Micing drums with ONE mic only, live recording!

[Brendan Thompson]

I have an 8 channel mixer which has 4 mic inputs and 2 stereo line ins... or
5 mic inputs and one stereo line in. We're doing a gig next Friday and I
want to record it, as we have to send everything through the PA anyway. Just
a simple 2 track stereo recording.

The band have 2 vocalists, drums, 2 guitars, keyboard and bass. The way I
figure it, we can take line outputs from both guitarist's multifx into one
stereo line in, leaving us with 5 more channels with either mic or line. 2
of these are taken by vocals - leaving 3 channels of either mic or line.
Keyboard and bass each go line in... leaving me with 1 mic channel for
drums. Help!

I can possibly do a mono submix using a little keyboard mixer of up to 4
channels - I was considering having keyboard and bass go into the keyboard
mixer and then into a mono line in on the mixer and then having 2 mics on
drums, one as an overhead over the snare, and the other positioned about a
foot back and a foot above the kit. The other idea I had was to just have
one mic on the snare, and the other on the kick... there's no hole in our
front head, so it can't go inside, i'll be micing the beater side if i mic
anything.

If it were just a recording, I would set up a snare overhead about 2 or 3
feet off the head, one over the drummer's right shoulder about 2 feet back
and up, and one about 10 or 15 feet back from the kit... but onstage this is
hardly practical.

Help me out!

[Brendan Thompson]

"Brendan Thompson" > wrote in message
...
> I have an 8 channel mixer which has 4 mic inputs and 2 stereo line ins...
or
> 5 mic inputs and one stereo line in. We're doing a gig next Friday and I
> want to record it, as we have to send everything through the PA anyway.
Just
> a simple 2 track stereo recording.
>
> The band have 2 vocalists, drums, 2 guitars, keyboard and bass. The way I
> figure it, we can take line outputs from both guitarist's multifx into one
> stereo line in, leaving us with 5 more channels with either mic or line. 2
> of these are taken by vocals - leaving 3 channels of either mic or line.
> Keyboard and bass each go line in... leaving me with 1 mic channel for
> drums. Help!
>
> I can possibly do a mono submix using a little keyboard mixer of up to 4
> channels - I was considering having keyboard and bass go into the keyboard
> mixer and then into a mono line in on the mixer and then having 2 mics on
> drums, one as an overhead over the snare, and the other positioned about a
> foot back and a foot above the kit. The other idea I had was to just have
> one mic on the snare, and the other on the kick... there's no hole in our
> front head, so it can't go inside, i'll be micing the beater side if i mic
> anything.
>
> If it were just a recording, I would set up a snare overhead about 2 or 3
> feet off the head, one over the drummer's right shoulder about 2 feet back
> and up, and one about 10 or 15 feet back from the kit... but onstage this
is
> hardly practical.
>
> Help me out!
>

I also considered an XY config for overheads in front of the kit...

[Peter Larsen]

Brendan Thompson wrote:

> I have an 8 channel mixer which has 4 mic inputs

If it has 4 mic inputs, then it is a 4 channel mixer with additional
stereo line inputs.

> The band have 2 vocalists, drums, 2 guitars, keyboard and bass.

Hmmm ...

> The way I figure it, we can take line outputs from both
> guitarist's multifx into one stereo line in,

Gonna sound like crap, ya can't DI guitar into a non-closeup recording
and make the sonic perspective work. First let's analyze this for
requirements, you need 1 stereo image of guitars, keyboard and bass, you
need one stereo image of vocalists and you need one stereo image of the
drumset. That's three, it leaves room for an optional, possibly very
useful, fourth: an ambience pair above the stage that gets an overall
image. It may or may not work, but that is how I would first try to get
this into 8 inputs.

> leaving us with 5 more channels with either mic or line.
> 2 of these are taken by vocals - leaving 3 channels of
> either mic or line. Keyboard and bass each go line in...
> leaving me with 1 mic channel for drums. Help!

First I do not believe in the usability of line in'd instruments in a
live recording. It doesn't even sound right in the pa, but it sounds
plain wrong in a recording.

