Recording Live Concert

[Bilnva]

Hi, I am going to record a concert this coming sat. night and decided to put this information out in hope of some direction. I am not getting paid and for the most part it is an experiment. If it turns out great then that's a plus, if not no big deal. Some of the equipment is new to me so it will be tricky.
The concert will be in a theater with approx. 500 in the audience. There will be two large condenser (AKG 3000b, AT4030)vocal mikes, and two small condenser (AKG 1000, sure PG81) instrument mikes. All instruments will be acoustic and recorded by microphones. There is a snake going to the mixing board in the rear of the theater where I hope to plug directly from snake into my preamps. The pre's are dbx 386 and ART digital MPA Gold. I plan to come out of the dbx386 via sp/dif into the DIGI 002r and out of the ART via ADAT Optical into the DIGI 002r. Each pre-amp unit is two channel and will have will have compressors at the inserts. I plan to come out of each pre-amp with balanced analog lines and into the house mixing board. The house board is a Behringer so I hope that my pres will be slightly better than those.
I plan to record at 24 bit/48kHz. I am familiar with the 386 sp/df but I am not familiar with the ART optical. I will be picking up the ART unit for the first time tomorrow. Is there any clocking issues that I will run into with the two units? Will I need a clock cable? If the snake cable does not have enough slack can I use a short xlr cable for exstension? Can I use phantom mikes with long cables? Will I have phase problems with these microphones? Do I have to have a power conditioner for my equipment? Is a standard optical cable what I need? Will we have problems with feedback from the monitors? Am I nuts for trying to do this last minute preparation? I will have all day friday at the theater to setup but I need to be prepared by then. Any advice is very much appreciated.
Thanks, Bill

[Nicolaim]

I plan to record at 24 bit/48kHz.
if you are going to release a CD set for 44.1 this is gonna save the conversion step.

If the snake cable does not have enough slack can I use a short xlr cable for exstension?
yes

Can I use phantom mikes with long cables?
if you mean phantom power..you must enlable it (the mics you mentioned requieres PH)

Will I have phase problems with these microphones?
Normally don't. Check polarity cables first

Do I have to have a power conditioner for my equipment?
i'll recommend it. if you have an access to a computer no-break, connect in the PC and the DIGI002

Will we have problems with feedback from the monitors?
the large diafragm mics you have sort of 25 mv/pas in the output- wich means high sesitivity
be careful with the position of the monitors and try the hypercardiod pattern (the C3000 and the C1000)
use EQ to cut bands and avoid feedback. set the mics away from the hole (guitars)

Use Compression gently
Set the minimum gain allowed by the performers
Set the minimum monitor level allowed by the performers
Have plenty space in audio HDD
Set Destructive Record (no Undo)
Set Record Time
Defrag Disks
Disable everything you dont need it

Good Luck

Nico-

[yessiree]

I will second Nico's suggestions and add that you should set your levels conservatively and a bit on the low side during soundcheck. Many musicians play/sing louder when the actual performance starts then at soundcheck. Since you are recording at 24 bit you have enough headroom not to need to get anywhere near clipping and still have a good noise floor. Plus, the live sound person (if it isn't you) is probably not going to be happy if you are tweaking your levels the whole time.

Can't help you with the clock question, but would hazard to guess as long as one device is set as master clock in PTLE you should be fine.

Phantom power works fine with long cables.

[where02190]

I'd recommend getting a splitter snake rather than feeding the house from your line outs. IF your rig goes down, you lose feeds to everything. If there are any ground issues, a good transformer iso snake will solve them 99.9% of the time. If the house mix is getting too hot or too weak a signal from you feeding them, you've got another problem. IF you need to make gain changes midshow, there's another.

We do alot of live remotes, and we always take the time to set up our own split. Saves so many potential issues.

[yessiree]

Good point, but if you are going through hardware pres with balanced outs for the house board and there's only 4 channels, it might not be necessary if the house sound person is flexible and OK with the risks. Separation is always a good thing if you have that capability.

Hey Where, what brand(s) of splitter snake do you use/recommend? I have been looking at 16 channel whirlwind and pro co. I did find a CBI that is cheaper but likely not iso balanced (or mediocre transformers). I can't find a place that rents them locally. I have done the unthinkable a few times (passive xlr splits) and not gotten burnt yet, but I know it isn't a good idea.

[where02190]

Contact local sound companies for snake rentals.

All our cabling is made inhouse. we never purchase premade cabling, as the quality control is nonexistant.

Transformer split all the way, passive splits are just glorified Y cables..

[Bilnva]

Thanks for all the great advice! I haven't had much time to reply but I will let you know how it turns out. The only thing I haven't figured out yet is if I need word clock cables between the two digital units.
Bill

[Jemstudio]

Anything with digital outs by rights should have some kind of sample rate selection. If I am not mistaken, if you set them to 44.1k each, they will be fine as long as PT is set to 44.1. I know I own the 386 and it has the selection right on the front in the middle. Dont know about the ART.

[where02190]

highly recommend a common master clock.