Down and dirty recording a live jam

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BTStudio

BTStudio

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This topic showed up in another thread so I thought I would give it its own space. I am interested in recording some jam sessions mostly to listen back later with the intention of improving the bands performance. How do you go about getting a half ass sound without using too much gear or time for that matter. Use the KISS method
Guy
 
Howdy Guy.
Subscribing to this thread.
I am also interested better captures at our practice studio. I'll find some good/bad/ugly examples as well if I can.
 
Was hoping you’d chime in here. How did you record that one you posted on the other thread
Feelin alright
 
I basically just tight mic up everything and hit record. In some instances, I used floor monitors and no headphones and just went with it. Not bad result but no punch ins as bleed would give that away. For the most part I got everyone comfortable with headphones, put my amp in another room, bass DI, as is keys and Ta Daa.
 
BTStudio said:
Was hoping you’d chime in here. How did you record that one you posted on the other thread
Feelin alright
Click to expand...
Man, I knew you were going to ask me that... :ROFLMAO:
Well, this was about 12 years ago I think. I "think" I used an old Zoom R16, and a matched pair of pencil condensers in an X pattern on stands in front of the stage at our studio.
Don't hold me to that though. That was a lot of beers ago...
I would have then taken the 2 tracks left/right, pulled them into a DAW and manipulated the bass etc. as needed.
For reference, here's the stage...



And here's the track...

 
Dave Matthews said:
Man, I knew you were going to ask me that... :ROFLMAO:
Well, this was about 12 years ago I think. I "think" I used an old Zoom R16, and a matched pair of pencil condensers in an X pattern on stands in front of the stage at our studio.
Don't hold me to that though. That was a lot of beers ago...
I would have then taken the 2 tracks left/right, pulled them into a DAW and manipulated the bass etc. as needed.
For reference, here's the stage...



And here's the track...

Click to expand...

Thanks Dave. That sounds like a real good jumping off point for me to try as I have a couple small condensors and will be using the r24. I won’t get to try it for a couple weeks cause of summer holidays with the band members but I can set it up so when they show up it’s ready to go.
 
Track Rat said:
I basically just tight mic up everything and hit record. In some instances, I used floor monitors and no headphones and just went with it. Not bad result but no punch ins as bleed would give that away. For the most part I got everyone comfortable with headphones, put my amp in another room, bass DI, as is keys and Ta Daa.
Click to expand...
How many mic’s we talking about here?
 
BTStudio said:
Thanks Dave. That sounds like a real good jumping off point for me to try as I have a couple small condensors and will be using the r24. I won’t get to try it for a couple weeks cause of summer holidays with the band members but I can set it up so when they show up it’s ready to go.
Click to expand...
Might have been a single Studio Projects B1 mic as well. This was before I tried multi channel with DIs etc...
 
BTStudio said:
How many mic’s we talking about here?
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Seven on drums, one on guitar and three vocal mics. Then One bass and two keys DI inputs for a total of 13. At the low end (cost wise) a Behringer 1820 withan ADA 8000 yields 16 decent inputs
Mobile Rig.webp
 
Track Rat said:
Seven on drums, one on guitar and three vocal mics. Then One bass and two keys DI inputs for a total of 13. At the low end (cost wise) a Behringer 1820 withan ADA 8000 yields 16 decent inputsView attachment 142255
Click to expand...
I was headed down this road in 2015/2016 and my bass player and I assembled gear to try it. I bought a Rivera Rockcrusher Recording, some mics etc.
Then we went to a small recording studio instead, and that scrapped it all...
 
BTStudio said:
This topic showed up in another thread so I thought I would give it its own space. I am interested in recording some jam sessions mostly to listen back later with the intention of improving the bands performance. How do you go about getting a half ass sound without using too much gear or time for that matter. Use the KISS method
Guy
Click to expand...
The simplest way is a room mic or a portable zoom recorder. But it depends on how your band is set up.

It sounds like you mic’d everything up, which gives you the ability to multitrack and do some kind of mix. If that is already a thing just go with that.
 
Scott Baxendale said:
The simplest way is a room mic or a portable zoom recorder. But it depends on how your band is set up.

It sounds like you mic’d everything up, which gives you the ability to multitrack and do some kind of mix. If that is already a thing just go with that.
Click to expand...
Yah never really thought about using the built in mic’s on the zoom. Could try that it’s stupid simple
 
Scott Baxendale said:
The simplest way is a room mic or a portable zoom recorder. But it depends on how your band is set up.

It sounds like you mic’d everything up, which gives you the ability to multitrack and do some kind of mix. If that is already a thing just go with that.
Click to expand...
^^^What Scott said^^^
Here's an example. This was a small handheld Zoom (or something) that belongs to our drummer. It got plopped down on a stool about 10' back from the stage.
He sent me the file, and again I pulled it into a DAW, split it to 2 tracks and played with pan/EQ etc. Rough, but...

 
Dave Matthews said:
Forgot to add. Our 2 guitars and bass are using backilne amps on stage, no DI, no mic'd amps. Only thing in the PA is vocals and a bit of kick drum.
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This is basically the same as I am set up except we are playing in a smallish room so we are basically in a circle pointing at each other.
There is definitely a good argument to just go with the onboard mic’s on the zoom
 
BTStudio said:
This is basically the same as I am set up except we are playing in a smallish room so we are basically in a circle pointing at each other.
There is definitely a good argument to just go with the onboard mic’s on the zoom
Click to expand...
Yup, try that for sure. I know I tried the ones in my old R16, but somehow I don't think I had it positioned well, and ended up with too much room echo and phasing or something. Had no idea what I was doing TBH... No reason you shouldn't give it a try.
 
This was all live. Just mixed everything with 58s ran through a mixer to tape. No overdubs.


Could do the same with an interface provided you had enough inputs for your band.
Currently I have an Allen and Heath ICE 16. 16 I/O . Records to a flash drive or SSD. Then I take it back to the studio and mix the tracks.

Guess it just depends on what you’re looking for.
 
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RFR said:
This was all live. Just mixed everything with 58s ran through a mixer to tape.


Could do the same with an interface provided you had enough inputs for your band.
Currently I have an Allen and Heath ICE 16. 16 I/O . Records to a flash drive or SSD. Then I take it back to the studio and mix the tracks.

Guess it just depends on what you’re looking for.
Click to expand...

Sounds great! Are you playing on it? Nice job!
 
Dave Matthews said:
^^^What Scott said^^^
Here's an example. This was a small handheld Zoom (or something) that belongs to our drummer. It got plopped down on a stool about 10' back from the stage.
He sent me the file, and again I pulled it into a DAW, split it to 2 tracks and played with pan/EQ etc. Rough, but...

Click to expand...

It’s distorted - and the mics aren’t placed correctly.
 
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