March 22nd, 2011 
Admin Question by kollydogg: If you record a live concert using a stereo mic why does it not sound as good when played back at home?
I recorded a live concert and when I played it at home the low frequencies are not how the sounded at the concert. The bass is fuzzy and not powerful. Would it help if i played it through really big speakers rather than normal hifi ones? Your advice would be appreciated. Also can you recommend good mic to use when recording a concert? 10 points for most informative response.
Best answer:
Answer by kwazyliloboy
im guessing you would need a really really good mic.. and those normal mics that you would buy at like a best buy for karaoke is no where good enough for that..
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Your problem can be seen all over youtube. Many people record concerts with video cameras and such and get horrible results. The reason that your microphone doesn’t sound like a Professional one is because of many things.
First, your microphone is probably not professional grade. And when I mean professional, I mean shure and other major company branded.
However, even that probably won’t compare to a pro recording because your recording probably has a lot of background noise of people screaming and such.
Lastly, in professional recordings of concerts, everything is balanced through equalizers, mixer, and all other equipment. They have the capability of changing single channels to record what they want to hear. This means that every different audio source has its own volume and such. For example, say we have a guitar, piano, and a mic. With multichannel’s, we can lower the volume and the guitar while keeping same volume for the piano and mic. All of these sources get put into mixers and exported to three places, the audience sound system, the on stage sound system, and a computer which records everything.
Also, your mic probably has a specific range it records at. Most like it does not record long ranges. The Manuel’s of professional grade mics have diagrams of which areas around the mic are recorded at optimal performance.
Many factors, what kind of mic, mic placement, what you were recording on to. All of these things matter.