A little twist...

[whattaguy]

I apologize if I sound redundant, or if this is the correct forum to post this, but here it goes.

I want to record our church band during one of our weekly sets tomorrow night, and was wondering if you guys could give me some suggestions on instrument placement. The stage is about 30’ wide and 10’ deep, and the sanctuary is about 75’ long. The drum set is situated back-center stage. Currently, we have the bassist stage right and the electric guitarist stage left, each by their amps. Our band consists of:

1 bass (Ibanez SG bass played through Ampeg B100R and/or DI through Countryman DI)
1 electric guitar (LP Studio through a Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb)
1 acoustic guitar (DI)
1 vocal

The mics available are:

1 Senn e835 (vocals)
1 Senn e609 (guitar amp)
1 Shure SM57 (snare)
1 Shure SM58
2 Oktava MK012 (OH’s)
1 AT Pro25 (kick)
1 AT4040
1 SP B1

I hope those mics are right for each instrument—I’ll take suggestions—but the question is this: What would be the ideal placement of the sound sources and mics to minimize bleed and feedback?

Unfortunately, we don’t have separate stage monitors, so we have to put our mains behind us (the drummer has to hear). The last time we tried to record live, the recording sounded decent but the monitor mix was horrible. It made it tough to play to our potential. I’m going to the church tonight to set up since I won’t have time tomorrow. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[bgavin]

Unfortunately, we don’t have separate stage monitors, so we have to put our mains behind us (the drummer has to hear).

Headphones.

You've got all this nice equipment, why compromise the sound by incorrect placement of the mains?

Not only can you put phones on the drummer, but you can pipe a click into the phones so he can keep time. Nothing shows crappy timing more than a decent recording.

You can find an inexpensive headphone distribution amp (Rane MH4, HC6) on eBay all the time. These accept LINE level signals from the board, and each headphone channel is use-adjustable for volume.

I use the MH4 console for my daughter's band. Each has her own set of phones and volume control. Each hears the click, too.