How to record live?

[guitarguy101]

My band's playing with about 4 other bands from my school, and the head honcho said that if I do some live tapes (they don't have to be amazing quality) he'll give me and 5 free tickets. I also think it may be an interesting thing to do.
The room is rectangular. I don't the exact dimensions, and I likely won't till I show up. I'll be using a laptop with Cubase downloaded, a Tascam US-600 interface, 2 MXL condenser mics, and 2 Shure SM-57 mics. I'll have a pair of Sennheiser HD 448s to monitor.
Like I said, the room is roughly rectangular. I've done a lot of home recording, but never live. So, where should I place the mics?
My original plan was to hand the two condensers directly in front of the stage, and then stick the two Shures in the back corners. Would this be acceptable?
Also, what are some tips to make sure none of my stuff gets damaged? I have a ton of neon duct tape I'll be using to secure everything (and make sure its visible.) Any other help?
Thanks so much

 

[Capt Hair]

Well if your school's mixer happens to have a usb port you can just run that into your laptop.

You can also just run an out from the mixer to the interface and then into the laptop.

These both will all be single stereo files of course, but if levels are set properly it should be decent quality and is probably the easiest thing to do. Just discuss it with who ever will be doing sound before hand and make sure it's alright with them. That way you don't have to worry about taking your stuff, setting it up next to someone else's equipment, getting in their way, etc.

 

[ido1957]

Anyone who has ever mixed live knows that the FOH mix in a small venue is not used for recording. They probably only have vocals on the mixer lol....

 

[guitarguy101]

There is no mixer that I can use, they have made that clear. What can I do as far as setting up my own stuff?

 

[bouldersoundguy]

The two front mics will get just stage noise, guitar amps and drums plus wash from the monitors. The back mics will get the whole mix with a ton of room reverberance plus audience.

I would consider getting the room sound from not so far back and absolutely dead centered between the main speakers. Then use the other inputs of your interface to capture the board mix. Then time align them and mix to taste. The board mix will get vocals and anything else that isn't already loud, like acoustic guitars, and the room mics will get an overall view of the mix in the room including stage noise, room reverberation and audience.

[Edit] Well, since they won't let you get any direct signal just go with a pair of mics not too far back and dead center. It's going to sound like a bootleg recording, but that may not matter to the end user.