DAT-Heads Digest #722, Volume #2                 Sun, 21 Apr 96 01:12:01 EDT

From: "Michael T. Tuell" <mtuell@primenet.com>
Subject: Small Club Taping
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 15:20:47 -0700 (MST)

Hello fellow DAT-heads!

I just thought that I'd chip in my 2 cents on the subject of taping in small
clubs.

It has been mentioned that small clubs don't get a full mix coming off the
soundboard because it was meant to be added to the stage sound.  It was also
mentioned that a separate mix can be done on some boards.  Sometimes the
engineer won't have time to deal with it - sometimes you will get lucky and
be able to mix it yourself with one or two matrix outputs which mixes the
(typically) 4 or 8 subgroups independently of the main mix.

Now, this is all fine and dandy - you hopefully have a good mix between all
the instruments and vocals.  BUT - even if you have a perfect mix, I contend
that it still won't sound right.  It will be very sterile and unnatural.

Consider the typical layout of a small club's sound system:

Instruments /> stage amps -----------------------------------\
            \> soundboard \> Monitors ------------------------\ Room
Microphones -> soundboard /> Power amps /> Main PA Speakers --/ Acoustics
                  ^                     \> Subwoofers -------/
                  v
               effects loop

OK, so...if you get a soundboard recording - what are you missing?  About
half the sound system!  The feed coming from the board is intended to go
into 10,000 Watts of power amplifiers which feed banks of 15" woofers and
huge horns and then finally make it out into the room.  The equalization and
effects are based on the room acoustics, so unless you playback your
soundboard tape through the PA at your local club - it will never sound right.

The solution?  Audience mics of course!  If you put cardiod condensers in
the back of the room you will most likely hear the echo of the room, most
noticeably in the vocals (is this a psychological phenomena - because it is
a human voice?)  If you use hypercardiods pointed at the PA stacks...well,
now we're back to the same problem of not getting the right mix because you
are mostly missing the stage volume.  So, what I've had the most success
with so far is to put cardiods right up front (like 8 feet from the PA
stack...) with one pointed at a PA speaker and the other pointing across the
stage.  The drums and bass guitar come in so much better than a soundboard
that you won't even beleive it.  You also get a good direct PA sound which
is so much louder than the echoes that the vocals really have a good punch
to them - but they sound natural.

Like I said, this is what I've had the most success with so far.  It's still
not perfect - but it's pretty damned good.  If any of you are interested in
hearing some of this, I can make a few copies or perhaps provide a seed for
a tree.  I've gotten a couple really good tapes of Tucson bands that really
smoke.

Any comments?  Just my 2c worth...

Peace,
Mike

mtuell@primenet.com
http://www.primenet.com/~mtuell/index.html
http://www.primenet.com/~mtuell/music.html