TorS,The band concerts are of my kids' school bands. It is not unauthorized recording, so I guess I don't appreciate your final comment. I simply would like other people's suggestions on an external mic so that I could get at least a little better sound than the cheap microphones built into the camera. I understand with the equipment I have I am limited in what I can expect.

For around $250 you could get an Audio Technica AT822 stereo mike. It comes with an adapter which will plug right into the 1/8 inch stereo mike input on the camera and sounds great.

John

I use the Sony ECM-MS908C. It's a stereo microphone, and it comes with a little arm that allows you to get a bit of space between it and the camcorder shoe. You can find it on the web for around $100, and it sounds great.

I found that even if I used the mounting arm on my Sony miniDV camera, the mic was so sensitive it was still picking up motor noise "whine" transmitted through the arm. Now I use a separate tripod for just the mic, and I locate the second, smaller tripod within the camera's tripod legs, so the mic is about 2 feet below the camera. Works great.

I would get a couple of shure sm 58 microphones get or borrow a light stand mount them in a x pattern about ten feet up and feed them into a small mixer then out to a minidisc recorder. You will great sound this way and can lay the music track in easily. If you are outdoors or moving around I would get a shotgun mic unidirectional and mout it on a seperate stand as high as you can get it and pulg in into your camera. I have used a school janitors stepladder to get the mic up about ten feet or so. Just tape it tot he ladder and set your camera up on an tripod beside it.

Bear's suggestion of using two mono mikes connected to a mixer will also allow you to tape directly to your camera, if you want. Just get yourself a stereo cord with the appropriate male jacks - either mini stereo to mini stereo or 1/4" stereo to mini - depending on the output jack of the mixer you use.

One mini plug goes into the mike input on your camera.

Should work fine - and, then, while it's really not a hassle to do in Vegas, you won't have to bring in the second audio source, as it will be part of your video.

Either way will work fine.

And for what it's worth, I thought the comment about getting permission to tape a bit tasteless.

There aren't too many places where you need permission that would allow you to tape, anyhow. Either they would make you check your gear at the door or kick you out once you started taping.

Caruso

Since you are at a concert you probably are using batteries......

But if not, I have noticed some wide band noise from the power supply when using
Sony Digital 8 camcorders. (example: TRV330) Unplug the Power Supply, clean recordings.

When buying a shutgun for example make sure phantom power will not harm it.
A simple adapter to go from 1/8" to XLR needs a DC blocking cap even on the
mic input as may have around 6-9 volts DC present.

joejon,
Just for the record, microphones don't "zoom". They may focus to a narrower width of pickup, but they don't zoom. That's a bunch of hype and Sony in particular is guilty of it.
You WOULD pick up the whole band.
If you want a beter sound than the built-in mike for school concerts, get a stereo mike and mount it slightly off camera to avoid motor noise. You can get a bracket (even a photo-flash bracket can be rigged up to work).
The Sony mike Tor mentioned will work well if the AT822 I mentioned above is too expensive. I would not try lugging around mixers, ladders, and a bunch of other garbage. You may end up stuck in a cramped area in which to shoot and you will probably end up standing.
The absolute must is the tripod. That may take up all the room you are allocated. Forget about tapping into the sound board. They are usually run by high school kids who are often inexperienced, lazy, arrogant, and proud of it.

Ok - music and video. Number 1 important suggestion - get your self an XLR-Pro (Now revamped to mount on your belt instead of the camera and part of the XLR-BP series) from Studio 1 productions and than you can do a few things:

A> Tie into the sound board.
B> Get one XLR mic cable and any decent mic you can afford
C> Same as above but get 2 for stereo sound
D> Get really fancy and set up another mixing board and do a live mix and run that into the XLR-pro (er - XLR-BP)
E> Get a stereo shotgun mic such as the mkh 418 S by Sennheiser. (But only if you want to spend over $1,000 for a mic)
F> Try something like the AKG CK 98 shotgun mic...it is mono but costs a lot less.
G> Go wireless. if you doing handheld stuff consider option "A" with a wireless or try placing the wireless out near the FOH, up above the crowd. (unless you really want to hear all those 'I can play/sing/perform better than they can' type comments) You get a fairly good live sound provided the FOH person is actually doing their job and not bored from mixing 10 acts a night. Also, in general, as the FOH engineer is usually standing..well..FOH at the board...that is usually where the sound will be the best.

