4tracktips

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kyuss

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Hi people,

Our band consists of three people (vocals/bass/guitar/drums)I have a cheap 4track yamaha tape deck and some shitty mics. We want to record a couple of songs as good as possible with this equipment. Any tips on the micing/recording/mixing? I would be very glad with all information how to get the best out of my stuff, Bob

PS. We play loud, does that make a difference in recording/mixing? We're also using the four tracks at the same time.
 
One way to do it.....

Here's an idea;

Since you only have a few mics.... use the best two or three that you have to record the drums while playing a "Scratch" guitar part on another channel. When you get an excellent drum part down on tape, then re-do the guitar and bass for real on the other tracks, They are much easier to punch in and get perfectly. Then add vocals on the last track. Or remix Drums, bass and guitar to track 4, and then use 1, 2, & 3 for vocals, extra guitar riffs, percussion etc.

That's how I would do it.... ( also save up $200.00 or so and get a couple of Shure SM57's and Sm58's) They will help you make a pretty decent recording.

Dom
 
4track

cool, thanks Dom. I will talk with my bandmates. I'm a bit frightened that our drummer isn't -yet- capable of playing the drum parts of the songs on his own. But I think we will do the vocals last, that would be much easier and probably better sounding than altogether. Bob
 
I used to be in a situation like that and found just setting up four mikes in the room works good depending on what kind of room you have you'll have to experiment with the mic positions
 
Do you have any other sort of mixer or just the 4-track. If you do, use the mixer to submix the drums down to a track, If not, just use the mixer on the 4track. Then take a direct or line signal from the bassist's rig into a track, and put a mic on the guitar cabinet into a track. Then Rock out! This will give you three tracks. It's gotta be a good take on all parts cuz it's all bleeding together, which is the good thing :D Do the vocals later, have the singer mouth it out if need be. If you wanna do some bouncing, be real smart about it. YOu could record all the basic tracks (guitar, bass, drums, yadda yadda) onto two tracks (ummm... stereo) but you will need to get the mix right going in evenmore so. Ultimitly it depend on the type of music and the band, just do what you always do, just record it!

-jhe
 
kyuss said:
Hi people,

Our band consists of three people (vocals/bass/guitar/drums)I have a cheap 4track yamaha tape deck and some shitty mics. We want to record a couple of songs as good as possible with this equipment. Any tips on the micing/recording/mixing? I would be very glad with all information how to get the best out of my stuff, Bob

PS. We play loud, does that make a difference in recording/mixing? We're also using the four tracks at the same time.
Click to expand...

Hi Kyuss (I like the name man! They were awesome!)

1. What mic's do you have?
2. What 4-track?
3. How big of a drumkit? (is it two kick drums)?

These things can help us to help you!

Yes, playing loud WILL affect your recordings!

Here's What I would suggest:

1. Buy 3 pairs of headphones that are EXACTLY the same Model; they don't have to be super expensive models; just make sure that they are the kind that cover your whole ear, and not just the foam kind that sits on your ear.

2. Go here:

http://www.angelfire.com/fl/Brownsound/Headphonebox.html

This is my own little concept. I needed headphone extensions-and after going through a bunch of crappy ones-I decided to try and make some. These Work GREAT!

They allow you to use XLR Microphone cables for headphone extensions.
You'll probably only need two of them; that way you can hook up 3 headphones to 1 headphone output.
You could even buy a bigger "experimenter's box" and put 3 1/4" stero headphone jacks on 1 box.

I would suggest building 1 for the drummer alone-so that he can have his own headphone extension.


3. use ALL 4 of the mic's on the drums.
Plug the guitar and bass straight into the 4 track; these are scrap tracks that will allow you to "use the room" solely for the drums on the first pass.
Then, you and the bass player can go back and record your tracks through your amps.

BUT, if you're going to try to record 4 or more songs-and you want the same drumsound on all of them? You'll have to record all the songs drumparts first (while bass and guitar are going direct)
then go back and record the guitar and bass through the amps.

#1 rule-make SURE that the drumkit is tuned really well, and sounds great in the room.
The thing that most home 4-track recording lacks is quality REAL drums.
Normally, I would suggest a mic on the kick, a mic on the snare, and 1 cardioid overhead, about 1 foot above the drummers head (and I mean DIRECTLY over his head via a Boom mic stand), aimed it at the back of his heada little, so that there is less Cymbal pickup, and more "tom sound/overall kit."


Tim
 
recording

Hey Tim,

Very nice info, especially on the drum part. I'm afraid I will have to buy an eight track because we are really into recording everything -except the vocals- at once. This may sound a little stupid, but I really like the live aspect of music. (some of the best records were live ones in my opinion and I really like little mistakes on cd, and this is just about a demo) I have a yamaha mt 120 stereo machine and two cheap shure's microphones and some very cheap japanese ones (they work fine though).
Is it possible to record the mixed tracks (on the 4track) to cd without midi/programs computer shit? Is it just pluggin in to a cdr or is there another way to do it? Thanks again for the tips, I will definitely buy some new headphones from my last pocketmoney. Bob
 
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