Good Mic (Maybe Stereo) for Recording Blues Band Gigs

Scott Ramminger said:

I've got an Edirol R-9 (a small digital recorder that records to memory cards). It is really a nice little gizmo. Great for recording sax practice sessions, rehersals, etc. It has two built in mics and can record either MP3 or WAV files at various different quality levels.

I have been taking it to blues band gigs in a club that has a very good sound system (the place was bought by the former sound man.) Last time I just set it on a table to about eight feet from the front of the stage, about even with the right side of the stage where I stand.

I got some pretty good sounding stuff. However, there were two problems. At times, there were people standing around the table the recorder was on between the recorder and the stage and I was getting a lot of yaking on top of the music. Also, because the thing was on my side of the stage, I think it was getting both my miked playing and the natural sound of the horn, which produced a bit too much sax -- and also too much guitar from the amp that was on that side of the stage. I could move it to a table on the other side, but then I would be getting too much of the drums and bass. Ideally, the recorder (or the mic(s) at least) need to be in the center of the room.

However, there is no way easy to get the recorder in the center of the room close enough to the stage to minimize crowd noise, but far enough back to get decent sound. There is a small dance floor in front of the stage.

We have a gig coming up at the place, and I was thinking about getting a stereo mic and rigging up something that would let me clip it to the ceiling tiles about eight or ten feet back and centered. Of course, I would point it down slightly toward the band.

I've seen a couple of different Audio-Teknika condensor stereo mics that looked like they might work for something like this. One (AT 822) goes for between $250 to $300. Another (AT 825) goes for around $400. They look basicially the the same except that the cheaper one uses a single double A battery for power and has unbalanced outs. The other one has balanced outs and can use either a battery or phantom power from a mixer, etc. Both seemed to be designed for field recording/videotaping applications.

Here are my questions for you amateur (and maybe pro) engineers out there:

1) Does anyone have any experience substituting a decent external mic or mics for the internal mics of the Edirol or similar small digital recorder. Can I expect a noticeable improvement in the sound quality?

2) Does anyone have any experience, postive or negative, with these Audio-Teknika stereo mics?

3) Any other mic recommendations for this sort of application. I would prefer to keep things as hassle free as possible. I don't want to have to rig up two mics on one of those stereo micing stands. I want something I won't have to worry about too much. I only want to spend a few hundered bucks tops. That said, I wouldn't mind something that was decent enough to use as an ambient mike -- or perhaps a drum overhead -- in the little home studio I am cobbling together. Or putting on a mic stand at ear level to record our rehersals.

Any advice would me much appreciated.

Scott

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