What is the best setup to record a Big Band?

G

GuitarGiddz

New member
I'm doing a music tech a-level at the moment, and considering doing a big band piece for one of my submission (lots of acoustic sounds- extra credit!). I have many ideas on how to record this, it's just i wont have much studio time to experiment with what sounds best, and editing things etc, I will probably get 2-4 takes in total (not a lot of time I know but i have a team of 8 classmates for setting up and positioning etc)

What are your opinions?
PS we have 2 Large diaphragm condensers, 4 c2/c4 pencil condensers, 3 sm57's, akg d112, and 2 sets of decent drum 5 kits.
 
Option 1: use two pencil condensors in an XY configuration somewhere near the conductors position.

Option 2: See option 1, but add a couple of mikes around the sides to grab the more distant instruments. Mix to taste.

Option 3: mike the kit, DI the bass, and scatter mikes around the main instrument groups.

Option 1 will give you great results.

Option 3 looks impressive, and will give you lots of material to mix later on, if you have enough inputs on your interface.
 
Assuming it's a typical 5/4/4 (or 5/4/3) brass with a kit, bass & piano, I typically (typically -- I hit a couple dozen of these walls a year with 10 channels to work with), give the bari sax his own 57, two more split the other 4 saxes, two SDC's will pick up the bones and the trumpets easily (although tell them that they actually need to *aim* properly), kick (112), 2 overhead (SDC's if you can, LDC's if you're running low), bass, keyboard, lunch. If there's a vocalist in the mix, kill one of the overheads.

Made some awfully decent on-the-fly recordings in this manner -- Many times straight to two-track using aux 3&4 as L&R to the recording deck.

Either way, if the musicians know how to steady their aim, that's plenty of inputs to get everything down without having too much rope to hang yourself with later.

TIP: Big pre-delay (100ms or more) on the verb for that dance-hall 'slap.' More extra credit.
 
I agree with Gecko on the x-y pair, but I would back them off a bit behind the conductor, so the instruments in the middle of the band are not significantly closer to the mics than the outside ones. I would also put another stereo pair further back in the room to pick up the reflections and mix to taste. I would avoid electronic reverb if possible. Do a couple of test takes and move the instruments/mics if needed to achieve the desired balance. I would have featured soloists approach the closer stereo pair or use a dedicated solo mic. I am not a big fan of using alot of mics on a big band.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top