Best Location to record events

[Skieth]

i was wondering when recording things like raves whats the best place to be to get the audio up front or away from it i've always done away from it but the audios almost always been bad bad enough that any improvement is just marginal. basiclly trying to see if the location matters or its just the camera

[waxcylinder]

Best location is straight off the mixing desk - but thet're unlikely to give you access to that

Seriously though, with the inbuilt mic in a camcorder you are unlikely to get any sort of quality sound wherever you stand in the venue - and in many locations you can risk seriously overloading the mic with load bursts of music.

You could consider using an additional audio capture device (e.g. the Zoom H2 or similar) - but I still think you're unlikely to get good sound.

WC

[Skieth]

do you mean with the camcorder itself i'll always get bad sound or even with the addtional device?

[waxcylinder]

The camcorder is likely to give you the worse sound - the additional device will be better (but nowhere near the quality that goes through the mixing board).

I used to make occasional gig recordings with a Sony top-end portable minidisc recorder and a good mic - the results were never really any good.

WC

[Skieth]

if i were to buy a seperate sound capture device to try doing that to try and get better sound what should i look for in the device?