i want to record my band

J

jimbredin

New member
hi

yada yada band been together since summer, got original material yada

and now we want to record!

also, perhaps more importantly, i want to learn bout recording as it will surely be a musicians skill for life!

so, did a little research and went and ordered mg 10/2 mixer.
but now i am afraid i rushed in.

band consists of me-james guitar, john guitar, tony vocals, philip bass, anne drums.

mg mixer consists of 4XLR inputs plus 2 other 1/4 line ins. total possible simultaneous inputs: 6(i think)

Problem!! band wants to record all at once, ie all singing,playing,banging at same time as if we were jamming.
is this the regular set up?

so some quick maths tells me that we probably aint gonna have enough inputs.

do i need to return this mixer and get one with more inputs?

the 'chain' i was going for was

guitar-->amp-->mic >
guitar-->amp-->mic >
vocals-------->mic > all-->mixer-->line in of sound card...
bass--->amp-->mic >
drums-->(multiple-4maybe?)mics >

please help!!!

ps are monitors really necessary, im on a tight budget here!

thanks all,

james
:confused:
 
sorry i meant the sound card in my computer. im planning on recording to a pc using some free software that i will get on the net. i haven't researched that end of things yet.

thanks for the reply re the monitors but that was more of an aside, as i really cant afford them.

James
 
Well, have you got that many mics?

It would be easier to cook up a good sound out of clever placement of max. four mics than try to set up a dozen or so, as a beginner.
 
why dont you do the drums first, on 4 channels of the mixer, send that to your soundcard, and then play back and do everything else. I know this isnt playing live, but its close. If you want to do this all at once, you will need to get a mixer with at least 8 mic inputs at a time.
 
no noisedude i haven't even started to worry bout mics yet. i was kinda running on the assumption that i would need that many. please elaborate on this clever placement idea.

again thanks for the help.

james.
 
You have a limited budget right? Well you'll get a better sound with four mics for the entire band than with 20 crap mics (e.g. buying a 'drum kit mic pack') mixed down.

If you have that much money to throw at this you wouldn't be recording all at once, probably, because you'd be a pro!
 
why dont u get 4 decent mics
have guitar amps about 5 feet away from drums one left and one right side and 5 feet in front and place the bass amp in the middle of the two amps in front of the kit (or just plug him straight into the mixer) then place one mic in between one of the guitar amps and the bass amp and the same for the other side point those mics toward the drum kit and place the last two mics in front of the guitar amps
pan the mics on the left to the left and same for the right
you should get a decent sound out of tht
good luck
 
thanks for the advice tubesrawsom but my only problem is that the vocals are left out then. im planning on recording using some kind of tracking software on my pc. would the solution be to record music first on one track and then the vocals after on a second track? perhaps that's what you were implying?

i have another question about the mixing. when i pan the various parts to left and right etc, and then send that to my pc for the first track( the out from the mixing board is red and white RCA and the line in on the sound card is an 1/8th inch jack) will the panning come through on to the pc or will it all get muddled into one? i suppose it probably depends on the 1/8th inch line in?


thanks
james.
 
jim. if you are panning on a mixer and record to line in on the sound card a STEREO track you will get a stereo drum track.
search under my name for lots of tips ive posted in the past year on getting a good drum sound with a couple of mics, and many other tips.
if i were you i would look closely at a multi input sound card like a delta maybe. if you have questions just ask.
 
James - you're going to have to be creative to make the best of what you have. If you were to set about tracking the way you would in most studios, you should record one part at a time. The way you do that is to put down a 'scratch' guide track, either all the band or just the singer and an acoustic playing into one mic. Then with that as a guide, everyone plays their parts over the top one by one.
 
I really fear you don't have the budget to do what you want.

A M-Audio 1010LT will set you back $230... two good preamps, no phantom power, six additional inputs, eight outputs, midi, s/pdif.
Two AudioBuddy dual channel preamps/DI... $160 ($80 each)

Vocal mics to 1010LT preamps, all others to AudioBuddy which would route in turn to four of the 1010LT remaining unbalanced ins.

Wharfdale 8.2 actives through deepwater (url in member directory) approx. $305.

Get Mackie Tracktion sequencing software, free through 12/31.

Assuming you have a decent PC, I don't see how you are going to get away with it for less than $1,000. Hopefully, somebody else will have better ideas.

Luck.
 
thanks for all the replies.

wheelema you're scaring me with all that expense but i'm not sure if you understand my situation.
i dont really want to do any mixing on the pc. i want to use my mixer with its preamps to do all of that and then send everything bundled in together to my pc so that i can burn cds.

now i may be way off here but i reckon a pretty basic soundcard with one stereo input is sufficient, such as the 1/8th inch line in that my basic intefrated sound card has. if i want an improvement i can invest in a nicer soundcard like an audiophile 2496 over time but i'm not gonna make the leap right now. can anybody confirm that this will in fact work?

for those who struggled through with my questions about recording the whole band at once, i've decided to upgrade my mg 10/2 to an mg 16/4.
it has 10 XLR mic inputs so we should have no probs recording live with that.
so the plan is to put everybody into this mixer by micing all the amps and then using about 4 mics for the drums.
then i'm gonna run a line from the record out of the mixer to either a simple 4-track recorder or my pc.

i know a lot of you guys wouldn't be too happy without monitors but i'm gonna do the best i can without them. santa has really done the best he can with the mixer.

thanks all

James
 
Jim - an Audiophile would be much less expense than six extra mics, and I'm certain you can make a better recording with four mics and a proper soundcard than with a room full of them and a useless integrated one.

An M-Audio soundcard is basically a set of analogue-digital converters. That's all you get for your money. Now compare them with the converters that cost maybe 3 cents in your onboard card, and you can see why that's gonna stink by comparison.

Get ready for a lot of hiss and a quiet recording.

But the mixer is a good investment, don't worry about monitors for now ... I still don't even have any!
 
The "all at once" thing can be done but it's not as easy as it should be. Getting a near perfect mix is almost impossible, even with a good sound man. It's tricky at best. A major problem is things tend to bleed over or get muddy and transitions (like bring out a guitar solo) aren't as smooth as when you record tracks seperately. I know from experience that when you are used to playing together, it feels odd to play or record seperately but this is the way to get the best sound, I've tried it both ways. Be prepaired to record over and over, with minor adjustments between each session, a few inches difference in mic placement or half a notch adjustment on volume can and will make a difference. Any way, good luck and when you get frustrated, take a break, check your tuning, then try it again.
 
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