V
Voyager Records
New member
Hello everyone,
On December 2nd (next weekend), I have a five-piece mostly acoustic folk group coming into the studio to lay down four or five tracks. They want to be recorded live (or as live as possible), so I'm toying with different setup ideas...and being a young and relatively inexperienced producer/engineer, I thought I'd get some advice from people who've been in the game a while. Here's my situation:
Mics available:
(2) Audio Technica AT4050s (multi-pattern large diaphragm condensers)
(2) Shure SM81-LCs (pencil condensers)
(1) Blue Spark (cardioid condenser)
(1) Røde NT1A (〃)
(1) Nady RSM-1 (ribbon)
(1) Audix D6
(1) AKG D112
(3) Shure SM57s
They have a drummer (he plays a full kit, but with a very kick/snare/cymbal-hits dominated style), an electric bassist, two acoustic guitarists, and a banjo player...and two or three of them will be singing fairly prominently on all of the tunes. Since I only have one relatively small room (maybe 12x18) with limited baffling and eight inputs to work with, I figure it'd sound cleanest––and just make the most sense overall––if my first step for recording any given song was:
* Have the guys lay down a scratch track to a metronome, and then record the drums separately in some sort of modified Glyn Johns setup (most likely the same overhead configuration, but I'd probably put the Audix D6 on the beater of the kick drum and have two SM57s, one top and one bottom, on the snare)
Then, with the drum track completed, the real questions begin to arise...
* After that, I could go traditional and just set up a spaced pair of AT4050s (about 15cm apart) in omni mode and have the other band members stand around them in a circle to record the rest of the parts live after carefully plotting out their positions relative to the mics (to make sure the mix is solid) and telling them to step in for leads...but I see a few potential problems in this. In my experience, especially when the musicians are standing, putting up a pair of condensers at mouth level (to capture the vocals) leaves the instruments (which, of course, are down at waist level) sounding a tad washed out, which is something I'd like to avoid if possible...so, should I put out spot mics in ADDITION to the spaced pair to give me some presence and variability? Or perhaps, if the band is cool with it, just drop the condensers down to instrument level and then overdub the vocals "normally" (one mic per person) AFTER recording only the instruments live? OR, hell, would it be best to just separate the musicians and have one mic per voice and per instrument as if they were on stage? I imagine the bleed would be pretty tremendous, especially in such a small room, which is why I initially considered just setting up the spaced pair and doing it old-school.
* Regardless, I'd probably overdub the bassist's part lasts if he wants to use an amp. If not, I'd just DI him while the rest of the group is recording their instruments live (or just run the amp into the control room and mic it there while the group is performing) and call it a day.
When it comes down to it, I'm going for the energy and spontaneity that I know a live performance will bring from these guys, and as such, I'm totally cool with a bit of grit and character in the recording, but I really want the final mix to be as tight as possible. Obviously, a certain set of sacrifices have to be made when recording live––and I'm essentially looking for ways to sacrifice as little as possible while still maintaining the integrity of a live recording.
I'm pretty much open to any advice, criticisms, hints, or questions...thanks so much!
On December 2nd (next weekend), I have a five-piece mostly acoustic folk group coming into the studio to lay down four or five tracks. They want to be recorded live (or as live as possible), so I'm toying with different setup ideas...and being a young and relatively inexperienced producer/engineer, I thought I'd get some advice from people who've been in the game a while. Here's my situation:
Mics available:
(2) Audio Technica AT4050s (multi-pattern large diaphragm condensers)
(2) Shure SM81-LCs (pencil condensers)
(1) Blue Spark (cardioid condenser)
(1) Røde NT1A (〃)
(1) Nady RSM-1 (ribbon)
(1) Audix D6
(1) AKG D112
(3) Shure SM57s
They have a drummer (he plays a full kit, but with a very kick/snare/cymbal-hits dominated style), an electric bassist, two acoustic guitarists, and a banjo player...and two or three of them will be singing fairly prominently on all of the tunes. Since I only have one relatively small room (maybe 12x18) with limited baffling and eight inputs to work with, I figure it'd sound cleanest––and just make the most sense overall––if my first step for recording any given song was:
* Have the guys lay down a scratch track to a metronome, and then record the drums separately in some sort of modified Glyn Johns setup (most likely the same overhead configuration, but I'd probably put the Audix D6 on the beater of the kick drum and have two SM57s, one top and one bottom, on the snare)
Then, with the drum track completed, the real questions begin to arise...
* After that, I could go traditional and just set up a spaced pair of AT4050s (about 15cm apart) in omni mode and have the other band members stand around them in a circle to record the rest of the parts live after carefully plotting out their positions relative to the mics (to make sure the mix is solid) and telling them to step in for leads...but I see a few potential problems in this. In my experience, especially when the musicians are standing, putting up a pair of condensers at mouth level (to capture the vocals) leaves the instruments (which, of course, are down at waist level) sounding a tad washed out, which is something I'd like to avoid if possible...so, should I put out spot mics in ADDITION to the spaced pair to give me some presence and variability? Or perhaps, if the band is cool with it, just drop the condensers down to instrument level and then overdub the vocals "normally" (one mic per person) AFTER recording only the instruments live? OR, hell, would it be best to just separate the musicians and have one mic per voice and per instrument as if they were on stage? I imagine the bleed would be pretty tremendous, especially in such a small room, which is why I initially considered just setting up the spaced pair and doing it old-school.
* Regardless, I'd probably overdub the bassist's part lasts if he wants to use an amp. If not, I'd just DI him while the rest of the group is recording their instruments live (or just run the amp into the control room and mic it there while the group is performing) and call it a day.
When it comes down to it, I'm going for the energy and spontaneity that I know a live performance will bring from these guys, and as such, I'm totally cool with a bit of grit and character in the recording, but I really want the final mix to be as tight as possible. Obviously, a certain set of sacrifices have to be made when recording live––and I'm essentially looking for ways to sacrifice as little as possible while still maintaining the integrity of a live recording.
I'm pretty much open to any advice, criticisms, hints, or questions...thanks so much!
