Recording our band with this setup - please advise

[stanjanssen]

Hi everyone,

I want to record our band, just for a demo cd. I'd like it to sound as good as possible with the gear we have (or course!).

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Our band consists of:

1 Lead singer (female)
1 backing vocal (male)
2 electric guitars -- 1 using V-amp, 1 using VOX AD30VT
2 acoustic guitars -- 1 equipped with a built in pickup system.
1 electric bass -- DI or mike a 30W bass cab?
1 electric piano (Yamaha P80)
1 drummer (Yamaha stage custom advantage)

Of course not all instruments are used at once, there are six players.

Now our recording gear is as follows:

Mics:
4x AKX dynamic microphones
1 MXL 990, 1 MXL 991, 1 t.bone SDC.
if needed some SM58s too.

Recording:
1x 8-track PCI multitracker (with break-out box); 8 mono line inputs, 2.4 GHz PC running Cubasis.

Mixers (don't kill me for these):
Beh. UB1002
Beh. UB1204PRO

Seperate pres:
2x Beh. MIC200

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Now, as you can see, just three condensers, which would be best for which task? I fugured the MXL 991 on my acoustic 12 string (had good results),

Put the 990 up for the drums?

Use the other SDC for the other acoustic guitar? When not used, extra overhead?
Mic toms, kick, snare seperately with spare dynamic mics?

Now how many channels will we need:
1x Lead singer
1x backing vox
1x Guitar one (acoustic or electric)
1x Guitar two (acoustic or electric)
1x Bass guitar
2x Piano (stereo)
------------+
7x

OMG, just one channel for drums. I guess we're going to have to down-mix the drums to a single mono track...

Any other suggestions, especially on mic usage?

Thank you very much for your input, and sorry for the long post
Stan.

[AGCurry]

It looks like you're answering your own question(s). That's the ticket. Talk about it, write it down, you'll come out with an answer.

I would question the need for the keyboard to be in stereo in a band situation.

I would say: Record the rhythm section (drums, bass, keyboard, 1 guitar) together, with the bass and keyboard direct in, using 3 or 4 mics on the drums (1 or 2 overheads, kick, snare). Dub everything else as desired.