Room Setup for Live Recoding

A

adam79

New member
I have a rehearsal space roughly 21' x 15' x 8.75'. I'm recording my friend's band in the room. I haven't set anything up yet and I'm trying to figure out the best place to put the instruments. I can't figure out whether I want to put the amps by the drums or put 'em facing the corners w/ some comforters over them for a more isolated approach. I have a couch that splits in two parts (each one a two seater w/ arm rest). Was thinking of putting one of those on each side of the kick drum. I was thinking of putting the drums in the middle of the room up by the widest wall...I assume I gotta give it a little room from the wall, no? We're also renting a couple mics and can only afford one day of rental, so there isn't much time to experiment with positioning. Plus we wanna get it done before other bands start arriving and the place is a noise fuck. Any suggestions on planning this out, cuz it's the type of thing where I've got to make a solid plan and only have one chance to execute it properly.
We'll have 3 SM57, 1 SM58, 2 MCA SP1 and I'm gonna rent a MD421 for the kick and a RE20 for the bass.
It's a punk band. The bassist is more blues based while the guitarist is all about the Cramps. Drummer plays very simple and solid, singer scream talks (not sure if I just made that term up or if it makes sense). He really wants to get the main vocal take in with the band's live performance, which will be difficult.

Thanks,
Adam
 
Here are a few things I know. First, you treat the room for the sound of the room, not like you would for mixing. For your amps, the 57 and 58 won't pick up too much room if at all. Your MCA-SP1 is going to be the one you may want to get some isolation on, this will pick up the room. Your biggest issue for the most part is going to be the rooms liveliness. The blankets and if you can build a few rockwool fixtures, that should help tame the highs and some lows.

Don't put the bass amp too close the drums, I did that once and had snare rattle. I couldn't get it out. Unfortunately, you are going to have to get things setup and mic to hear what needs fixed. I think your condensers will be the mics you will need to focus on for room sound.
 
Best bet would be headphones for everybody, separate monitor mixes for everybody, bass direct, blanket tents over the guitar amps, gobos around the singer. You could easily spend a day getting the instruments and recording gear set up.

If you record with all that stuff bleeding together it's going to sound bad. I know it's punk and all but it will all come out better with some isolation.

Put the drummer at one end but hopefully out from the walls a little, singer at the other end with some gobos around him. Guitars with blanket tents would probably work in the middle of the long walls, between the drums and the singer.

Get the amps and drums going so they blend about right in the room, set input gain for them, then cover the amps. Set input gain for bass and vocal, set monitor mixes, start tracking.

A blanket tent is made with a chair and a couple of large, heavy moving blankets. I'll put a combo amp on a chair, place another chair facing it and drape the blanket from one seat back to the other forming a channel in front of the amp. Don't cut off the air circulation of the amp. You may also have to deal with sound coming from behind open back amps.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Best bet would be headphones for everybody, separate monitor mixes for everybody, bass direct, blanket tents over the guitar amps, gobos around the singer. You could easily spend a day getting the instruments and recording gear set up.

If you record with all that stuff bleeding together it's going to sound bad. I know it's punk and all but it will all come out better with some isolation.

Put the drummer at one end but hopefully out from the walls a little, singer at the other end with some gobos around him. Guitars with blanket tents would probably work in the middle of the long walls, between the drums and the singer.

Get the amps and drums going so they blend about right in the room, set input gain for them, then cover the amps. Set input gain for bass and vocal, set monitor mixes, start tracking.

A blanket tent is made with a chair and a couple of large, heavy moving blankets. I'll put a combo amp on a chair, place another chair facing it and drape the blanket from one seat back to the other forming a channel in front of the amp. Don't cut off the air circulation of the amp. You may also have to deal with sound coming from behind open back amps.
Click to expand...

There's just one guitar amp. Should it face the wall or away from it? It'll be a war, but i'll get the bassist to go DI. I don't have access to gobos. I do have a couple small mattresses from my sofa that I could have him huddle behind. I don't have any cash for rockwool or any real acoustical treatment material.

As far as mic rentals go, if I DI the bass I can use the MD421 on his amp for the overdub. Think a pair of SM81's would work out better than the SP1's for overheads? I could grab those in place of the RE20.
 
I don't know the SP1s, but I've had pretty good luck with SM81s.

If you can put any kind of barrier between the vocal and room I think it will help. Otherwise set the singer up facing the drums, not too close to walls. Give him a 58 on a stand with the connector end pointed at the drums and have him use it live style, lips on the grill. A foam windscreen might be a good idea. Set headphone levels so that he has enough of his voice to hear but not so much that he backs off, and a good clear instrumental mix to give him pitch/timing and inspiration. Overheads may be all the drums needed in the headphones. You can always add more.
 
I'd face the amp into the room and make an amp tent. With one amp I might put in the center of the room, 90° to the drums and vocals, and tent the front and back of the amp, just to let it breathe a little.
 
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