Live concert mic position advice

[riggler]

Hi guys,

I'm going to be recording a live outdoor rock show at a festival. Crowd size will be maybe 500-1000 people. Console is Allen and Heath ML3000, PA will be good sized with stage monitor wedges, etc and a fairly large FOH setup.

Band is Dave Matthews style stuff. I will be recording 10 tracks multitrack, 8 channels of that will be off direct outs on the console.

So I am going to run a stereo pair of mics. Traditionally I've done a spaced pair of SDC mics on high stands a few feet apart at the mix position. Never really sounds super great to me though in the mix. Usable at a low low level to help liven things up, but not doing what I want. Even with delaying the close mics to sync things up it's still so-so.

Anyone with experience care to share? XY? Dynamics? Mics on stage facing crowd????

 

[MHanson]

It all depends on what you're after.....

The FOH mics work great if the room and mix sounds great, if not I think they're usually unusable also. 

Most of the time I have more sources than your talking about, especially room mics.  Much like putting a couple shotguns on stage pointing out towards the crowd help the in-ear mixes for musicians to connect with the crowd, they can also help you in a post mix.  Being shotguns, they'll reject a bit of the PA if placed right and give you some really good crowd control.  Condensers on stage sometimes give a good hall ambience with the crowd also....

I usually have a few mics on stage and the FOH mics.

The main question here is what are you looking to get out of your room mics??  If it's the finished mix to then supplement additional source stuff into, you're probably going to have a hard time with it.

YMMV

 

[riggler]

Well,

Since I can only take in 10 tracks, my thought was this:

Direct channels:
Vocal
Acoustic Guitar
Elec Violin
Bass
Kick
Overhead L
Overhead R

...and then 2 mics I can put wherever! Do you think those would be better off as shotguns as a spaced pair on stage firing towards the crowd, versus FOH mics. Seems like that could eliminate phase issues anyway.

What I was thinking is add the sound of these mics in to the direct sound to liven things up. Maybe my thinking should be reversed?

 

[Johan]

if you record the audience, get the mics far away from any one person so that the livesound track that could make or break the mix isn't filled with someone yelling to his friend how much beter some other band is or how he hates his jobb..you don't want to catch a conversation..
J

 

[0dbfs]

Try to get the audience mic(s) just behind the PA column. The columns have pretty good rejection to the rear and any bleed will then be mostly time aligned with the FOH direct out's. Your FOH mic's will be latent depending on the distance so all other "direct" sources will need to be time aligned by xx number of milliseconds depending on how many feet from the columns they are.

Otherwise combining channels like snare/bass if you need to can give you hi/low eq controls which will minimize effects on the other sound. Try to get a good balance going in of course.

-jb

 

[riggler]

Thank you gentlemen!
I will setup the shotguns high just behind the columns. I have a pair of 14 foot stands that should do nicely.