I've got a really exciting session coming up
tomorrow at the
Bethesda Arcade Tunnel in Central Park, NYC. I'm doing the audio for a live performance video with a cellist/singer with whom I've
worked extensively.
This whole thing fell into place kinda last minute, so I've only had a couple days to plan, and have been juggling a couple other projects and a day job. So, I haven't had a chance to go scope the location leading up to this, but if I recall correctly from past visits I think the acoustics are great.
She'll have with her a harmonica, one other main singer, and a ukulele (playing mainly percussion on the uke). She also is quite improvisational in spirit and loves to invite audience participation in singing along; she invited some friends and will be trying to get strangers to sing along too. Who knows how that will go over in the middle of Central Park, but in any case there will be a few or maybe many people (foreign tourists?) singing along.
How would you guys go about miking this setup? I want to keep it pretty minimal, as I don't want any more mics, cables and stands around than necessary in such a ridiculously public place, but it'd also of course be great to have clarity for each instrument and options in the mix. Certainly I'll have a main XY or ORTF pair, and I was thinking I would also have one close mic each instrument, as she doesn't mind having mics in the shot. I was thinking of sticking to mostly dynamic mics for the close mics.
I'll be recording on a Tascam DR-608, so I'll have 6 inputs there, and the two camera people will have two inputs each (I think?) I'll also have a Zoom H4N, for which I could use its onboard XY mics and/or two extra inputs, but of course that'd be one more device for which to deal with sync, batteries, SD cards etc. The mics I'm able to take are:
SM57 (2)
SM58
Beta 58
Sennheiser e906
Blue Bluebird
Rode NT5 (2)
Shotgun and lav (don't know exactly what, as one of the videographers is bringing them)
Cello pickup
I'm a bit concerned about wind--am I gonna get a major wind tunnel effect in that place? Any tips you guys have for dealing with that? I have windscreens for my NT5s, and I'm hoping using otherwise mostly dynamic mics will help some, as well as trying to position everything where there's the least wind.
And any tips you guys have for keeping my gear protected and effective in such a very public place? Anyone ever do a similar session and have stories to share?
Lastly, if anyone wants to come see this going down, it's happening around 2PM tomorrow!
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