I want to get some good recordings at one of our gigs. I have a Zoom H2 Recorder:



And I'd like to figure out a good place to put it.

This is the layout of the gig -- we are on a small stage, about 10 inches above the main floor.



I'd like to avoid bringing a mic stand, but that could be done. My thinking is to move the tip table more towards the bass player, and put the recorder there, although I'd worry that someone might steal it.

Any suggestions?

Also, anyone with Zoom H2 experience -- what microphone gain setting would you recommend?

Thanks!

Hi Al!

I have the same recorder you do. Love it!

What I do is try a couple of different spots for the recorder during the warmup. Every venue is different, so I don't think there's a foolproof way you can count on every time.

Good luck!

Gretchen

The table is there - it seems the obvious place to try first! Did your H2 come with a rudimentary table stand? That should be sufficient.

If there's any danger of overload at the high mic setting, go to the low one. You can bring gain up later, when the audio is transferred to your computer for trimming and other editing.

Make sure you're recording to WAV (44.1KHz is fine) not to MP3, particularly if you'll be normalising the level. When you bring the file into the wave editor on your computer be sure to trim out peaks due to handling noise etc. first, else you'll be normalising to THAT level, not to the music.

Please let us hear the result!

Hi Al,

Is that you on Piano? Like Exalted Wombat, I too would love to hear your music.

Thanks!
Dan

Thanks, guys. Yes, that is me on the piano.

So, Gretchen, do you try the different locations, and listen with headphones to see what kind of balance you get?

I think I'll use the Medium gain setting, hoping not to get any overload. The bass player has an amp, but it is at a very low gain.

Yes, the H2 comes with a small table stand, but I have tiny tripod that looks like this, and I think I'll use that.



I just got the H2, and I'm looking forward to getting some good recordings.

In the past I've recorded a few gigs with this tiny mono voice recorder:



and I converted the results to a faux-stereo by shifting things, etc.

Here's a result that I'm proud of from another gig:

http://www.box.com/shared/bn67k1thi2

Hey, Dan, I really enjoyed the recordings on your site. You've got a great solo sound that is the kind of style that I'm working towards. The wind synth has great note choices, too, nice solos. Thanks.

In the circumstances, with you as recordist and performer, I don't think you'll be able to do any more than guesstimate a level and test-record a complete gig. Maybe try a different position after the break.

Assessment will come when you get home, look at the waveform and listen to it. The perfect recording will be on the NEXT gig!

Thanks Al,

Really looking forward to hearing you and your group. Very curious about the H2. I bet it will really produce an amazing recording. I guess you will have to try all kinds of experimentation as far as placement. This might sound strange but since you have a wall behind you and to the left would it be possible to hang it from the ceiling in front of the band? Just a wild idea. EW, what do you think?

Dan

Difficult to say. There's a wall, but it seems to be wood, which is good. I can't see the side wall. Is that a carpet on the stage floor? What's the ceiling material, and I'd like to see what it does forward of the stage area, the nature of the back wall of the room and how far away from the stage it is...

And even if everything LOOKS good, you still have to suck-it-and-see :-)

"...Very curious about the H2. I bet it will really produce an amazing recording."

It's ok for recording practice sessions; I wouldn't go so far as to say 'amazing.' It is compact and easy to use, but you won't get anything like the quality you might capture with a more serious recording machine and better mikes.

I played a duo gig there last night (bass and piano), and used the recorder on the tip jar table. I'm listening now, and am very happy with the result.

I used the front (90 degree) mics towards us (one pointing at the bass, one at the piano), and had the mic gain to medium. That seems good: here's how the gain turned out:



That's probably ideal, right?

Here's a teaser clip -- funny because at 57 seconds in, you can hear someone dropping some coins into the tip jar! For this clip, the only post-processing I did was to normalize the max amplitude to -2 db.

Making Money!

So, this device will work fine for me.

Yes, the stage is carpeted, and the ceiling is acoustic tile.

Here are a few of the recordings. Leaving aside my mistakes, I'd say that for my purposes, the quality is perfectly good.

Birk's Works

Pennies from Heaven

Well You Needn't

Nice! I hope the clink of coins wasn't the loudest thing in the file! That would mess up the normalisation :-)

Dang, what nice playing! Thanks for sharing that with us!

Now I've got to
a) get me one of those fancy recorders, and
b) practice, practice, practice so I don't sound like a fool on it!

Al,

Nice duo, ideas, and the recording quality is not bad.

Dan

I know you said you didn't want to schlep a mic stand but I bought this for my Sony PCM-D50 and I get a better overall balance now with the trio. I just screw it into the mic stand and set it either in the middle of the trio or out front depending how important the visual thing is.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CameraAdapt/

Before that I used the tripod and just stuck it on the music desk. I was getting a lot of piano (is that a bad thing ? ) and less bass & drums.

I played there last night with the full trio. There was a mic stand there, so I used the mic stand adapter that comes with the H2, and this is where I had the mic:



And here is an example of how it sounded, which I'm happy even with the errors. You'll notice some glitches in the sound, but those occurred during Audacity's creation of the MP3 file; I'll have to figure out what that's about.

Ipanema

Al,

I'm very impressed by this recording. Your arrangement sounds very professional and very well played. Very nice trio. Is the book in front of a hint that you are indeed sight reading your arrangements? If so, congratulations. Looks like all that hard work paid off big time.

The recording is great. I'm amazed how much bass you got, and how little drums. Overall nice levels. And not too much chatter. Too often, you'll pick up actual discussions of people that are close, And since they're close, they have to talk loud ....

Very nice!

Thanks, Knotty.

No, I'm not sight-reading. There are some tunes that I read from the fakebook. Green Dolphin and Ipanema are both memorized. Neither is an arrangement -- they are just straight out of The Real Book, with simple vamps as introductions.

My sight-reading is progressing, and I'm still working on it, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to read full written out arrangements at a gig.