> If it were just a recording, I would set up a snare overhead
> about 2 or 3 feet off the head, one over the drummer's right
> shoulder about 2 feet back and up, and one about 10 or 15 feet
> back from the kit... but onstage this is hardly practical.

Drumkit with one mic == drumkit with one mic in front of it, say 3 feet
away from it, could be closer, slightly offset towards the "snare side"
may be best, whatever is furthest away will sound just so.

> Help me out!

It seems to me that for a good recording to be possible you need the
above pre-mixes out of the pa mix board via subgroups. I honestly do not
think you can make a good recording - or even one that is at all worth
making - with the equipment in question.

Perhaps you can get somewhere via using a main pair in front of the
stage (xtra 2 channel mic pre suggested, symetrix 302 perhaps, after
hearing a recording made with one it is on my wishlist and not costly)
and then support it with whatever 6 channels you can get, di or non di
from the stage ... drum overhead or "infront", vox, vox, gui, gui, bass
.... no, it will have to be vox, vox, gui, gui, key, bass and the drums
will be on their own, unless the keyboard mixer you mention can supply a
stereo image of gui, gui, key, bass panned to where they are on stage.

If you record stereo, then you have to think stereo images and stereo
pairs, because there is so much spillover anyway that mics will pair up
like rabbits, you need to control it by intent to have control over the
sonic perspective. Don't try to pan a di'd instrument - you may have to
use di'd no matter what - to where it is not on stage, it has to be
panned to where the acoustic image of it is, and it should at least be
left on the same side of center.

YMMV, rush'd typing .... just to suggest a different way to think of the
challenges in what you want to do.


Kind regards

Peter Larsen


--
*******************************************
* My site is at: http://www.muyiovatki.dk *
*******************************************

[Brendan Thompson]

The idea of the recording is to get an idea of where we're at and where we
need to be before we record a proper demo. The thing with this is, the
primary function of the mixer at this gig is sound REINFORCEMENT, not
recording... i'm essentially just planning to take a soundboard feed, as
such, and record it to stereo. We need to run everything through the PA
anyway... Whatever way we end up doing this, we need to have the 2 vocal
mics set up... the singer wants to mic everything for some godforsaken
reason, and i'm not one to argue with him, not considering the dilemmas
we've had organizing this gig so far... the room only holds 150 people, so I
don't really see the point in taking everything to the PA... but for now,
it's his call...

The mixer actually has 5 mic inputs, but the 5th mic input doubles as a
stereo line in, and theres one more stereo line in. The line ins on the
first 4 channels are mono. It's the Alto S8 in case you know it. Yes, it's
sub-standard equipment. It was purchased originally just to run band
practices...

The guitars in the PA, and the bass, and drums, are just to supplement the
sounds from the amps and drums in case we need to. I plan on having my amp
aimed right at my head, so the guitars in the PA will be there just for
projection to the back of the room... and the DI'ed guitars would have
speakersims on, so it wouldn't be 100% horrendous buzzy ****... The DI'ed
guitars would be panned hard left and right, reflecting our stage setup...
guitar amps extreme left and right of stage. Rhythm guitar hard left, Lead
hard right. My DI'ed guitars oddly enough sound better than my miced
guitars. Poor mic technique, poor mics I guess. There's another option
here - I could run keys or bass or something into an aux return, and use 2
mics for drums. Or keys and bass both into aux returns, mic both guitars,
both vocals, and one mic on drums. Keys and bass are both mono and the amps
are next to the drumkit anyway - virtually panned centre.

My other idea was to just set up a totally independent mic in the middle of
the band which feeds directly into the laptop. Just one mic, placed where
the balance is best, running into the little keyboard mixer and out to the
laptop. This seems like the simplest idea at the moment but it also means
setting up another mic additional to all the junk we'll have set up
anyway!!!

