Recording Live

[admin]

I realize that this topic goes beyond the studio, and for this reason may be better placed under The Others.

With you indulgence, I would be interested in the conditions that you think should be in place before a half decent demo can be made of a live performance. It seems that one needs either a very large room, electric drums or a "box" to put the drummer and kit inside, before a balance can be achieved.

I would be interested in your take on this Tony. Recording may be the bottom line, but a good number of amateur bands just what to know what they sound like to the audience.

[tony_carey]

A perfectly good topic Peter....recording is a lot different to live sound.

I could write an essay on this, but keeping within Peters paremeters of a recording to satisfy the bands curiosity, as well as going a little further to provide a suitable demo for gig getting.....

You can't keep seperation unless you record in a purpose built room, so assuming we are recording a band at their rehearsal room, I wouldn't worry too much about it. The gtrs would be close mic'd, so the spill to them would be minimal. The bass would be treated the same, or split through a DI box, with one feed going to your recording console & the other to an amp. The problems would be drums & vocals. Apart from constructing screens (the type they use for seperation in offices can sometimes be bought very cheaply 2nd hand..a fortune when new), you can make sure that the vocal mic is not pointing in the direction of the speakers, using its polar pattern as a guide. Most live vocal mics will be cardioid or super cardioid & will have a spike in the polar pattern at the rear, so place gtr cabs with this in mind.

As far as drums go, you can close mic the kick & snare & use a single overhead, as low as you can get away with, again paying attention to the polar pattern & placement.

I think you'll find that this will give you pretty good results as far as mic'ing goes. If you have a multi track, then there will be spill, but you will get a good degree of mixing flexibility. If it is going straight down to a two track, then you will have to do 30 second practise takes & tweak untill satisfied (if your anything like my band, even headphones wouldn't give you much of an idea what's happening!). A compressor on the bass & vox will greatly improve the results (on drums too if available & gtrs if played clean. If overdriven, the gtrs probably wont need it).

You can of course develop this...more mic's on the drums, better isolation etc...

In live recording, the performance is EVERYTHING & a good tight performance will go a long way to makeing up for an otherwise less than perfect sonic recording.

So in summing up m'lud....Screening if possible, close mic'ing as much as you can, take notice of mic polar patterns & place accordingly, careful use of compression & FX (especially if going straight to two track) & a good solid, tight & confident performance.....that should do it!

[chingnchime]

If you don't have access to a multitrack, try the Sony minidisc recorder. It's incredible. Crisp and full, I've recorded several concerts on it using the little stereo mic which is unbelievable sounding. But back to recording your band- you'd need to put it in 'pause' mode, put on headphones, and walk (or have someone)walk around the room for the 'sweet spot'. Remember to get close to a speaker to catch the vocals, and probably relatively far from the drums, as they will distort unless recorded at the proper distance. i have hours of great live rehearsal takes, from which i make CDs for the bandmembers homework .

[tony_carey]

A good point Steve. If it is solely for band members own consumption, this is an excellent way of providing the goods. A band member in another band that I knew used to do the same thing with a portable DAT player.