Best way to record live bands ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jaredjpa
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Jaredjpa

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Hello,

I have went through several set ups with my home studio and I have done well. But I do not understand how to record a live band and maybe also provide them with the equipment to play through.

Lets say I want to record a 4 piece acoustic band at a venue or my home. I have my pa system and I have my audio interface and DAW.

What is the best way to make all of this work and record the performance ? I'm trying to build a portable studio for this and host jam sessions and record those as well.

Thanks!

Jared
 
The way that I am doing it, I purchased the Tascam 1800, gives me 16 inputs (two through a SPDIF preamp). The new Tascam drops the SPDIF which is better. Put it all in a Gator rack case, added a rack power strip and was set for sound.

Purchased a drum 7 piece mic kit (I suggest 4, kick, snare OH's) Mic the guitar amps and bass (in case you want to do more than acoustic), vocals, depending on the mixer, I split the dynamic Mics, but if you have another way of getting the vocals from the mixer that is better. If I have any inputs left, mic the room in case I want to add flavor.

Purchased a cheap laptop and Reaper, and just track while mobile. Mix when I get home. Very little processing required on the portable sound system, therefore, I beefy laptop is not required. That setup is pretty flexible. 16 inputs/channels is 99% as much as many of us would need here.

Here is what I learned along the way. First, setup takes a long time. I had 7 on the drums, but really the OH's take care of the Toms Kick and Snare mics gives you ability to add punch. I have to say the 4 mic drum recording is worth considering. Also, keep the bass away from the snare. One of the bands I recorded, the snare rattled so much, I couldn't mix it. Lessons learned.

Getting the vocals in seems to be the hard part. If you can get it straight from the board, then you can set the level so it doesn't clip and just get it to mix later.

Acoustic is rather hard because the guy I recorded wanted to move around a lot. I tried to do a combo Di and condenser mic, but his pick up he insisted on over driving and it sounded like crap. The condenser was really inconsistent. Required a lot of post wave editing to get the levels consistent.

The last thing is, these guys sucked and when I recorded them, it showed how much they sucked. You get away with a lot of stuff playing live, once it is recorded, all bets are off. Make sure the band is well rehearsed or you will not enjoy the journey. When you play in the studio, usually everything is isolated, somebody screws up, go do it it again, punch in, make some tweaks. Live, the bleed reduces what can be fixed. So, what you record is what you get when recording a real live session.

The others will have better tips, but I think the above at least gives you some basics.
 
After reading your reply, btw thank you so much, my question is how do record from a mixer into my audio interface and multi track it?

Like you said below, you captured the vocals from the mixer. What if I wanted to capture the vocals and acoustic guitars from a mixer into my audio interface and into my DAW.

Jared





DM60 said:
The way that I am doing it, I purchased the Tascam 1800, gives me 16 inputs (two through a SPDIF preamp). The new Tascam drops the SPDIF which is better. Put it all in a Gator rack case, added a rack power strip and was set for sound.

Purchased a drum 7 piece mic kit (I suggest 4, kick, snare OH's) Mic the guitar amps and bass (in case you want to do more than acoustic), vocals, depending on the mixer, I split the dynamic Mics, but if you have another way of getting the vocals from the mixer that is better. If I have any inputs left, mic the room in case I want to add flavor.

Purchased a cheap laptop and Reaper, and just track while mobile. Mix when I get home. Very little processing required on the portable sound system, therefore, I beefy laptop is not required. That setup is pretty flexible. 16 inputs/channels is 99% as much as many of us would need here.

Here is what I learned along the way. First, setup takes a long time. I had 7 on the drums, but really the OH's take care of the Toms Kick and Snare mics gives you ability to add punch. I have to say the 4 mic drum recording is worth considering. Also, keep the bass away from the snare. One of the bands I recorded, the snare rattled so much, I couldn't mix it. Lessons learned.

Getting the vocals in seems to be the hard part. If you can get it straight from the board, then you can set the level so it doesn't clip and just get it to mix later.

Acoustic is rather hard because the guy I recorded wanted to move around a lot. I tried to do a combo Di and condenser mic, but his pick up he insisted on over driving and it sounded like crap. The condenser was really inconsistent. Required a lot of post wave editing to get the levels consistent.

The last thing is, these guys sucked and when I recorded them, it showed how much they sucked. You get away with a lot of stuff playing live, once it is recorded, all bets are off. Make sure the band is well rehearsed or you will not enjoy the journey. When you play in the studio, usually everything is isolated, somebody screws up, go do it it again, punch in, make some tweaks. Live, the bleed reduces what can be fixed. So, what you record is what you get when recording a real live session.

The others will have better tips, but I think the above at least gives you some basics.
Click to expand...
 
And your interface.

We need to know how many channels you've got to play with.

If just two, set up a pair of mikes in front of the band in X-Y configuration, about mouth height, then go for it.
 
XLR splitter snake at the stage box to your own preamps to the multi-track recording device, plus mics on anything not miced for live sound, plus 2-6 channels of room/audience mics.
 
I think DM60's on the right track for what you want. Drop the Mixer though. The new tascam 16x08 comes with a software mixer. You Plug all you mics into the tascam and then run that into your poweramp(s). Plug in your laptop and your good to go for running the live sound and recording the raw tracks as well.
 
One thing no one has brought up is a mixer and the Allen and heath Ice 16.
Its a single rack space standalone digital recorder. It will record up to 16 tracks to an SD card or an external harddrive.
Mix down later in a Daw or in an analog format.

I know of some that have recorded festivals with this setup.
 
I would never allow a show to depend on a laptop. Mix the show on a mixer.
 
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