Live recording with a portable unit, Tascam DR-05 and similiar

[HoboCop]

I've got one of these DR05 units that I've used for a couple of years.. it works well and I understand it fine generally. I've never been satisfied with the placement of the unit though, it seems to make a lot of difference and It's always a compromise based on where it can go and be unobtrusive in a live venue.

Those of you who have experience with these types of digital recorders, do you have any tips for placement, what have you found that works the best? Do you feel like you get an accurate picture of what the room sounds like? If you've discovered specific things that are consistently mis-represented, please share them.

I mostly use it to judge the band mix and get a feel for how we are doing, not really so much interested in audio that I can use for promotion or whatever, although that would be great. I'd like to be able to listen back and confidently say what's wrong with the mix and judge the sound guy with it.

Thanks for any feedback or observations!

 

[ggunn]

I've got one of these DR05 units that I've used for a couple of years.. it works well and I understand it fine generally. I've never been satisfied with the placement of the unit though, it seems to make a lot of difference and It's always a compromise based on where it can go and be unobtrusive in a live venue.

Those of you who have experience with these types of digital recorders, do you have any tips for placement, what have you found that works the best? Do you feel like you get an accurate picture of what the room sounds like? If you've discovered specific things that are consistently mis-represented, please share them.

I mostly use it to judge the band mix and get a feel for how we are doing, not really so much interested in audio that I can use for promotion or whatever, although that would be great. I'd like to be able to listen back and confidently say what's wrong with the mix and judge the sound guy with it.

Thanks for any feedback or observations!

If you want to use it to critique the sound guy, put it at the sound board. If you want better quality (less room noise), then put it near the stage. If you don't want to hear a lot of talking, put it on a tall (extended) mic stand or find someplace to hang it from the ceiling.

 

[tbirdsp]

Not what you are asking about exactly - but I used my DR05 to get some pretty good live recordings. I assigned the vocals to one subgroup on our mixer and all of the instruments to another. Ran these two subgroups out to the DR05 L/R - so I got a 2-track recording. Imported the "stereo" recording into Reaper (DAW) software and split the tracks so I had two mono tracks, instruments and vox. Mixed them down and it came out pretty good.

 

[ggunn]

Not what you are asking about exactly - but I used my DR05 to get some pretty good live recordings. I assigned the vocals to one subgroup on our mixer and all of the instruments to another. Ran these two subgroups out to the DR05 L/R - so I got a 2-track recording. Imported the "stereo" recording into Reaper (DAW) software and split the tracks so I had two mono tracks, instruments and vox. Mixed them down and it came out pretty good.

That works in a big room or outdoors where everything is miced and stage volume does not contribute much to the mix out front.

 

[tbirdsp]

Well - this was a small corner bar. Bass was DI from my MB200 head, guitar amp miced up, keys line out to the board. Had a mic on the kick and I think that was it (maybe one on the snare too). Vocal mics picked up the drums a lot. I was running sound from the stage. The big thing I have found when taking a direct feed from the board at a live gig is the vocals are usually too loud - because the guitar, bass, etc have their amps, drums are acoustically loud - but vox is only coming through the PA and monitors. That's why I split up the instruments and vocals. Not saying I didn't get really lucky on the mix - but it came out 1000 times better than I thought it would.