a DB-25 connector.

-1st set of Adat outs feeds my Tascam MX-2424 hard disc recorder.

-Duplicate set of outputs feeds the dual ADAT inputs of my Mackie 1200F audio interface, which records a safety multi-track to Logic Audio. This safety DAW recording also lets me monitor an onsite mix of the tracks, without having to lug a physical mixer along for that purpose.

-Analog outputs feed the line inputs on each channel of the PA mixer for the audience mix. I know that on a larger gig the FOH engineer would not take kindly to me having control of all the mic levels and him/her recieving line inputs, but for this gig they ran their own PA and it was casual.

Channel count was very basic, only came out to 8 tracks: Lead vocal, 2 separate background vocals, acoustic guitar, 2nd guest acoustic guitar, percussion mic, and an upright piano that I miced up in stereo.





Overhead shot of the recording rig (set on top of Kelly's rack so as to not use up a table for customers) with the house PA mixer sitting opposite my rig.





Overhead shot of opening act Ben Sherman from upstairs loft, showing a bit more of crazy in-the-round setup, but still not the while situation. Picture, if you will, a complete circle of 8 or so round tables forming a complete circle around the performer, each filled with 6-8 people munching on Italian delicacies.





Artsy-fartsy shot of my stereo Audio Technica AT825 pointing down into the old funky upright acoustic piano. I would have much preferred to mic the soundboard of the piano from behind, but it would have constantly been knocked over from diners squeezing behind the piano all evening.





Singer Kelly Bell





Guest Musician Linwood Taylor

[Remoteness]

Dan,

Nice post; keep the awesome shots coming!

[Dan Steinberg]

Originally Posted by Remoteness

Dan,

Nice post; keep the awesome shots coming!

Thanks Steve, I appreciate it!

I will definitely do some more posts in this thread when I can, but first I have to book the next gig

Although I used to work full time as an audio engineer, my main profession these days is as a product manager for the different companies that make our beloved gear, and I don't do these types of recording jobs as often as I would like (trying to change that lately though).

Although I have been doing more remote gigs lately, this was the first one I thought to actually take any pictures of! Ever since I upgraded from a point 'n shoot to a digital SLR, I have caught the photographer bug bad. As if pro audio wasn't an expensive enough habit by itself......

[hbphotoav]

Just be sure your next lens is something in the 16-80 (APS chip) or 24-120 (full-sized chip) range. While you can always (mostly) walk closer to a subject, many more's the time you can't get back far enough...

Nice shots.

HB

[Dan Steinberg]

Originally Posted by hbphotoav

Just be sure your next lens is something in the 16-80 (APS chip) or 24-120 (full-sized chip) range. While you can always (mostly) walk closer to a subject, many more's the time you can't get back far enough...

Nice shots.

HB

I actually also own a 20-200 lens as well, and in hindsight it's zooming versatility might have been better since once the gig started I was completely trapped in my chair.

But, I did not bring that one since it does not do as well in low light, maxing out at F6.3. Whereas the 70-200 lens I used, the famous "Minolta Beercan", has a constant max of F4, and I figured it would do better in the low light of the show. I didn't realize I'd be trapped so close to the action, which was fine for bandmember closeups, but not good at all for capturing the feel of the recording setup and the layout of mics and gear.

Apologies to everyone for the off-topic photo discussion nerdiness. I know this is gearslutz, not dpreview.com

[hbphotoav]

Originally Posted by Dan Steinberg

Apologies to everyone for the off-topic photo discussion nerdiness. I know this is gearslutz, not dpreview.com

Nerdiness...! Who yoo callin' a "nerdy" man...?

I greatly resemble that remark. Off-topic, if course.

H

[zoom]

...an interesting monitoring setup. it's nice to address directly 32 output channels.
this is for research and development, using special sound-designed audio.
i've got a very special surround-sound experience here!

these studios are located in the company where I'm working temporarily. (btw -one of the largest genelec customers scandinavia. :-) )

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by zoom

...an interesting monitoring setup. it's nice to address directly 32 output channels.
this is for research and development, using special sound-designed audio.
i've got a very special surround-sound experience here!

these studios are located in the company where I'm working temporarily. (btw -one of the largest genelec customers scandinavia. :-) )

Interesting.....

You should also look at the Auro-3D set-up. This is 5.1+4, the extra 4 being height information.

The ProSound News write-up is HERE and there is a White Paper pdf downloadable here.

I have heard these systems and they are amazing - it's eye-opening as to what the height information brings, it makes 5.1 sound flat and mono in comparison.

.

[Remoteness]

Very interesting indeed, Zoom.

Please tell us more.

Also, who's the manufacturer of the mic stand in picture five?

...and, is that some kind of telescoping chair in picture two?

I always loved Northern European designs and manufacturing!

[zoom]

ok, but unfortunately I can't go deep into the details of this 3D surround setup because I work in the moment there in an other lab for electroacoustics and not at this nice facility. The studios you see in these photos are the working places for technical audiologists and DSP-engineers and the company is a big hearing aid manufacturer in denmark. Of course this studio is a nice playroom anyway. :-)

This special chair in the middle are for test persons participating in listening tests (wearing new hearing aids under development which have to be tested). All kind of acoustical surroundings are played back here but also music and situations in live concerts. Main focus is mostly the speech intelligibility, listening comfort and sound quality of the hearing devices. Even there are objective measurement methods, we need to take always 'real listeners' into account.

