[Arny Krueger]

"Gary Eickmeier" wrote in message
...
Got a job shooting a hi def band video. We used 2 cameras - I was back
camera getting the steady establishing shot, partner was shoulder mount on
stage getting close-ups. I used my trusty Canon HV20, and man, what
beautiful video. Even tho it was drizzling rain, it looks just superb, and
my sound is equally good. Used a separate mike on camera, stereo Teac.


Also copped a track from the sound board, and is that ever weird. We don't
usually like to take their sound, because it just sounds so Tron like - no
audience applause, just the musical instrument and mike feeds from the
stage.

Avoiding that takes either luck or planning, depending on your circumstance.

What was more disappointing about the board sound was that it was
dead straight mono.

Almost every sound board with more than a few channels is stereo. Thing is,
the speakers are likely as not mono or should be mono. Recordings need to
not be mono.

There are two ways to bridge that gap. One is to pan every mic to center,
and then both the L & R channel are the same. The other method is to put a
L+R mixer on the main outputs of the board and use that to drive the power
amp and speaker. This turns out to be simply done - simply build a Y cable
with 4 1200 ohm resistors combining the balanced outputs from each channel.
The net result has 600 ohm source impedance more or less, so it still drives
long lines and pro power amps well. You can then point the balance knobs
where you will and the speakers are still happy. Your board's tape outputs
are stereo.

Other have pointed out the remainder of the solution. Use a coincident pair
farily close to the band to give a nicely spread X/Y signal. Ideally, the
panned signals directly from the instruments will lay nicely on top of that
and natural reverb will be on tap for the mixdown.


Guess which method I use! ;-)