Need mic fast for live performance

[Sparda]

Is there a good mic that would be easy to get in stores? I would like to get one soon for recording a live rock performance, because it is only in a few days (5) so I can't wait for shipping. And I would prefer to record in stealth. If I must resort to the internet then I would still consider it for recording in the future. Thanks.

[boojum]

Is there a good mic that would be easy to get in stores? I would like to get one soon for recording a live rock performance, because it is only in a few days (5) so I can't wait for shipping. And I would prefer to record in stealth. If I must resort to the internet then I would still consider it for recording in the future. Thanks.

Call Sound Professionals, Microphone Madness, The Musicians Friend and see who will overnight it to you. You will get it Monday. Next time, plan ahead and save those high shipping fees for overnight. Mics are light, so weight will be nearly nil.

Happy Trails.

[A440]

It's going to be difficult to find a good stealth mic in a store. The Sony mics, which are the easiest to find, are pretty obvious and are seriously lacking in bass.

My favorite stealth mic is still the Sound Professionals BMC-2.

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-BMC-2

Though apparently the BMC-1 is the same capsule in an even smaller housing.

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-BMC-1

They ship pretty fast, but 5 days might be cutting it close.

You will not be able to record a rock show via Mic-->Mic-in. You will get unlistenable distortion.

For a loud rock show you will also need a battery module to run through Line-in

http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm

(Or look for the Sound Professionals equivalent.)

Or at the very least an attenuator, the Radio Shack Headphone Volume Control (like my avatar), which you can find at their stores. Mic-->Headphone Volume Control-->Mic-in. And put the volume knob on the attenuator all the way to its maximum.

[Sparda]

Thanks for the help guys, helped a lot. So those SP-BMC2 seem pretty nice, but I forgot about the battery box so I guess I'll go with an attenuator.

Edit: Scratch that, I'll still get a battery box, but one question, do I need bass roll-off?

Edited May 19, 2007 by Sparda

[A440]

Bass rolloff is unnecessary and will make your recordings sound tinny.

In fact, I never understood why they put bass roll-off in battery boxes.

Bass roll-off is to prevent the preamp at Mic-in from overloading. When you go through Line-in, it can handle the bass. If you are recording in a boomy room without bass roll-off, you can always change the bass on playback, but at least you'll have an accurate recording.

Edited May 19, 2007 by A440

[pepper]

Will any battery box be compatible with the sp-bmc-1 mics.I have a battery box and dont want to spend more money if its not really needed.

[greenmachine]

Bass roll-off can make sense if you know you are going to record in a situation with overemphasized bass, which would need to be corrected afterwards anyway. If you lower the overemphasized bass from the beginning, you can set the recording levels higher, the dynamic range will be higher, noise after normalizing lower.

For recording non-amplified instruments in a reflective room like a church you certainly wouldn't want to roll-off the bass since it is not too present to begin with. It depends on the situation if a roll-off makes sense - if you don't know the location and sound system, you'd better not roll off and correct afterwards.