"Peter Larsen" > wrote in message
...
> Brendan Thompson wrote:
>
> > I have an 8 channel mixer which has 4 mic inputs
>
> If it has 4 mic inputs, then it is a 4 channel mixer with additional
> stereo line inputs.
>
> > The band have 2 vocalists, drums, 2 guitars, keyboard and bass.
>
> Hmmm ...
>
> > The way I figure it, we can take line outputs from both
> > guitarist's multifx into one stereo line in,
>
> Gonna sound like crap, ya can't DI guitar into a non-closeup recording
> and make the sonic perspective work. First let's analyze this for
> requirements, you need 1 stereo image of guitars, keyboard and bass, you
> need one stereo image of vocalists and you need one stereo image of the
> drumset. That's three, it leaves room for an optional, possibly very
> useful, fourth: an ambience pair above the stage that gets an overall
> image. It may or may not work, but that is how I would first try to get
> this into 8 inputs.
>
> > leaving us with 5 more channels with either mic or line.
> > 2 of these are taken by vocals - leaving 3 channels of
> > either mic or line. Keyboard and bass each go line in...
> > leaving me with 1 mic channel for drums. Help!
>
> First I do not believe in the usability of line in'd instruments in a
> live recording. It doesn't even sound right in the pa, but it sounds
> plain wrong in a recording.
>
> > If it were just a recording, I would set up a snare overhead
> > about 2 or 3 feet off the head, one over the drummer's right
> > shoulder about 2 feet back and up, and one about 10 or 15 feet
> > back from the kit... but onstage this is hardly practical.
>
> Drumkit with one mic == drumkit with one mic in front of it, say 3 feet
> away from it, could be closer, slightly offset towards the "snare side"
> may be best, whatever is furthest away will sound just so.
>
> > Help me out!
>
> It seems to me that for a good recording to be possible you need the
> above pre-mixes out of the pa mix board via subgroups. I honestly do not
> think you can make a good recording - or even one that is at all worth
> making - with the equipment in question.
>
> Perhaps you can get somewhere via using a main pair in front of the
> stage (xtra 2 channel mic pre suggested, symetrix 302 perhaps, after
> hearing a recording made with one it is on my wishlist and not costly)
> and then support it with whatever 6 channels you can get, di or non di
> from the stage ... drum overhead or "infront", vox, vox, gui, gui, bass
> ... no, it will have to be vox, vox, gui, gui, key, bass and the drums
> will be on their own, unless the keyboard mixer you mention can supply a
> stereo image of gui, gui, key, bass panned to where they are on stage.
>
> If you record stereo, then you have to think stereo images and stereo
> pairs, because there is so much spillover anyway that mics will pair up
> like rabbits, you need to control it by intent to have control over the
> sonic perspective. Don't try to pan a di'd instrument - you may have to
> use di'd no matter what - to where it is not on stage, it has to be
> panned to where the acoustic image of it is, and it should at least be
> left on the same side of center.
>
> YMMV, rush'd typing .... just to suggest a different way to think of the
> challenges in what you want to do.
>
>
> Kind regards
>
> Peter Larsen
>
>
> --
> *******************************************
> * My site is at: http://www.muyiovatki.dk *
> *******************************************

[TonyP]

"Brendan Thompson" > wrote in message
...
> The idea of the recording is to get an idea of where we're at and where we
> need to be before we record a proper demo. The thing with this is, the
> primary function of the mixer at this gig is sound REINFORCEMENT, not
> recording... i'm essentially just planning to take a soundboard feed, as
> such, and record it to stereo. We need to run everything through the PA
> anyway... Whatever way we end up doing this, we need to have the 2 vocal
> mics set up... the singer wants to mic everything for some godforsaken
> reason, and i'm not one to argue with him, not considering the dilemmas
> we've had organizing this gig so far... the room only holds 150 people, so
I
> don't really see the point in taking everything to the PA... but for now,
> it's his call...
>
> The mixer actually has 5 mic inputs, but the 5th mic input doubles as a
> stereo line in, and theres one more stereo line in. The line ins on the
> first 4 channels are mono. It's the Alto S8 in case you know it. Yes, it's
> sub-standard equipment. It was purchased originally just to run band
> practices...

Have you thought about hiring a proper mixer with an adequate number of
inputs, and any extra mics and DI's etc. you really need to do this gig?
(let alone record it!)

TonyP.

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> I have an 8 channel mixer which has 4 mic inputs and 2 stereo line ins... or
> 5 mic inputs and one stereo line in. We're doing a gig next Friday and I
> want to record it, as we have to send everything through the PA anyway. Just
> a simple 2 track stereo recording.

