how is my setup???

[sureimshure]

Before i wrote this question i had included a super long introduction about my previous knowladge of audio work and stuff but i accidentally backspaced and lost all 100,000 words of it... Im really pissed... So im just goint to ask my question now.
I dont know if this is important information here but as some of you may have read on my recent posts my band is an up-beat hard rock band with a very
textured rythm and super thick euro beat groove to it. Try to think of early foo fighters songs if you know
any some good examples are enough space, ill stick around, monkey wrench, and my poor brain. Dont worry about our origionality though because were very origional.
So basicly my setup right now is ---
1 drummer/ kit with a snare, double kick pedal, 2 toms, 1 floor tom, and 5 cymbals.
2 guitar players with miced amps
1 bass play with direct line-in (or miced... Doesnt make a difference to me)
1 singer
For the drums i plan on micing the kick with a nady dm80, the snare with a nady dm70, and all toms with a dm70s, and the 5 cymbals with 2 overhead cm90s. If you didnt notice thats the nady dmk 7c 7piece drum mic kit.
For the miced guitar amps ill be using shure sm57s (or maybe sennhieser e609... What do you guys think)
The bass will probably be recorded later using either direct line-in or miced with sm57 depending on what you guys think.
The vocal mic will be a shure sm58 of course

My audio interface will be a tascam us-1800 and im going to use the software that comes with it which is cubase le-5. At this point you may wonder how i could use at least 10 mics with only 8 xlr inputs... But i got some " planet waves male xlr to female 1/4in adaptors" so no problem.

The room---
Me friend ( drummer) has a smallish room near the back of his house that has all his music equipment (stands, cables, amps, gig bags) it also has his drum kit in it and its also where we rehearse. The room has very good acoustics already and is deep inside the house so there is very little chance of outside noise. One problem is that part of the ceiling is sloped so we are going to hang some thick curtains to help keep the sound from bouncing at weird angles. Also we will clear out all of the equipment that we wont be using.
I have a pc that i used to use a little bit for normal computer stuff and ive completely wiped it back to factory settings so there shouldnt be any programs jnterferring with the audio productions. Its has plenty of memory and RAM and all that good stuff.... I think ive covered everything.

So basically should i use an sm57 or e609 for micing guitar amps (occasiomally micing acoustic guitar)?
Should i use direct line-in or mic my bass amp?
And overall what do you guys think of me setup... Feel free to change anything but remember im on a budget so try not to change things price wise TOO much
Please respond with anything you think ive left out
And a big thanks in advance for reading my long and detailed question!!! And if you didnt read most of it but still give me helpful advice, slightly smaller thanks but im still greatful.

 

[ollie99]

Most of your questions seem as they are this or that, so the answer to that is try them out!
About the bit where you said you will use xlr to 1/4 inch cables for 2 of the mics, I'm pretty sure this doesn't work with condensers or any phantom powered mics, I may be wrong, but in general the audio signal won't be as good anyway unless the connection is balanced, that is my understanding of that area.
I think I saw on another post that you said you wanted to record an entire professional album, well in that case you won't need to use more than 8 mic inputs at a time, just track each instrument seperately. If you plan to mic everything for a gig, then this is an entirely different situation and you'd probably need to tell us what other equipment you have and where you will be playing.

 

[mjbphotos]

The adapters are not going to work for extra mics - you need preamps for mics, but like ollie already said - tracking instruments separately is the best solution. that way you don't worry about bleed or # of inputs.

 

[Justsomeguy]

So basicly my setup right now is ---
1 drummer/ kit with a snare, double kick pedal, 2 toms, 1 floor tom, and 5 cymbals.
2 guitar players with miced amps
1 bass play with direct line-in (or miced... Doesnt make a difference to me)
1 singer
For the drums i plan on micing the kick with a nady dm80, the snare with a nady dm70, and all toms with a dm70s, and the 5 cymbals with 2 overhead cm90s. If you didnt notice thats the nady dmk 7c 7piece drum mic kit.
For the miced guitar amps ill be using shure sm57s (or maybe sennhieser e609... What do you guys think)
The bass will probably be recorded later using either direct line-in or miced with sm57 depending on what you guys think.
The vocal mic will be a shure sm58 of course

My audio interface will be a tascam us-1800 and im going to use the software that comes with it which is cubase le-5. At this point you may wonder how i could use at least 10 mics with only 8 xlr inputs... But i got some " planet waves male xlr to female 1/4in adaptors" so no problem.

