Saturday Tracking

[djhead]

Howdy folks!

Saturday I am going to be tracking my band for the last time. We are losing the guitar player to flight school. We always said we wanted to make something we were proud of, so we are going to take saturday to track all our tunes. Now I am going to lay out an extensive background, so I am clear about intent and capabilities, so bear with me.

The only place and time we can do it is Saturday at my drummer's house. His house is a typical army housing place with hardwood floors throughout and thick walls. It makes for a very echo-y place. I was thinking of putting the drums in the living room, to get a nice room sound, but i worry about phase issues. its a square room, where would an ideal place for the set be?
I was thinking about throwing the guitar in the guest bedroom (still hardwood) with maybe a mattress behind the mic to dampen room reflection. Its a SM57, so i think room noise isnt too much of an issue. I would have the Bass use his POD as a pre, and go DI, and add vocals later.
Should I go for the all at once tracking for ease and therefore the ability to track more? Or being the perfectionist I am not, should I do drums with a scratch guitar track and hope the guitar doesnt bleed to bad into the overheads, and retrack the reel deel later? I want it to sound good.

Next up is mic usage.
I have:
that CAD 3-pack drum mic set (2 toms and one kick)
2 x Cascade M37s
1 x SM57
1 x Oktava MK319
1 x SHure ghetto mic (one step lower than a 57)
2 x Fender ghetto mics (came with a Passport I liberated from work)

What would you put where? Given the rooms i am using, what mic techniques would you use? I am not expecting Rami quality chunes, but I do feel as though my inexperience is hampering the sound a bit, and I really want to get it ok.

AAAAAAAAANNNNNNNDDDDDDDDD GO!

Poll For Fun!

[SuicideNote]

To be honest I'm not sure that you can do it in one day with the given specs. Maybe if you went to a good studio and stuck everyone in their own room and recorded perfect takes, then it would be possible to do it in one day.

In 1999 my band went into a "real pro studio" with the intention of recording 3 songs in 1 day. The reality soon hit us as it took several hours to get everyone setup and tested running into the console. We ended up getting one full song recorded with a rough mix burned to CD. It still sounds "OK" to this day.

[Dogman]

Whatever happens, good luck, and have fun, DJ....

[sixways]

I'd try to split it up DJ. A bud of mine from another site said he actually put a guitar amp in a car outside the studio and miked it up....came out quite nice...if you have the capabilities to run that mix to your drummer's cans.

Advice from making mistakes doing the same thing....get anything that could rattle or vibrate out of the room...ie, picture frams, wall hangings, nic-nacs and stuff. Pull the front head off the kick drum, put a pillow in touching the front head.

Any chance the drummer could play with a scratch bass track instead of guitar, that'll get rid of the bleed.

Just some thoughts,
6

[djhead]

We're gonna move it to my house.

Whats that secret overhead placement trick y'all keep going on about?>

[ido1957]

Courtesy of Monsieur Rami - overhead placement.....

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/sho...5&postcount=41

[djhead]

Appreciated. Will be trying that saturday.