> The band have 2 vocalists, drums, 2 guitars, keyboard and bass. T

Do the keyboard, guitars, and bass play through amplifiers on stage?

Do you also use the mixer for PA? Do you put some (or all) of the
instruments through the PA rather than using amplifiers, or is the PA
just for vocals?

What does your mixer have in the way of outputs?

If everything is pretty well balanced on stage other than the vocals,
then I'd suggest that you set up one pair of mics to pick up the
instrumental mix (put them close enough to the band so they won't pick
up much of the PA). Put those into two mic inputs on your mixer. Put
mics on the singers, and put them into two other mic inputs on your
mixer. Connect one output (perhaps an auxiliary send) to the PA
amplifier, and assign only the vocal mics to it. Assign the vocal mics
and the band pair to the main stereo outputs, mix in as much vocal as
you need, and record that.

It will tell you what you sound like and will clearly show if someone
needs to turn down his amp or if the drummer is weak hitting a part of
his kit.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Sugarite]

> I have an 8 channel mixer which has 4 mic inputs and 2 stereo line ins...
or
> 5 mic inputs and one stereo line in. We're doing a gig next Friday and I
> want to record it, as we have to send everything through the PA anyway.
Just
> a simple 2 track stereo recording.
[snip]

You do not have the necessary gear to do a live 2-track recording. A tap
off a board doing sound reinforcement will be lacking in the instruments
that are loudest on stage (since they need less reinforcement).

The only way to get a reasonable rendition of the performance is to put up a
stereo mic out in the audience. Done right, it beats a board mix every
time.

[Thomas Bishop]

"Sugarite" > wrote in message
> You do not have the necessary gear to do a live 2-track recording. A tap
> off a board doing sound reinforcement will be lacking in the instruments
> that are loudest on stage (since they need less reinforcement).

Sure, if he's sending the same signal to tape as to FOH.

> The only way to get a reasonable rendition of the performance is to put up
a
> stereo mic out in the audience. Done right, it beats a board mix every
> time.

If you can get a good soundcheck then record from the console. Use two aux
sends for the left and right signals of your stereo recording. Set the
levels and have the sound man (if there is one) check them frequently.
Audience recordings are limited by many variables: how the PA sounds, what
the room sounds like, the screaming girl right next to the mic that just ran
into a long lost friend (happened before), people bumping into the mic stand
with a chance of it not lasting through the night if unattended.

If all of those situations work out well then a stereo pair would work
great.

[Brendan Thompson]

"TonyP" > wrote in message
u...
>
> "Brendan Thompson" > wrote in message
> ...
> Have you thought about hiring a proper mixer with an adequate number of
> inputs, and any extra mics and DI's etc. you really need to do this gig?
> (let alone record it!)

The gig's not a paid gig, and money's tight at the moment for most of us,
having started university this past week. Also there's the hospital bill for
the keyboardist/rhythm guitarist who fell through a glass table, stupid
git... not to mention the $100 he's owed by the drummer for the cymbals...

I personally only want vocals through the mixer!

[Brendan Thompson]

"Thomas Bishop" > wrote in message
m...
> If you can get a good soundcheck then record from the console. Use two
aux
> sends for the left and right signals of your stereo recording.

Yep, this was one thing I considered - allowing a totally different mix to
the FOH mix. I did this last year for the musical I did sound for.

[Brendan Thompson]

"Mike Rivers" > wrote in message
news:znr1078577936k@trad...

> Do the keyboard, guitars, and bass play through amplifiers on stage?

Yes.

> Do you also use the mixer for PA? Do you put some (or all) of the
> instruments through the PA rather than using amplifiers, or is the PA
> just for vocals?

PA is vocals only, IMHO. Singer seems to think we need all instruments thru
PA as well, and I'm not one to argue considering the trail of death and
destruction we've left behind us while organizing this gig... but hopefully
I can convince him that the amps will suffice!

I was thinking of having just vocals, bass and keys thru PA, and letting
guitars and drums take care of themselves...

>
> What does your mixer have in the way of outputs?

2 aux out, phones out, 2 track out, control room out, balanced main mix out
(this would be feeding the PA), and then the pre-fader sends on ch1-4.

