How to record my band? Super noob question!

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PowerChorder

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Hey! So I just joined and I have a basic question- we just got our band together and finally got a real practice space. We want to record our rehearsals or songs we are working on and play them back during practice to hear what we are doing. What is the simplest way to do this? I don't want to do separate tracks etc. I just want to keep it real and simple, record the whole vibe, and of course with minimal investment in gear...

I should say, that I have a marshall stack, bassist has a hartke set up, we have drums and a singer who plays guitar from time to time. I play guitar of course :guitar:

Thanks!
 
Set a boom box in the middle of the room and hit record. It won't get much simpler than that. Now if you have a mic and preamp, you could do the same with that and track to anything from cassette to a computer.
 
Yeah, well that's what I originally thought. But then I thought of something slightly less basic, maybe one of the pocket hand held recorders so I can easily transfer files to a PC....?
 
Hello, where's your singer getting his volume from?

And do you have any other microphones apart from the one he's singing in?
 
Well it's a bit embarrassing, we don't really have a real PA. He's singing into an old Peavey amp. We have no other mics. It's loud enough as it is. I know it's a very amateur set up, and I don't expect the results to be killer, but it's just when we are working on songs, to go back later at night and listen, maybe change something.... you know?
 
Track Rat said:
Set a boom box in the middle of the room and hit record. It won't get much simpler than that.
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PowerChorder said:
I don't expect the results to be killer, but it's just when we are working on songs, to go back later at night and listen, maybe change something.... you know?
Click to expand...

See advice above. I guess those little digital stereo handheld recorders are today's "boomboxes," but same concept. We use one in the band I'm playing with so people can have a recording to do their 'homework' to and prep parts for the next rehearsal.
 
You can go as simple or as complex as you want. Your 2 main factors will be your budget, and how good a recording you want.

easy - Boombox / recorder in the middle of the room, simplist and cheapest you can do. You'll need a lot of trial and error to figure out where the best placement is, and even then it's not gonna sound that good. Good enough for you to pick critique your performance and pick out errors? Maybe.. Probably not.

medium - buy a few mics and a mixer, record the mixer's stereo out to your computer. A lot of trial and error to get the best mix, cuz you wont be able to adjust the mix after you record it. This isn't really a terrible option for a band if the mics stay put forever and everyone has their gear dialed in. Once it's set, it's set.

hard - get mics and a multi-channel interface, and record all instruments and drums, vox, etc. to their own tracks. Then you can mix later and get the best possible sound. Most complicated and most expensive optino, but you can get the best results this way. Then you can solo the guitar parts or whatever and really hear what everyone is playing.
 
suprstar said:
Good enough for you to pick critique your performance and pick out errors? Maybe.. Probably not.
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Nonsense. Ours does fine for that. Just nothing I would ever want to post on the web or anything.
 
Ok, maybe you can. I've tried it in the past, didnt have good results.
 
Thanks everybody! So any specific models you'd recommend for the hand held recorders?
 
Try the Zoom H1. It's the bomb. And make sure the input level is really low.
 
Thanks grim. I'll look into that, I heard good things about the Zoom.
 
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