Problems Recording Live Blues Band

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Hi,
I have recently bought a Superscope PSD 300 CD recorder plus two Presonus TubePre preamps using these with a pair of Superlux CMH8a large diaphram microphones. Because of the loud volume of my electric blues band I generally use a -20db pad on the Presonus plus anywhere from -18 to -20 db further padding on the recorder. Both the gain and drive are set pretty low on the preamps.
The Superscope records directly onto a CDR, so at first I was getting recorder errors from the vibration of the band shaking the unit. I fashioned a kind of shockmount using small bungy cords which fixed that problem for the most part.
The problem I am having is that I am getting some unwanted distortion on dynamic peaks when the vocals or harmonica punches through on solos,etc....although the recorder is not near getting into the red.
My goals are for a presentable quality recording with a warm sound for demos, local release,etc.. I have always recorded my band live previously with a cassete recorder with pretty good results. Would you suggest that my problem is in that the quality of the recorder is not up to what I need?... or possibly the preamps are distorting the dynamic peaks?... or could it be the large diaphram mics?? Would I possibly do better with a higher quality dynamic mic such as maybe a pair of vintage Sennheiser MD 421's? This rig combination is working very well for recording acoustic classical guitar, etc... I am just having a hard time recording my band live. Digital recording is all pretty new to me so any suggestions would be welcome!!
Thanks,
John Hedger

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Topic - Problems Recording Live Blues Band - John Hedger 12:17:20 08/21/03 (2)

Re: Problems Recording Live Blues Band - Top Jimmy 09:52:42 08/22/03 (1)

Re: Recommendations from Superscope... - John Hedger 12:38:31 08/22/03 (0)

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