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Back-up audio for weddings
What is the best item to use for backup audio for doing weddings? I looked at an Edirol R-09, and a new item called Tascam. Don’t know if either one would work putting it up by pasor/bride/groom, to pick up ceremony and vows, or if it would sound crappy.
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3 Replies
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Those are fairly expensive units just for ceremony backup, though they would also be ideal for recording reception audio straight from a board. If you’re only looking for ceremony backup, I have found that the Olympus WS-110 does great for around $60 (newegg.com). I have several of them which I put on the groom and plop down near most sound sources (quartet, readers, speakers, etc.), and then I’m pretty well-covered. I can’t remember the setting offhand, maybe conference vs. voice or something like that, but one sounds MUCH better than the other (factory setting), so be sure to adjust that.
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But are they sensitive enough to pickup the pastor/bride/groom? And do they pick up all the background noise also? I will have the groom mic’d with a cordless, but would like to have all three of the back’d up in case of audio problems.
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If you can find a spot on the altar to put it, it will not be perfect, but it will be better than no backup at all. It records into WMA files at 44kHz, which I think is OK for voice. The built-in mic picks up a decent distance from all directions. I like this option because it’s tiny, versatile and cost-effective. Your other options will likely sound better, especially if you introduce a shotgun mic to the equation, but it’ll obviously be pricier just for backup. My own preference has been to go conservative on backup and then do everything I can to make sure there are no audio problems to begin with, knock on wood.
BTW, I just checked at the studio, and it’s actually the Olympus WS-311M, and the mode to put it in is “DICT” instead of “CONF.” Sounds counter-intuitive, but the hypersensitive auto-gain in CONF sounds hideous.
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