recording outside?

[Mark Finley]

Next Saturday my band is playing at the Plano balloon fest... it's obviously an outdoor park. I'm hoping to get a recording of the band, but I'm wondering the best way to do an open field recording like this. I'd like to do something better than what I can get on my camcorder, but I wont have access to the soundboard, so a recording using aux outs is not possible

I have a small mixer I can hook a microphone up to, and a laptop I can use for the recording, but what kind of microphone should I use? Dynamic? Condenser?

Which mic would deliver the best recording from a stage maybe 100 feet away?

[cmchamp]

condenser is best option at that distance. At that distance, a cardioid over hyper or omni. Additionally, at that distance, I don't know if even a good condenser will be that much better than the cameras mic. More later when I get home.

[Mark Finley]

well, i guess I can try the Cardoid, record on the camera at the same time, and use the audio from the one that works the best...

[[Admin] skstarkiller]

sometimes what I do is separate the audio and video track and clean up the audio as best I can and then re sync it with the video on a couple audio tracks which helps the volume a bit.

[cmchamp]

Depending on the make-up of the crowd and other layout characteristics, I would also have a shot-gun or two with me, options for use of a Mid-Side setup, a stereo pair, etc. One never knows what might happen and I'd want to be prepared.
Make sure you record your audio on the laptop at the same sample rate and bit rate as the camera records. Much easier to get things synced in post production.
C.

[Mark Finley]

yeah, this has to be a pretty simple setup. I'm going to be playing, so I wont be able to babysit the equipment. I'm hoping my son can sit with the camcorder and laptop.

[stevegoad]

In general, outdoors and simple set up don't match well... but you've got to try.

I would definitely go a separate audio recording, and them merge them.

I know you're going simple, but if you can do two mics with separate mixes, I would look at one near and one distant and balance the two.

If you only have one... middle of the space, with a very good wind screen (a good screen is almost as critical as the choice of mics itself for my money)

But that's my thought.