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Zoom H4: where to put in relation to band


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I have borrowed a friend's H4 to record a show. One guy's steel guitar does not go through the p.a. but through a separate amp. So, I need to put the H4 somewhere in front of the band to get all the sound, right? Does it matter how far away?

 

Perhaps I could put one p.a. speaker right beside his amp and put the H4 in front of that. I hope I can figure out how to use it.

 

In suppose starting / stopping it for each song would not be easy to do... just let it run continuously.

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You need to walk around while the band is playing and listen for a couple of things. It's pretty straight forward though. Balance of the band, and balance of the direct acoustic sound off stage (with the PA) vs. the ambient sound farther back.

 

Left to right give you the balance of the band and front to back works the ambience ratio. Farther back lessens the severity of the left to right. So walk around with that stuff in mind and really listen.

 

More than likely once you stepped back enough to get the band and PA in balance, the left to right center of the room will give you the right band balance. Now how far back is too far back? Listen. I would think if you back up from the stage on the left/right line of the room... once the balance of the PA and stage sound happens, that's your spot. Plenty of ambience, good band balance.

 

If you can get it away from the patrons conversations that's a good thing too. Go up!

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You mention the steel player. I hope things are in balance in the room to begin with. If not, make that happen before anything. Turn his amp up or get him in the PA. Either way, the balance in the room's got to be happening or you'll have to make a whole different type of recording...

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You can always mic up the amp, send that to the mixing board (dont broadcast over the PA but mix into the stream you're recording). Depends what your options are that though. If you can't do that then I guess trial and error is all you can do. Should be easy enough if you can set levels when they're soundchecking I guess.

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I usually try to find a spot out front - more or less on axis with one of the mains (seems to attenuate the vocals). Unfortunately, those spots often present a "security issue" with leaving the Zoom unattended. I've had some decent success putting it onstage - off axis from any instrument cabinet - but on axis with a vocal monitor. For us it means over by the bass player ... on axis with the sax player's monitor.

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