>
> If everything is pretty well balanced on stage other than the vocals,
> then I'd suggest that you set up one pair of mics to pick up the
> instrumental mix

Flipping the whole main/aux situation on its head... clever! I wouldn't have
thought of that myself...

So you're saying... send only vocals out to the PA amp... and then use the
mixer to record the vocals plus a stereo pair? The pair will be cardioid
dynamics... so should I use X-Y placement? ORTF?

Would I be able to feed this stereo pair into the PA just to beef it up a
bit? We're worried about projection... with 150 people in the room, we're
thinking that the amount of bodies will absorb most of the sound...

[Scott Dorsey]

Brendan Thompson > wrote:
>"TonyP" > wrote in message
u...
>>
>> "Brendan Thompson" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> Have you thought about hiring a proper mixer with an adequate number of
>> inputs, and any extra mics and DI's etc. you really need to do this gig?
>> (let alone record it!)
>
>The gig's not a paid gig, and money's tight at the moment for most of us,
>having started university this past week. Also there's the hospital bill for
>the keyboardist/rhythm guitarist who fell through a glass table, stupid
>git... not to mention the $100 he's owed by the drummer for the cymbals...
>
>I personally only want vocals through the mixer!

Put an omni mike up on the front of the stage, picking up ambient sound.
Record to one channel of your 2-track machine. Take the PA feed and record
it to the other channel. Mix the two to mono in post. You'll get something
you can live with. Not something perfect or wonderful, but you'll have a
good sense of how the band sounds on stage, combined with some audience
reaction, combined with fairly clean vocals.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Sean Conolly]

"Thomas Bishop" > wrote in message
m...
> "Sugarite" > wrote in message
> > You do not have the necessary gear to do a live 2-track recording. A
tap
> > off a board doing sound reinforcement will be lacking in the instruments
> > that are loudest on stage (since they need less reinforcement).
>
> Sure, if he's sending the same signal to tape as to FOH.
>
> > The only way to get a reasonable rendition of the performance is to put
up
> a
> > stereo mic out in the audience. Done right, it beats a board mix every
> > time.
>
> If you can get a good soundcheck then record from the console. Use two
aux
> sends for the left and right signals of your stereo recording. Set the
> levels and have the sound man (if there is one) check them frequently.
> Audience recordings are limited by many variables: how the PA sounds,
what
> the room sounds like, the screaming girl right next to the mic that just
ran
> into a long lost friend (happened before), people bumping into the mic
stand
> with a chance of it not lasting through the night if unattended.

Hang a pair of mics directly over the stage. That puts the mics closest to
the ears of the people trying to balance the mix by what they hear. I've had
people get surprisingly good results after many vain attempts to get a
decent mix out of the board.

Sean

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> "Sugarite" > wrote in message
> > You do not have the necessary gear to do a live 2-track recording.

> Sure, if he's sending the same signal to tape as to FOH.

That can work if you're in a large venue where the sound off the stage
that gets to the audience is insignificant and there's a full mix
going to the house (which may not be in all of the house speakers).
However I get the impression that he's working in a small club or a
bar where the audience doesn't need the PA to hear drums and
amplifiers, just vocals.

The way to do sound reinforcement and recording in a situation like
this is as I described - feed the PA from an auxilary send (it doesn't
neet to be a stereo feed unless stereo effects are really important to
the performance) and just turn off whatever doesn't need to be there.
Then feed the recorder from the main stereo bus, turn on everything,
pan and mix to taste. Unattended, there's no guarantee that the mix
will be perfect all the time, but it'll be better than recording the
just vocal mics with leakage, or trying to find a place to put a
separate recording pair of mics (and an input to run them through).



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> So you're saying... send only vocals out to the PA amp... and then use the
> mixer to record the vocals plus a stereo pair? The pair will be cardioid
> dynamics... so should I use X-Y placement? ORTF?

That's one approach. Another approach is to put mics on the drums and
amplifiers as if you were going to send them through the PA, but only
send them to the recording mix. If you have enough mics and input,
this might work better than trying to find the best location and
configuration for a stereo pair on the spur of the moment. That's
something that takes some experimentation and is hard to predict over
the net.

