Is a decent live recording possible with this setup?

[foolosophy]

hi, I'm pretty new to recording and I started recording with my band a few months ago.

since our budget is really really limited (band members are all going to school or university right now) and the other members didn't care that much about recording we ended up with:

1 no name overhead mic
1 no name kick mic
(both manufactured for some german online musicstore)

3 cheap behringer mics

and two behringer mixers (mx 602A with two mic pre-amps and one mx 802A).

I also have a portable mp3 player that is capable of recording audio and encoding it to mp3.

the quality we get with recording right now isn't too good, but the other people in my band are quite happy with it. I am not

the thing is i want no perfect modern production (and couldn't afford it anyway most probably) but just a way to do LIVE recordings in our bandroom on every rehearsal in a better quality.

I have already ordered a shure sm57 and a behringer ecm8000 yesterday and plan on buying 1-2 more sm 57s, another ecm8000 and probably an AKG-D112 in the near future.

so the setup will be:

guitar cab (mine) miced with shure sm57
guitar combo (other guitarst) miced with shure sm57
vocals: shure sm57 (i heard they are good for growling/screaming)
bass: direct in (or should i mic it?)
drums: ecm8000s as overheads, d-122 for kick

mid-price cables (don't know the brand)
behringer mixer
mp3 recorder



Will this get me a decent sound? I mean we are a quite inexperienced band (playing together as band for less than a year, i'm the one with the longest experience in his instrument: 3 1/2 years) and we are playing thrash metal / melodic death mainly so it doesn't have to be a crystal clear mtv sound... but i'd like to get at least the quality of 80's thrash metal albums sometime in the future (think slayer, sodom, exodus, kreator, destruction, old metallica for reference)

Is the equipment a step in the right direction and will the new micros improve much? (i heard the behringer mixer are sub par but i simply cannot afford to pay more than 100€ on a mixing board right now)

ah yes and I plan to buy a usb recording card in the future (quattro? emagic 6/2? something around that level) and start real "producing" but right now i'm happy if i can adjust the pots on the mixer, place some mics , hit a button and have a documentation of my band's songs at every rehearsal

(for reference and for a "live in the bandroom"-type demo to hand out in order to get some local gigs)

 

[manning1]

mic placement

old engineers could probably get a hit with what you have right now in terms of equipment. its all part of understanding your equipment limitations and thus compensating.
for example ive used old speakers on a kick drum and obtained better sound than with some commercial microphones.
if you cant afford mics just build your own and experiment.
but watch the faders on your mixer input. some speakers used in this way pack a wallop and can easily blow your studio monitors.
the biggest tip i can give you is experiment with different microphone positions on a source instrument. this is the whole basis for enginneering hit songs. as well as trying creative leakage. also if the bands timing is off record to a click track to tighten yourselves up. if you want more info just ask.
i have a million tips in the vaults of time..

 

[rvdsm]

The only real problems I could forsee are with the bass and vocals. Since both the bass and vocals are so dynamic it's going to be hard to get them to sit comfortably in the mix. The drums are just as dynamic as the vocals and bass, but you really don't want to squash them because they will be providing the beat. Make sure the cymbals (overheads) are mixed relatively low. Demo's with super bright cymbals kill me. It's like someone trying to saw through your head with a rusty hacksaw. Guitars shouldn't be a problem at all.

If you have some sort of compressor pedal available then run the vocals through it (use effects loops on the mixer if available). Hopefully the bass rig your bassist is using has it's own limiting/compression available in the amp. If not, then the only other option is outboard compression. If you have another comp pedal available, then run the bass through it as well.

Get those things under control and you might be able to squeeze out a decent mix.