Best way to mic a band's ambient sound

[LoveBandit]

The little garage (OK, basement) band that I jam with usually runs our stuff through a soundboard and we record the practice session to a PC harddrive. Next session we want to simplify things and just have one or two mics in the basement room to record how the room "hears" us as the instruments come through their amps and the vocals through the PA. Sound quality is not that important but we do want an accurate representation of our relative volumes and passable quality.

QUESTIONS: What type of mic (or mics) should we set in the room to get a decent recording of our ambient sound and where should the mics be placed? We own plenty of Shure vocal mics and one silver condenser (I think it is a condenser anyway) mic suspended on that rubber suspension system thingy. Will these mics do an adequate job or do we have to go out and get some mics like a Deadhead would use on tour or something? Thanks for any help...... LB.

[twin twelve]

Medium to large diaphram condensor mics are the way to go if you can. They do generally run on phantom power so you'll need either a little mixer or pre-amp for them. Depending on what kind of soundboard you have you can do this:

Run the mics into the board (assuming you have phantom power on the board. run the direct out from the channel into your recorder. Pull the faders on the mic channels down all the way so the sound doesn't go through your pa (would create feedback). You can control the signal by using the channel trims.

Experiment with mic placement starting about 10 feet or so from the band. Record, listen to playback and move mics around till you get the sound you want.

Doug

[LoveBandit]

Sound's like what I will try.....THANKS!! LB.

[sliding-tom]

PZMs would work well for an application like yours, too. Is Radio Shack still carrying their inexpensive models? I have two and they are not too bad for their price range.

[Kap'n]

I don't think Rat Shack still carries them (PZMs). However, you can find them as the "Crown Sound Grabber II" at other outlets.

[sliding-tom]

Yeah, when I picked up my pair a couple of years ago, they told me that they had got in trouble with Crown and had them rebranded.