What might be even better is to see if you can borrow an 8-track
recorder, record the output of individual mics, and mix it afterward.
Surely some musician you know has an ADAT sitting in a closet that he
hasn't had the heart to throw away.

> Would I be able to feed this stereo pair into the PA just to beef it up a
> bit? We're worried about projection... with 150 people in the room, we're
> thinking that the amount of bodies will absorb most of the sound...

You could, or you could just add more of the mics into the auxiliary
mix that's feeding the PA. But I doubt that you'd need it if you take
care to balance yourself on stage. And if you don't, you'll need an
operator to maintain the balanced. You probably don't have that.

Remember that in a room of 150 people, either they'll all be listening
attentively or at least half of them will be trying to talk over the
racket you're making on stage. No point in fighting with that half
when you're trying to make a recording. They don't want to hear you
anyway so you don't need to be all that loud in the dark corners.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Sugarite]

"Sugarite" > wrote in message
...
> > I have an 8 channel mixer which has 4 mic inputs and 2 stereo line
ins... or
> > 5 mic inputs and one stereo line in. We're doing a gig next Friday and I
> > want to record it, as we have to send everything through the PA anyway.
Just
> > a simple 2 track stereo recording.
> [snip]
>
> You do not have the necessary gear to do a live 2-track recording. A tap
> off a board doing sound reinforcement will be lacking in the instruments
> that are loudest on stage (since they need less reinforcement).
>
> The only way to get a reasonable rendition of the performance is to put up
a
> stereo mic out in the audience. Done right, it beats a board mix every
> time.

[snip] (combining replies)

> If you can get a good soundcheck then record from the console. Use two
aux
> sends for the left and right signals of your stereo recording.
....and...
> The way to do sound reinforcement and recording in a situation like
> this is as I described - feed the PA from an auxilary send

What aux sends? You gonna feed the monitor line to the PA?

> Hang a pair of mics directly over the stage. That puts the mics closest to
> the ears of the people trying to balance the mix by what they hear.

But then everyone would have to point their amps up if you want anything but
mud from them. In this case there's only one perspective for which a
complete mix can be prepared, the audience.

> Audience recordings are limited by many variables: how the PA sounds,
what
> the room sounds like, the screaming girl right next to the mic that just
ran
> into a long lost friend (happened before), people bumping into the mic
stand
> with a chance of it not lasting through the night if unattended.

Well this guy's gear is not remotely up to the task of a live-to-2-track
recording. It's either audience mics or nothing. I've recorded using
audience mics in about 50 different small-to-medium venues, often without
knowing what the room is like in advance, and IME there's a place to put a
stereo mic on a make-shift clamp-stand 90% of the time that is out of harm's
way enough to leave unattended. Just get an 8" gooseneck mic stand
extension and duct tape it to a C-clamp, handles 3/4 of the venues I've been
in.

[Thomas Bishop]

"Sugarite" > wrote in message

You've made a complete mess of quotes.

> > If you can get a good soundcheck then record from the console. Use two
aux
> > sends for the left and right signals of your stereo recording. ...and...

> > The way to do sound reinforcement and recording in a situation like
> > this is as I described - feed the PA from an auxilary send


> What aux sends? You gonna feed the monitor line to the PA?

I'm not familiar with the console but I assume it has aux sends. I
suggested in the first quote above to use two aux sends for the recording.
In the next, Mike suggested to use an aux send to feed FOH.

> > Hang a pair of mics directly over the stage. That puts the mics closest
to
> > the ears of the people trying to balance the mix by what they hear.
>
> But then everyone would have to point their amps up if you want anything
but
> mud from them. In this case there's only one perspective for which a
> complete mix can be prepared, the audience.

I agree.

> Well this guy's gear is not remotely up to the task of a live-to-2-track
> recording. It's either audience mics or nothing. I've recorded using
> audience mics in about 50 different small-to-medium venues, often without
> knowing what the room is like in advance, and IME there's a place to put a
> stereo mic on a make-shift clamp-stand 90% of the time that is out of
harm's
> way enough to leave unattended. Just get an 8" gooseneck mic stand
> extension and duct tape it to a C-clamp, handles 3/4 of the venues I've
been in.

If he's only using it for reference purposes then it really doesn't matter
where he sticks a mic.