I am new to this recording malarkey so can anyone explain how I can record my five piece band. We are talking Bass, drums, two guitars and vocals. As far as I can assess we would need an interface with at least 10 inputs (bass, 2x guitar, vocals and 6 for the drums), but perusing online retailers I can only see gear with eight inputs at the most
How to record a band
- Thread starter Root Note
- Start date
Dags
New member
Howdy.
You could track instruments separately - drums by themselves first (played to a click with scratch guitar and vox so the drummer knows where he/she is in the song) then build up each instrument as you go. That way you only really need an interface with 6-8 inputs.
...oh yeah - what Miroslav said
You could track instruments separately - drums by themselves first (played to a click with scratch guitar and vox so the drummer knows where he/she is in the song) then build up each instrument as you go. That way you only really need an interface with 6-8 inputs.
...oh yeah - what Miroslav said
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
Root note. I have one of the most basic set ups out of the people on here that record and post their stuff up regularly... its just not that easy.
Before you go mental buying gear learn how to capture each one of the items properly first.
Miking up a guitar cab and dialing in a good recorded tone takes practice but its something many people on here can help you with (Try The New Tone Thread for help with this). Its probably the first thing you should learn.
Many people (including me) DI bass straight into the interface - although if you do this your bassist (or anyone else in the band for that matter) won't be able to hear anything so you'll need something like an A/B/Y so he can go through his amp and you can get the dry track recorded.
Many people like to stick a compressor and preamp on the vocals on the way into the interface. I don't I do everything in the DAW but that's through lack of commitment/practice/disposable income as much as anything.
Greg L has a great thread on the most basic way of recording live drums. You'll need 4 mics, minimum to do this properly.
This leaves you needing 8 inputs on your AI which gives you plenty of options to start with.
You'll need 7 mics, which you can research separately and some sort of ABY splitter for the bass.
There's actually a guy on here who records bands playing live and sticks the sessions on YouTube - look for single car sessions. He makes a pretty good job of it.
Learn how to record the individual elements properly first though BEFORE you try sticking them together all at the same time or it will just sound like a complete bag of dicks. Also, make sure your band are well practised so you can just press record once and smash through your set.
Good luck though - its something I would love to try.
EDIT - keep in mind that this won't be easy and won't take you 5 minutes to learn.
Share the workload among your band!
Before you go mental buying gear learn how to capture each one of the items properly first.
Miking up a guitar cab and dialing in a good recorded tone takes practice but its something many people on here can help you with (Try The New Tone Thread for help with this). Its probably the first thing you should learn.
Many people (including me) DI bass straight into the interface - although if you do this your bassist (or anyone else in the band for that matter) won't be able to hear anything so you'll need something like an A/B/Y so he can go through his amp and you can get the dry track recorded.
Many people like to stick a compressor and preamp on the vocals on the way into the interface. I don't I do everything in the DAW but that's through lack of commitment/practice/disposable income as much as anything.
Greg L has a great thread on the most basic way of recording live drums. You'll need 4 mics, minimum to do this properly.
This leaves you needing 8 inputs on your AI which gives you plenty of options to start with.
You'll need 7 mics, which you can research separately and some sort of ABY splitter for the bass.
There's actually a guy on here who records bands playing live and sticks the sessions on YouTube - look for single car sessions. He makes a pretty good job of it.
Learn how to record the individual elements properly first though BEFORE you try sticking them together all at the same time or it will just sound like a complete bag of dicks. Also, make sure your band are well practised so you can just press record once and smash through your set.
Good luck though - its something I would love to try.
EDIT - keep in mind that this won't be easy and won't take you 5 minutes to learn.
Share the workload among your band!
Last edited:
VomitHatSteve
Hat STYLE. Not contents.
Howdy.
You could track instruments separately - drums by themselves first (played to a click with scratch guitar and vox so the drummer knows where he/she is in the song) then build up each instrument as you go. That way you only really need an interface with 6-8 inputs.
...oh yeah - what Miroslav said
Yeah, unless there's a reason why you need to record the whole band at once, it's much easier to build it up one track at a time
Atkron205
Member
This is very good advice, make sure everyone can play their part by themselves, are you going for a polished recorded sound or a live sound? I track everything separately, this gives you more control on mixdown, plus you can do most of this with 8 inputs. it also gives you the option of re tracking a part if you do not like it. also when you track each part you dont have to deal with as much bleed over, except for drums then you can use gates but that's a whole different topic. I record everything dry, meaning no effects or processing, these I add on post mixdown.
VomitHatSteve
Hat STYLE. Not contents.
In retrospect, I hate the guy who answers the question with "you shouldn't do it that way".
So... "You shouldn't do it that way, but if you're going to anyway..."
Drums are probably the hardest part of what you're trying to accomplish. If you dedicate 6 channels to the drums but don't absolutely know what you're doing, you're going to get better results using drum replacement. (i.e. you'll mic each tom, which will then probably sound like garbage, so you'll replace each hit with a sample)
Rather than trying to wrangle 6 mics on the kit, try 2 or 4. Spend an entire day getting the drum kit to sound the best it can in the best-sounding room you can. Then set up 2 mics as overheads (try googling "recorderman" and other OH techniques) or room mics (Place them perpendicular to each other in the single best-sounding location in the room; of course, this will only really work if the drums are in a separate room from everyone else). You may also want to mic the kick and the snare separately. Fortunately, that still keeps you below the 8-inputs in your average consumer interface.
Record some samples of the drums; get those sounding the best they can. Then bring in the rest of the band.
Have the rest of the band be as quiet and isolated as possible! If the guitarist cranks himself up to be heard over the drums, every mic is going to start picking up that guitarist. If you don't have isolation, you can't mix much. Then spend as much time as you need to with each instrument to get it sounding right in your recording.
Plan on redubbing the vocals anyway. I doubt they'll sound great.
Dave Matthews
Dave's not here
Here is what I'm preparing to try.
16 channel interface (1818vsl with adat expansion).
6 port headphone amp.
4 piece band.
We will all play together with no vocal for the first pass, all wearing headphones.
In order to eliminate bleed my rhythm guitar and the lead guitarist will plug straight into the interface. I am experimenting with amp/cab sims for semi realism.
7 mics on the drumset, the bass goes DI along with the two guitars DI consumes 10 inputs for the first pass.
Our vocal mics are on separate channels which consumes 3 more. Then we have cables/channels dedicated to micing the guitar cabs, for a grand total of 15 channels.
As you may be able to tell by now I dislike changing cables and fiddling with gain knobs and crap in order to swap channels/instruments.
This way every channel is clean, no bleed. Well except for the drum tracks that is...
Vocals are done on the second/third pass, and guitars on the 4th/5th pass etc.
I am admittedly a rookie at this, but this is how I am/we are starting out.
16 channel interface (1818vsl with adat expansion).
6 port headphone amp.
4 piece band.
We will all play together with no vocal for the first pass, all wearing headphones.
In order to eliminate bleed my rhythm guitar and the lead guitarist will plug straight into the interface. I am experimenting with amp/cab sims for semi realism.
7 mics on the drumset, the bass goes DI along with the two guitars DI consumes 10 inputs for the first pass.
Our vocal mics are on separate channels which consumes 3 more. Then we have cables/channels dedicated to micing the guitar cabs, for a grand total of 15 channels.
As you may be able to tell by now I dislike changing cables and fiddling with gain knobs and crap in order to swap channels/instruments.
This way every channel is clean, no bleed. Well except for the drum tracks that is...
Vocals are done on the second/third pass, and guitars on the 4th/5th pass etc.
I am admittedly a rookie at this, but this is how I am/we are starting out.