Garage Rock Recording

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Abbott

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This might be a bit long: My rock band has five members - a singer, two guitarists, bassist, and a drummer. We have tried all sorts of ways to record, but the way that I think I am going to do it is by recording all of us live, then overdubbing vox and other things. The problem is, though, is there is so much track bleed. We record in my garage, with all the amps miked. The drum set has two condensers above, a mic on snare, and a bass drum mic. We will record, but then the drum mics pick up all the instruments and there isn't really any isolation. I have tried covering the amps with blankets, which help for the guitar tracks, but not the drum mics picking up everything. We have one isolation room that isn't big enough for my drums. I know this is how they do it in big studios, but I can't figure out how to stop the track bleed.

Equipment:
Tascam 414 mkii
Behringer 4 channel mixer for drums
mics, amps, etc.
 
Turn the amps down?

That's a tricky situation. It will be a fun challenge for you guys to play well at a low volume, but I know that it it is really frustrating at first. That's the only thing I can think of, though, if you can't move the drums (or maybe the amps?) into a seperate room.

I'm sure there are folks around who can give you better advice then I, though.

Good luck!
Chris
 
This is an uneducated response, but can you go line out of the amps into the 414, and put cans on everybody? Isolate the amps yet be able to monitor?
 
Put the amps in the iso room and only have them loud enough to give you the tone you're looking for. You'll be amazed how low this is for the recording purpose. I've seen too many guitarists crank their amps in the studio so it sounds right (live) to them and they end up with a mess on tape. The quieter the amp the cleaner the recording. (In my experience anyway)
Anyway, to continue.... DI the bass and all play with headphones. You can pick up a little headphone mixer very cheap which will do the job.
 
jam together. have fun. go nuts.

record your 'raw' session

take that session and put it on CD, or tape or whatever and give it to your drummer.

The drummer will now record himself playing while he's listening to the tape.

The bassist is next .. he'll use the same tape.

Guitar A is next.

Guitar B is after that ... etc etc.

you get the gist of it. It's the only way to do decent recording in a garage.

By the end of it you can 'chuck' your raw session tape.

One by one. Since you're using the same tape, everything is in sync.

Since everybody is playing one by one, there is no sound problem in terms of microphones.

Technically it's still a garage mix. and it doesn't take too long to achieve. You can do a song each night.
 
Marc, I was thinking about the guitar amps in the osolation room as I was writting the other post.
Seems like it would work to me.
 
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