So basically should i use an sm57 or e609 for micing guitar amps (occasiomally micing acoustic guitar)?
Should i use direct line-in or mic my bass amp?
And overall what do you guys think of me setup... Feel free to change anything but remember im on a budget so try not to change things price wise TOO much
Please respond with anything you think ive left out
And a big thanks in advance for reading my long and detailed question!!! And if you didnt read most of it but still give me helpful advice, slightly smaller thanks but im still greatful.

As mike and ollie have said, xlr to jack adaptors really isn't going to be the best way to use inputs 9 and 10 on the interface. However, inputs 9 and 10 are line or instrument in's so my suggestion would be either;

1) buy a two channel external preamp (such as the presonus bluetube 2 channel version or something better) and run the outputs from the external preamps into the line in's on input 9 and 10 on the tascam.

2) use channel 9 or 10 as a instrument input for the bass which would free up another of the xlr inputs and record the vocals completely separately.

I do agree on the whole about recording instruments separately but have also done enough "live band" recordings to know it can work really really well. the caveat to that is that you need a lot of headphones and a large enough space for it to work (and/or smaller spaces to place amps so they're not in the same as the drums)

in answer to the other questions;

1) 57's or e609's both work great for guitar amps so it's really down to you
2) why not do both? a DI and a mic on the bass amp gives you much more versatility to the sound. If you are just gonna do it all live then DI'ing would be my choice purely for noise levels
3) Vocals with a 58 work great live, but for recording the majority of people use a Large Diaphragm Condenser (or a hand held condenser in live recording situations) for clarity. An LDC would also serve very well for recording acoustic guitars, bass amps, room mics for drums, even as a second kick mic just outside. I'm actually near the end of mixing a project where the acoustic was recorded with a 57 and it's been a flippin' nightmare to say the least. We ended up re-recording ALOT of the acoustic guitar parts to make them work. That's not to say you can't get a good acoustic guitar sound with a 57, but it's much easier with some kind of condenser mic.
4) i'd have a look at what the restrictions are in Cubase LE5. it may be just limited track or effects count, it may be much more. it may be worth looking at Reaper as a DAW as it's very cheap and totally unlimited.
5) don't forget; room treatment is key. if the room sounds good then it makes life much easier.

 

[sureimshure]

Ok sounds good... Ill probably endup using 7 xlrs for drums 1 for guitar at the same time with direct bass and rythm guitar. Ill then record vocals independantly while listening to the track. I have a good condenser for acoustic guitar but will still use sm58 for vocals. As far as i know cubase le 5 has plenty of track space (48) and good effects too so sound like it will all work out

 

[ollie99]

Ok sounds good... Ill probably endup using 7 xlrs for drums 1 for guitar at the same time with direct bass and rythm guitar. Ill then record vocals independantly while listening to the track. I have a good condenser for acoustic guitar but will still use sm58 for vocals. As far as i know cubase le 5 has plenty of track space (48) and good effects too so sound like it will all work out

Once again, it'll be a lot easier (and almost definitely better) if you track each instrument separately

 

[Bristol Posse]

Once again, it'll be a lot easier (and almost definitely better) if you track each instrument separately

Unless you like the sound of the band playing together and feeding off one another at least for the bed tracks, you can throw in some overdubs afterward if needed. That's extremely difficult to do when recording instruments one by one and not the way a lot of bands record IME.

Of course there is no correct answer so YMMV

 

[ollie99]

Unless you like the sound of the band playing together and feeding off one another at least for the bed tracks, you can throw in some overdubs afterward if needed. That's extremely difficult to do when recording instruments one by one and not the way a lot of bands record IME.

Of course there is no correct answer so YMMV

Yeah obviously you can do like a scratch track or something first, but generally, especially with the limits he has, it will be a lot better to do the instruments again afterwards, and I'm pretty sure that is a popular opinion

 

[Justsomeguy]

Yeah obviously you can do like a scratch track or something first, but generally, especially with the limits he has, it will be a lot better to do the instruments again afterwards, and I'm pretty sure that is a popular opinion

Scratch tracks are awesome! that's my "goto" move when recording a band at work; setup a click, setup a lot of headphones, and then DI bass, 57's on guitar amps in a separate room (or di acoustic guitar) kick snare and stereo overhead for drums, and a 58 for vocals with the singer in the control room with us, then redo bits that need it (usually the drums and vocals at the very least). However, at home or in smaller spaces, i normally do a scratch track of the main guitar and vocals to a click and add overdubs to it.