No matter what you do if you must have the live sound from the room try to stay in front of the PA. Once you go next to or 'in front off' you end up getting the stage volume - and if it is a loud guitar band that would be mostly guitar.

A good link to check out - good prices on gear, audio/music related - Musicians Friend

Video related, but carry mostly Sony Mics if you want to go that route - Shoreview Distribution

Studio 1's Microphone page.

Good luck..and really..get the Studio 1 XLR-Pro (um...XLR-BP)

I'm glad to see my suspicions were wrong. And I'm glad to see you got some very good answers.
To develop further the argument for using separate microphone stand(s). The character of the sound you pick on a mic that's mounted on your camera will change whenever you make even a small pan or tilt. For music recording you do not want that.
If you record one "dry" source (mics close to the source) and one "roomy" (mics far away), you can balance the two up against each other when you edit. Also read up on and experiment with Vegas' sound capabilities. They are awesome.
Tor

Amen-There are people who are nothing but a bunch of Orin Hatch wannabees- My daughter was in a ballet recital from the dance school I paid considerable money to attend- plus $115.00 for a costume and at the recital I had to leave my gear at the door because they were providing " broadcast quality recording on SVHS that I could buy for another $30.00" I made the kid, thats my content ! I do not begrudge the videographer his commerce just the schools policy.

And for what it's worth, I thought the comment about getting permission to tape a bit tasteless.

There aren't too many places where you need permission that would allow you to tape, anyhow. Either they would make you check your gear at the door or kick you out once you started taping.

Caruso

If you are doing this for yourself most band concerts have a profesional cd available for purchase, my daughters run $18.00 - much better sound and less hassle that trying to mic it yourself- If you are selling this work you would need to be right with the CD producer.

And as far as those that don't like people taping BAND concerts-I am sorry if you have been suckered in to thinking, as many pros do, that the ability of a school district or or other entity to offer you a contract means they have ownership, hell they are selling you out because most bands are now playing music that is not in the public domain and do not charge an attendance fee for a reason, so when you sell the video you are reproducing copyrighted material for profit- the sheet music purchase does not give the school commercial reproduction rights- once again we are talking band concerts as in marching or concert band- not sneaking into a Metallica show with a camera. I buy the CD's of my daughters concerts because they are important to me but there is no exclusive arrangment, and if that makes me a participant in illegal activity so be it.

All joejon said at first was he was taping band concerts. I thought he was talking about commercial shows, if not exactly Metallica.

If this is about parents videotaping their own kids performing at school dos, I suppose there are other laws and regulations that come into play, other than copyright issues. If I see someone videotaping a performance where my daughter is taking part, I think it must be one of the other parents but it may be just a gatecrasher who likes to videotape young girls. And I think there ought to be a written contract where this person states clearly who he is and the purpose of the recording. When you send your kids to school that is the least protection they ought to have.

About the copyright issue, it must be legal to distribute recordings of a live performance among the performers and their immediate circle, and even charge a fee for it. And I suppose the schools (or the owners of a concert hall) have every right to not let you and me record on their premises.

If it's a school thing I suppose it's makes no difference if it's a marching band or a rock group. But you stick your neck out further as a member of a smaller group and you will probably have a little less protection there.

Anyway, threads that touches upon copyright issues draw huge crowds on this forum. Like a schoolyard fight. Only there's no teacher to come around and break it up.
Tor

I tape similar events, and when I first started doing it, I found that the automatic level control on the camera mic caused me a lot of problems. When the audience applauds a soloist, the sound from the band just goes away. Someone else said, in response to your post, that you shoudl record the audio separately. That is what I do. I use the camera sound track just to synch the separate audio track.

As for taking a feed from the school's board, I have had a lot of problems with that, too. Even if the sound person knows what he/she is doing, the mix they make for the room may not be the mix you want to record. At one event, the sound guy turned down the drums because they filled the room with no amplification. When I listened to my recorded feed, no drums!

Good luck,
-Don