Live club recording, need advice

[ThomasTP]

Over the next couple of months I want to do some live recording with the end goal of making compilation of bands in my town. There is one particular club that allows me great access to all their sound equipment and stage before and after shows. I am relatively new to recording, and very new to live recording. I am very partial to analog vs. digital recording outcomes, and I want to know what I can affordably purchase to start my live recording learning experience. I have been doing this for several months with just a measly ol' 4-track tascam hooked directly up to the back of the sound board, and I want to go the next step up. What equipment would you suggest? How does anyone feel about sound coming directly out of the board vs. microphone placement around the room.

Any help would be great!

 

[manning1]

there are so many solutions - as examples....
1. you could simply record the stereo mix out to vhs hi fi like some do or a minidisc or to a cheap laptop....right up to the most esoteric....
2. record individual mics to a tape multitrack OR like some folks do to a tower or even fast amd 64 laptop (expensive). but youll need lots of hard drive space using laptops or towers for a night long gig..
then back at home base you could mixdown and press a cd for the band using other outboard equipment you might have.
or you could use a standalone hard drive recorder at the gig.
pick one ! whats your budget ?

 

[manning1]

ps - i missed the word "affordable".
about the most affordable flexible solution i know would be to consider an 8 input soundcard in a amd tower computer system.
complete it will prolly run you (depends on sound card expense) (maybe a used sound card) anywhere from 600 bucks total to 2K (the latter if you use something like a rme top notch sound card).
if 4 inputs is enough ie: recording 4 mics or submixes from the mixer at once ie: rhythm section , vocals, guitars, bass as examples you could look at a delta 44 sound card in an amd computer for a total probable cost of around 1200 bucks if you shop wisely.
you could use the multitrack software i like which is powertracks from pgmusic and is 29 bucks for 48 tracks. this opens the possibility of bringing
bands back to your place and making a little money if they want to overdub parts after a nights session at the club or venue. a lot of big name bands have done this in the past, also to correct maybe flubs made live.
just some ideas to consider.

 

[EddieRay]

I do this occasionally. Since I can't yank my PC out of my bedroom, I record to cassette tape then dump the tracks to the PC. I use a 4-track; 2 tracks for a stereo image of the front of house mix and 2 tracks for weak spots if necessary. Last time I used Oktava MK012 for the stereo image and an M-Audio Buddy then threw a couple SM57s around.

It's a reliable, low-tech approach for getting decent recordings. I imagine all kinds of reliabliity problems recording to a PC in this kind of situation. If there's a glitch while recording a live show you can't exactly ask the band to repeat it. But then again, I haven't actually tried it. If I ever get a laptop I will definitely give it a shot.

 

[Farview]

You already have the 4 track, so take the stereo mix off the board and add 2 mics for the other tracks. That will ballance out the board mix.

 

[mshilarious]

ps - i missed the word "affordable".
about the most affordable flexible solution i know would be to consider an 8 input soundcard in a amd tower computer system.
complete it will prolly run you (depends on sound card expense) (maybe a used sound card) anywhere from 600 bucks total to 2K (the latter if you use something like a rme top notch sound card).

I'd think of a low-hours ADAT for around $350. Take the stereo bus, plus whatever inserts you want, plus a crowd mic. If your soundcard has an ADAT port then you are set.

 

[manning1]

yeh - hilarious could do that as well.
and yes a pc can go down but this doesnt stop big boys from recording
big concerts to a pc. prolly have 2 pc's for back up.
1 dont think there is a perfect solution.
you could use an old 8 track tascam 38 but midway through you might get a machine problem as well. no perfect solution. the adat could go down as well.
any time electronics is involved something can go down. so you need a back up plan.

 

[Echelon]

I know some people that use one of the VS1880's, they seem to think it works well.