Live Concert Recording - Anyone done this before

[Saudade]

Ok...just another of my crazy whimsical ideas

I was thinking, what's better than surround sound mix of a concert? Why, how about getting to choose to be one of the players themselves?

Has anyone tried making each performer wear a pair of high quality binaural mics at their ears, then recording separate stems on top of the usual mic sources?

Then people can release concert DVDs whereby the viewer can choose from diffferent mixes, listening from each player's perspective (blended with other mic sources), on top of the usual audience / FOH perspective. Add corresponding camera angles (player's view) and wow it'd be like being there and you are the guitar hero!!! How's that for total entertainment?

Whaddya guys think?

[Enginearing]

love it... pop a pair of omnis on each player... rx to tape...

[abtech]

Have you ever listened to the monitor feeds that most bands hear during a show? Not certain anyone would really enjoy listening to that instead of a complete mix of the show.

[trompetfreak]

Two countrymans/DPA's on the ears...

Now I think of it, In most orchestras is too much noise ant things going on to make it work...
It wouldn't work on a violinist, since the instrument will be really close to one of the mics and the other one would hear nothing workable...
If there's a trumpet behind you, it wouldn't work either.
And then come the monitors...

nahh...
Nice idea, but nahh...

[kosmokrator]

Sorry, not a new idea.
Problem is the switching between the tracks/angles. DVD is not too good at this.
Bluray maybe..

[RobAnderson]

I guess it depends on the type of music, but a binaural option might be cool if

(a) it were optional to choose "conductor" perspective as well as some various spots in the audience for events at certain concert halls like Musikverein, Carnegie Hall, etc.
or
(b) for Rock concerts maybe a FOH perspective so the listener can experience the mix through the ears of the guy mixing the event.

Might be tough to convince the conductor to wear this sort of thing - instead of "ear mic's", I guess there's always the Fritz head...

[7rojo7]

better if they're not attached to any thing that moves or it would have to be M/S with an omni M.
yeah, most stage mixes wouldn't cut it
nice educationl idea
better to do with more trad techniques

[Enginearing]

the marketing exercise is there for the taking... apply it to live sports broadcasts... crowd, umpire, even things like gridiron helmets.
though anything is possible, i doubt it could make tennis interesting for more than 2 mins meh

[Murton]

It is already used in dvd's to some extent, I know in some productions, when the camera goes to a certain musician, there instrument goes up slightly in the mix to highlight their performance whilst the camera is on them. If you had audience camera's, foh etc, you could have two omni's at each camera and bring those up in the mix when they are shown on the video. Simple automation to bring in the exact perspective that the camera is at. It would only be a very little increase, enough to notice when you ab it and you know what is happening, but not enough when it flows and you don't know what you are looking for. Smoke and mirrors, simple tricks to add something special.

[te-problematique]

hmm that would only appeal to monitor engineers i think, god knows they're the only people who can stand to listen to their mixes

[Thomas W. Bethe]

You probably would not get what you think you would be getting if you were to do this with rock performers. The monitor mix would overwhelm the sound they were hearing and the monitor mix would not be something that the average person would want to listen to.

Most classical and jazz musicians would not want in ear phones/microphones in both their ears as they have to hear what they are doing.

Most sports contests are already in 5.1 surround and have been done that way for a couple of years.

We tried doing a concert in 5.1 surround from the performers position. It was done as a trial and we also did a normal recording of the concert. Most people much preferred the normal setup with the microphones in front of the musicians as that is the way they normally hear it in the concert hall. Even the musicians were not happy with the perspective provided by the 5.1 setup since they are use to hearing recordings from the audience's standpoint. The concert was a string quartet playing contemporary music.

Nice idea not too practical.

[schulein]

Hi,
I have been experimenting with dedicated performance binaural and video recordings, with results posted on YouTube.
If interested search under ImmersAV for examples.
Bob Schulein