It sounds like you've gotten the advice to get a professional for
this. I can't argue with that (especially since I'm not one).
However, being one who does this stuff for fun, I understand why you
want to do it yourself.
In that case, I don't think $800 is really enough. My advice to you
would be to rent some gear. I don't know what kind of music is being
performed, but for the conditions you describe, I'd go for a pair of
Sennheiser MKH mics. In the nature recording world, they are the goto
mics due to their robustness and extremely low noise floor. In RAMPS,
you will hear people argue the merits of Schoeps mics (well, not so
much argue as sing) and their susceptibility to humidity (that's an
actual argument). You never hear them question MKHs ability to
withstand the environment. They have a unique construction and
operation principle which helps in this area.
Which mics? I'd go with a 50 + 30, or a 40 + 30 OR 2 20's OR 2 40's.
Depends on what you're recording and how you like to record. The MS
setup of a 50/40 plus a 30, which is a hyper or cardio + a fig 8,
makes for easy location sound - tuck it in a Rycote and you're good to
go. The pair of 40s (cardios) provides many options for stereo
recording (XY, NOS, ORTF, etc) but is more difficult to for wind
protection. Which you will want. Lastly, you could do spaced omnis
with a pair of 20's.
If the next project is a movie, I'd say the 50 + 30 is the best bet,
because then you have a top of class hyper to work with for dialogue.
Oh yeah, thats assuming you can buy.
The only problem with the above plan is that we're taking $2k in mics
(at least), $600 for the wind protection, and we haven't even started
talking about recording devices. Which is why I say rent. If its for
fun, and you don't have the money, as much as a backup is nice, you're
going to have to run ****d. And if you lose it, you lose it. If you
can scrape together something, go with some cheap dynamics as stated
(SM57 over a 58) and someones laptop + USB/firewire interface.
By the way, this is the exact route I took (minus the renting). I
started off with a pair of Schoeps, a couple caps, and a computer
based recording device as my first quality setup, but eventually sold
the Schoeps, obtained a small assortment of MKHs (30, 50, 60) and a
Sound Devices recorder, and now have quite a lot of fun doing film
sound, live music recording, and nature recording.
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