Want to record a full band in one room, ideas?

Muyukiguki

Muyukiguki

Kung Fu Master
I have or will soon have the gear to get a decent multi tracked recording of a full band. I would love to have a nice isolation booth for vox/amps, a sweet sounding room for drums, and an acoustically perfect control room for recording, mixing, and mastering. But until that day comes, I have a 11x12 room with a 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 foot closet. The room has double sliding wood doors going in, and a window, both are approx. 3ft 3inch wide (I've attached drawing, please take a look!) Basically, I just need some ideas on how to make the most of what I have. The first drawing is the room with nothing in it, the second is with a couch, drum set, and cpu/daw desk that will be in the room, not sure if thats how it needs to be set up buts its just what I've been thinkin' about. Also as far as acoustics and recording, where do I need foam, bass traps, ect...? Do I need a GOBO or some kind of sound blockage from drums to the daw desk or should I use Extreme Iso headphones or another recommended brand? How can I get the best sound of my drums?Keep in mind my budget is somwhere around $500 or so for the room treatments needed. Thanks for reading this epic and thanks in advance for your help!!!
 

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Do your best to make your room sound good, then move people around until they sound good in the room. Mic them up with as few mics as possible, make sure to use some room mics, and just give yourself over to the lack of control.

Then, get the musicians to take off their headphones (except maybe the singer, but them to if you can), and prepare to catch some of the best performances you will ever hear out of the bands. People just play better when they can hear each other for real.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Cool, thanks for the advice! But I really didn't want to record a entire band at once, but track them seperatly; as in drums/ scratch guitar, bass, guitar tracks, vocals, ect... I apologize if I didn't make that clear or used incorrect terms, I've been into recording for a little while now but am still very much a newb :D ! Keep the ideas comming please!
 
Muyukiguki said:
Sonically, is that the best way to deal with my situation?
Click to expand...


The best sounding record is always the one which has the best performances. You will get the best performances if everyone plays together.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Ok, well heres my idea...Checker the room with 1ft x 1ft 3inch thick open cell foam, Put wall to wall 2 inch thick foam in the closet to use as a makeshift vocal booth ( Is 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 too small? Thats all I got to work with :( .) Then use a POD and a DI box to record scratch guitar and bass into my Firepod while tracking the drums, use Extreme Isolation headphones to get decent mic placement from the drums. Then record drums ( possibly make/build a GOBO to put in between me and the drums while tracking them), then bass, then guitars, then vocals. Sound like that should work? :confused:
 
Answering these questions might help you answer your first one.

1) What type of music are you recording?
2) What's the overall volume level like?
3) How experienced and proficient are the performers?
4) How well do the performers know the music they will perform?
5) How well do you know the performers?
6) How much confidence do you have in your engineering chops?
7) Good luck!
 
Mostly rock, on the heavy side, but I have one country band lined up. As far as volume, I'm going to be recording drums in a 10x11 room, so its gonna get a little loud at times, especially when recording heavy rock. The musians I'm recording will have been playing for 10 years and up, so they know there stuff pretty well, and I know them all pretty well too ( this studio room is inside my home, so I'm not gonna let just anyone come record.) My chops, what chops? :D I've had alot of sucess at recording hip hop/ rap, counrty, and folk music, but have never done a project that had live drums, but I have had alot of experience in bands and studios and know how things should sound and have a general idea of how to get them that way...I hope. ;)
 
sounds like Light and Foreverain4 are right. put them in a circle facing each other, use the tightest cardioids on the guitars & vocals, take a DI from the bass, and hit the gas. if you have a snake, take yourself & your recorder
far far away so you can mix a little:)
 
Start by getting everything to sound as good as possible (to your ears) this will make the rest of it go a lot smoother. Once you get that part, remind everyone to leave their settings alone, guitarists who constantly adjust volume or other settings are a pain. In a small room you will need to mic things really cloce in order to get any sort of seperation, expect a lot of bleed over even if you use really directional mics. Plan to do several takes of each song, for some unknown reason major mistakes happen more frequently when the recorder is on. Make sure everyon is in tune, take a deep breath, turn on the recorder and go for it. Play it back (listen carefully to how things sound in relation to other sounds) make any adjustments then repeat the process. After a few trys chances you will get a pretty good sounding take.
 
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