First "gig", recording demo for steel drums player!!

[ambi]

YAY!, so i posted a message in the microphone section about this, im not double posting here, im asking something a little different, trying to get the expertise outa this forumn as well, i want to do a good job! So if you didn't see the post in the mic section, i met this guy on the street that is an AWESOME steel drum player (been playing for 20 years or so), and i got to talking with him, and he wants to get together and record some demo's. Hes more of an artist than a tech guy, so he was quite amazed at all of the things a computer could do after i told him...

Anyways, im limited to my current setup, + a few mics i can rent. Im traveling soon so i need all my money for that, im tight budgeted. i

Shure sm58
ART studio MP preamp
sblive card
logic audio
soundforge
fruity loops
+tons of good plugins

Any of you have any tips for mic placement on steel drums? or a good mic to use? I was thinking of a sm57 for congos and bass guitar (btw, bass guitar direct into my preamp then computeR? or mic an amp? can i get decent bass frequencies this way?), and the 57 for the steel drums as well, possible a condensor. After testing a while ago i found the condensor mics to give a much cleaner, fuller sound. A little more sparkly with a lot more information, something i may not want with bass guitar, but would definatly want to capture the full sound of the steel drums

Im also concered about them sounding really small and dead. I know they don't give off a lot of lower frequencies, but they do have quite a presence.

Besides techniques such as doubling up tracks, of having him do two recordings, and panning them left and right, etc.... Anything you'd recomend?

He told me that when he did some recording before, they found the best spot to mic it, so im sure we can fiddle around and find the sweet spot.

I just want to rent the right mics.

any other stuff you'd recomend? If long and MCquade rented out sound cards, i'd pick up the Delta 44 for a month, cause i know it would make a massive improvement, but i don't think they rent out sound cards....

Anyways, im really excited to put my knowledge to work here. All these long hours of reading these forums may pay off! Thanks!

 

[littledog]

Sometimes there is no substitute for just wandering around the room with one ear plugged up and listening to where it sounds best - then put the mic there.

When I've done steel drums I've used a pair of Earthworks QTC's set up like overheads about 4-6' away. The last thing you want to do (at least if you are going for any kind of a natural sound) is close mic the pans!

There's a whole ton of overtones on the pans, so I tend to use mics and preamps with extended high frequency response - but be careful about overloading them.

 

[ambi]

hmm

hmmm, ok well i dunno how my art studio MP's frequency response is, but i may also rent a mackie mixing board. I'd rather not spend the extra cash, but i would if i need to. And for mics i was looking at this cheaper, but very nice Apex condensore, i think its the 410. But some other guys in the mic section recomended the behringer ecm8000, it confused me, cause www.zzounds.com/a--2676837 says its a measurement microphone of some sort, and it only costs 40 bucks, as opposed to the apex which is around 150, so im sure the apex is better... but maybe not for this job?? and yea i wouldn't mix close to the pan, about 4-6 inches away from it, pointed into the center, as you suggested. and my sblive only has one input, so anything i record is in one track, so the only useful way of using two mics i can think of , would be using a kick drum mic as well to give it more body, as well as the congas. And then i can always do a secondary take over top of the old one, and pan them both out, mess with it that way, etc...

who makes those mics you were recomending? (just checked em out, 1100$ COUGH, im poor), would it work ok if i used two mics together, possibly different mics, such as an apex 410 condensor with a shuresm58 at the same time, recorded into one track, or with maybe a kick drum mic to back them up with some lower frequencies? Would that make it sound better? or woudl you just recomend recording with each individual mic, and having different variations to pan out with slightly different sounds from the mics. or would you say just stick with one mic. The idea of the kick drum mic, especailyl for the congas to add some body is tempting, but then i would have to rent the mackie, but i will if its woth it. and i would run this all through an art studio mp, or a mackie board, any good?

BTW, i'd rather not blow the extra money on a mackie board, especially cause i can only record one input and one track at a time. But if two mics recorded into the same source would work better, or if the preamps would make a big difference, i'd go for it.

any advice would be great, thanks!

 

[littledog]

Re: hmm

... and yea i wouldn't mix close to the pan, about 4-6 inches away from it, pointed into the center, as you suggested.

... i can only record one input and one track at a time.

First of all, 4-6 inches IS close mic'ing. I said 4-6 FEET!

Second, if you are going to ever try and do even the most basic recording, you will need to be able to track at least two (and more likely at least four) tracks at once. Since stereo recording has been around for forty or so years, it is pretty safe to say that mono is probably not about to make a big comeback.

From reading these threads, it is apparent that there are a lot of relatively inexpensive ways of getting into multitrack recording. Perhaps you should consider some of them.

 

[shackrock]

I play in a steel drum band, and we've recorded a few times.

when we do record, it is always us recording a live concert - at a concert hall (for best acoustics).

now - since the last time i remember recording our band was 2-3 years ago, when i knew nothing about mics and recording...i couldn't tell you what he used. But, for our band (10 leads, 4 double seconds, 3 double tenors, 2 3-cellos, 2 4-cellos, 2 basses), which is huge,

he did a seperate mic for each (set of 6) basses....(bass freaq. microphone i'm sure)

and he had i think 3 or 4 on the leads, maybe 2 on DT, 2 on DS....these i remember being very small and skinny...so i assume they were condensors of somekind.

cellos were miced with who knows what (i dont play those, so i dont remember, haha).

He led everything backstage to some big box of equipment. portable rack i assume.

maybe that helps?


oh yeah, and one time we wanted to just do a demo kind of cd. This guy came into where we practice, and set up 2 room mics up front, gigantor things they were. and although it didnt sound very good, it didnt sound so bad either.

 

[ambi]

hmm, ok sounds good.
but little dog, i can only currently get one input at a time, im willing to rent a mackie board and extra mics, so i could hae 3 mics recording at one time, but it would all go into one track.

i know mono is not that great, and i would record multiple takes and pan them out, etc... do whatever i can to make it sound good, but im kinda stuck here.

i'd love to beable to record multiple tracks at once im sure it would sound awesome, but i can't really right now.

 

[littledog]

In that case, Ambi, take the time to try and get the best possible sound with one mic. The more mics you sum to one track, the more unrepairable phase problems you are introducing. My advice is forget the Mackie rental and save the money towards a more useful recording system.

 

[ambi]

WAIT
sblive, one stereo input
use a y spiltter, have two inputs!!!
good enough for a condensor, and a kick drum mic
or two condensors for stereo recording!