Is this a good idea (recording a show)

  • Thread starter Thread starter guinsu
  • Start date Start date
G

guinsu

Member
Thanks first to everyone who gave me so many good responses about recording my band "live" in a basement. Now I've got a question about recording my band next week at a real show (finally :)

There will be a sound board and a real sound man (no one we are associated with) and I was going to take direct lines out from the board (from the "direct out") into my Fostex VF-16. I'll prob throw 2 SM-57s out somewhere too just as a backup. I have a Digimax mic pre that I'd like to use b/c it has an adat out (letting me record more than 8 tracks at once) and its got a pretty decent limiter so I don't have to worry if the band is clipping the whole time since I will be up on stage playing. What I am wondering is whether it is a bad idea to take a 1/4" cable out from the board, hook it into the digimax (which only has XLRM in) and just set the gain low since its line level and not mic level? Will the impedances be too different and will it screw up my recording? I can leave the Digimax home, but I liked having a limiter there as a safety margin and thats the only one I own.
 
try calling the soundman first and ask him if he wants to help you do it. If you want it to be done good; it brings alot of extra work for the soundman... Better warn him in front, and get him on your side. You gotta have him to want it as much a you do. Or more. I once recorded a gig while doing sound (making submixes using aux channels and headphones; VERY hard... And timeconsuming. Alot more patching to do...)

The problem is that you will probably have more than 8 lines. So you cannot just take all the lines in your tracker.

You can't take the main outs either, unless it's a VERY big gig, in which case you can think of the sound comming directly from the stage as not influencing the main mix. But it's not that big. I suppose?

What you can try is running the main outs into your tracker; and additionally the lines that are not amplified very hard. Guitars and drums usually have alot of dBs coming directly from stage, so they will be less loud in the main mix...
 
Thats why I was just going to take the lines form the direct out, I can do up to 16 of those (8 into the preamp, 8 right into the recorder) and use my own limiter as a safety margin. I thought with that setup the sound guy could just do whatever he needs to do and forget about me and I'd hopefully get at least an "ok" recording.
 
With 16 lines it is more possible. I was guessing you had 8. (or 10 with the preamp...)

But I'd call him anyway... It's still more patching, you need the right cables, you have to know if the board has direct outs, etc...

When I did it, I had a board (A&H G3300) without direct outs. So I had to use the inserts as direct out, but you have to know wether they are pre or post eq, and this also doesn't allow you to patch in a compressor or anything.

So, call the dude, ask what he thinks about it etc, how he'd do it. that kinda thing...

And he still needs to set the levels. (you cannot do it yourself while playing, and you should check em every now and thenduring the concert)Not much work; but you gotta ask him. He's not payed to do that.

But with 16 lines; you could get a pretty nice recording...
 
If you want to attempt this you will need to talk to the engineer first to find out if it's even possible, the board might not have direct outs other than the inserts and I bet he'll be using those on quite a few channels for compression and gating. it might be possible to take feeds off the sub-groups but that depends on how he likes to use them. You will need to have someone else to run the recorder, I doubt VERY much that the FOH engineer will want to have an unfamiliar piece of gear to worry about especially during the first couple songs, which will be his busiest time, also the recording levels that you set at soundcheck (if you get one) will need to be adjusted since bands ALWAYS play louder at showtime than they did at check.
If you are polite and let him know that aside from telling you where to plug in that it won't be in his way and it won't be his problem, then he might go for it.

Good Luck.
 
Ok, thanks for the advice, I emailed the venue about contacting the sound guy. I don't want whatever I do to get in his way the night of the show. And if its too much hassle for him i'll just throw a few mics around the stage myself. I usually set my levels really conservative for these things so I feel confident I won't clip.
 
The best way is probably just to x/y mic at the mixing station. Easy and you record what the sound man hears. If you do multi track maybe get the kick drum, bass and vocals so you can mix them into the room mics to tighten it up a little.
 
He'd likely have a tape deck with him in his van/truck.. ask him to hook it up to the board and just tape the stereo mix. Or bring your own tape deck. I don't see why he couldn't. Better then nothing.
 
Ok, I'll def chat with the sound guy and get at least 2 channels onto my recorder. Though I did have a technical question that didn't get answered, is it ok to run a line level into a mic preamp's xlr inputs to use the limiters on the preamp?
 
guinsu said:
Ok, I'll def chat with the sound guy and get at least 2 channels onto my recorder. Though I did have a technical question that didn't get answered, is it ok to run a line level into a mic preamp's xlr inputs to use the limiters on the preamp?
Click to expand...

if you plan on putting line level stuff into those XLRs... make sure you don't activate Phantom power...

Otherwise, I don't see it as a problem.
 
I don't know the Fostex real well, but can you record that many channels at the same time? Also, how much hard drive space do you have? The more tracks, the more space

Pete
 
You could probably get a real kickass recording if you were to use splitters.

Split the signal coming out of each mic in to two separate ones - one going to the board and one going to a track input on your recorder/preamp. That way you don't have to muck around with impedence problems and the like, since everything will be going in to your recorder at mic level.

The bass guitar could probably be recorded direct, so you could split the signal from that, too, on it's way to the amplifier.

I've done something very similar before, and it works real well. And it isn't nearly as much of a hassle as it might seem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top