It's difficult, for a larger group of visitors, to get them all together into the sweet-spot of this loudspeaker circle when they listen to a demonstration. A similar setup is in Aahus University in Denmark.

I'll try to find an article (I have it somewhere in my archives) from the 'Resolution' studio-magazine (Resolution | the audio production magazine), which was published last year in 2010. There was a report focussing on exactly this surround setup and how it is used for. Maybe someone has still access to the last year's issues?
...and for the mic-stand I'll have a look - coming back then...

cheers
stefan

[zoom]

Originally Posted by Remoteness

[...]Also, who's the manufacturer of the mic stand in picture five?[...]

this is a Yellowtec MIKA mic arm - have a look here:
Yellowtec (MIKA Microphone Arms)

...and I finally found the article as a pdf-scan from RESOLUTION (issue April 2010)
Article Acoustics_development_at_Oticon.pdf

(hope this link works! :-) )

[Remoteness]

Thanks for sharing the Yellowtec MIKA mic arm link.
It's a very cool mic stand!

[Sheikyearbouti]

Some pics from a drum session in a cave. I started here a thread about this half an year ago and couldn't get much help. Well, I guess that not many people do stuff like that Hence it's difficult to predict what will happen. And now that I've done it (for a second time, this time two separate sessions), I can see why... But it is worth the effort. This place is great for drums and I will be back for more. I am planning to record the drums for an entire album and spend at least a week there. Maybe some vocals/back vocals too.
Best part is that there is a house about 300m away from the cave which one can rent and use as headquarters.

I've decided to include a short sample of a rough mix. Just bit of compression and EQ + some time delay on the spots. It needs more work though. I am waiting for a free time gap at a friend's studio and mix it on a 32ch Neve desk. No Lexicon needed

[Remoteness]

Thanks sharing Nikolay.

Interesting; I would have used much less mics.
In any event, the drums sound fabulous.

Keep up the good work!

[Fuzzy Logic]

no lexicon needed indeed

[Plush]

These pics from Sept. 10, 2011.

Stars of Lyric Opera live concert and live world-wide radio broadcast.

Renee Fleming headlined the show.

[NorseHorse]

Hello Plush,

Did the PA and recording teams share microphones?

How did the split(s) work?

Thanks.

[Remoteness]

Nice pictures, Plushness!

[Plush]

Originally Posted by NorseHorse

Hello Plush,

Did the PA and recording teams share microphones?

How did the split(s) work?

Thanks.

It was a great show!

On this one we set up our own mics and also shared some with the P.A.
For us only (no splits) we had our main pair, flanks and some inner orch section mics. We shared some other section mics and we shared two vocal mics. (Schoeps MK22 on wands.) Total mixed channels were only 18 channels + 6 channels on a talking vox and cd playback sub-mixer (ReVox C279 console).

Splits were done from a central distribution box at the venue.

Mic amps were John Hardy M1 channels and also a Focusrite Octopre MK II Dynamic. (8 ch.) This was the first use of the Focusrite which sounded very good. We used its built in compressors on the singing voices.

[willi1203]

Focusrite Octopre MK II Dynamic

Didn't you use the DAV pres ?

[Plush]

Hello Willi in CH,

Take it easy, baby--don't stress out.

I wanted to try out this new box with its built in "one knob adjustment" compressors. The box sounded great, compressor worked great and this box interfaced with a ADAT cable into my console. Simple and effective.

The d.a.v. electronics were on another job site.

Phew---hope you can breathe easier now.

[molownia]

Originally Posted by Plush

Hello Willi in CH,



The box sounded great, compressor worked great and this box interfaced with a ADAT cable into my console. Simple and effective.

I'm happy to hear that a $600 box sounded great in your opinion. I've been considering getting one.

[npulsipher]

Originally Posted by molownia

I'm happy to hear that a $600 box sounded great in your opinion. I've been considering getting one.

That is good news. Especially coming from someone as experienced as our plush. Thanks for sharing!

[willi1203]

Phew ! Yeah Plush, I'm re-breathing now !

[Gaston69]

It is not directly Audio related however we all need Electricity in order to run our equipment however Nuclear energy is a No Go! That's what I learned in my visit to the deserted towns Pripyat and Tchernobyl. After 25 years everything is still contaminated with Radio Active dust and people still die/suffer etc. Please have a look at the pictures I took on 23 December 2011

[Remoteness]

That's pretty heavy stuff, Gaston...

Think about what just happened in Japan and what could happen in NYC and elsewhere.
IMHO, we do not have enough intelligent solutions on how to contain the material in the event of a disaster I'm afraid.

[JazzSax_UT]

Originally Posted by Gaston69

It is not directly Audio related however we all need Electricity in order to run our equipment however Nuclear energy is a No Go! That's what I learned in my visit to the deserted towns Pripyat and Tchernobyl. After 25 years everything is still contaminated with Radio Active dust and people still die/suffer etc. Please have a look at the pictures I took on 23 December 2011

That second picture, is that a model of what happened to the reactor?

[Gaston69]

Originally Posted by JazzSax_UT

That second picture, is that a model of what happened to the reactor?

Yes

[SaraLs]

I don't know how I could possibly follow that exchange, but I'll try.

I saw this guy at NAMM. Rep, singer, musician, engineer? I'm not sure, but he certainly looked good. He was hard to talk to, though (and I tried!).