Recording a marching band indoors

[Tilt Down]

I’m recording a college marching band inside an arena. Should I be worried that it will over power my Scheops CMU6 with  MK4 cardiold capsule?  Would a dynamic mic work better? I’m concerned about echo too. 
 

I’m also wondering if a sanken lav on a drummer would get me crisp drums. 
 

Any suggestions appreciated. 

[Michael Render]

Marching bands are always tricky and indoors, even more so.

The MK4 has 132db max spl so you should be fine.

If you are only using 2 mics, try to get a x/y or ortf setup behind the drum major. As close to their ear level as permitted. Too many times I have seen people place mics at the back of the arena and struggle with echo from the back wall and chatter from the audience.

 

If the band is doing their routine (changing positions) you may want to throw 2 additional mics far left and right to cover it. This is tricky because the band is actively compensating for delay and you may have to align this afterward. In smaller venues, this is not so bad. In bigger venues, it becomes noticeable.

 

Drums in marching bands are tuned much higher than something similar on a drum set, so a lav can work nicely on them without losing too much low end. The problem for individual micing is that there is usually 10+ drums. Unless you are featuring one particular drummer, I wouldn't do it. My son was a featured performer (quads) on a video and he had a mic and gopro on his rig. It turned out quite nice. Individual drums usually are about 80-110 db, so a COS 11D could take that.

 

Results will be different depending on a lot of factors:

Where are you allowed to place mics? (during competitions, there are some strict rules)

Will there be an audience? This helps with reverb.

Will the band be static or in motion?

 

Good luck.

 

[Tilt Down]

Thanks a ton, Michael. This is along the lines of what I was thinking. There’s no audience - this is all for the cameras. 

[RunAndGun]

20 hours ago, Tilt Down said:

I’m recording a college marching band inside an arena. Should I be worried that it will over power my Scheops CMU6 with  MK4 cardiold capsule?  Would a dynamic mic work better? I’m concerned about echo too. 
 

I’m also wondering if a sanken lav on a drummer would get me crisp drums. 
 

Any suggestions appreciated. 

I’m presuming you are doing this at NCCU in a few days.  The description, your location and the timing can’t all just be coincidence.  I was on the first two of this series of four shoots(presuming your shoot is part of it…).  I was one of the cameras and one of my guys handled the audio.  I don’t remember the exact way he set it up, but he ran two Schoeps 641’s, two Sanken CS-3e’s and two Sanken COS-11’s.  And did multiple takes for audio, removing and adding certain sections(drum line, for instance)(it also helped that he was also in the band at a large university, so he knew what was going on).  Mic’ ing was all in front of the band, some elevated, some ground level, behind cameras(more or less, as they all move around at some point), where they were playing towards.  Presuming it will be like our first two, it will be in the empty basketball arena where the team plays.  It’s all for camera, so no audience, but mics were kept in a static location for all performances(there should be numerous takes of each song), as cameras moved around and shot every performance for different angles.

 

It’s a fun shoot and would love to be there, but the school kept changing dates and we were already booked when they finally nailed this one down 100%.  
 

I can reach out to my guy and see if he can talk to you about how he did it.

[Tilt Down]

Yep that’s it. Your description is helpful, as I have gotten very few details ahead of the shoot. I have those mics and will repeat what you’ve done. Thanks!