Live Recording Getting Distortion

[Lead_Dog]

Help please...I'm rather new to this. We've been trying to record our band live, in my basement and out playing. To do this, I have the following set-up:

- 2 Cardiod mics connected to a Eurorack mixer MX602A, with phantom power for the mics

- connected to a Boss BR-532 Digital Recorder

Problem is that the recording is fairly to largely distorted. I can't tell if it's at the mixer or Boss, as I can't hear through the headphones because of the volume...but I believe it's at the Boss.

I've played with several settings, but on the mixer, I usually have the gain very low (high gets real distorted) and the "level" in the middle. Even with this, the sensitivity settings on the Boss have to be very low, otherwise the lights come on.

The only thing I did to improve it was turn the bass knobs all the way down on the mixer, and that removed most of the distorition (but also the bottom end).

Any ideas? Is it possible the mics are too close to the sound (they're both ceiling mounted, a foot from each other, and 8 feet off the ground over the band).

I appreciate any advice.

Lead_Dog

 

[Rudd]

recording...

Okay, first it's important to make sure you mixer is set up properly before the BR-532.

You want to get the cleanest hottest signal you can from the mic first.

1st check your mic input levels on the mixer. This is probably the first chance of distortion and the most likely as my first guess. Make sure you signal is not too hot coming from the mics in to the mixer.

After that, set you mixer output levels. This is the signal you'll be sending to the BR-532. You should have the EQ fairly flat on the mixer. Make sure your mixer is putting out a good clean level signal.

Then set your BR-532 input levels. Get those meters reading fairly high but not clipping. That should get you the best signal to your BR-532. It should be clean sounding but full.

side note- if you have a compressor, put it in an auxillary channel of the mixer and that should help improve the balance. Use sparingly. Don't over compress the mics but for just simple recording like you're doing that should help you a lot in a live recording situation.

My guess is that the signal from the mics to the mixer is too hot. Check there first.

 

[Lead_Dog]

Rudd,

Thank you. I will try that tonight. I forgot to mention that I've been carefully monitoring the mic levels at the mixer. There are a series of indicator lights. The manual suggest letting the mics "peak" at the amber light, which is the 3rd one up I think. However, rarely does the 2nd light come on, much less the amber light, so I was thinking that I'm not getting enough volume there.

But I'll work on it tonight. Thanks.

 

[Rudd]

yeah... ok, well, it's important to get the hottest signal you can first in the mixer because if it's too low then you'll automatically try to boost it up on the Boss and you'll get clipping because you're not getting enough signal.

make sure you get those lights in to the amber regularly. You just don't want to see any red.

Then, when you set your mixer output levels make sure they're doing the same thing. Keep the meters in the green bouncing to amber.

that'll give you the best signal to the Boss and also cut down on the amount of hiss and noise. If you're settings are too low, you'll also get a lot more noise.

that should help you a bit..........

 

[geekgurl]

One other thing I'll add to Rudd's comments ...

If you get your metering lights satisfactorily into the orange and you still hear clipping, consider lowering your Boss's input sensitivity/mixer levels even more: lots of peaks in percussion (cymbals especially) are high-frequency and quick, so they don't show up on meters. I'd suggest compressing the mics dedicated to the drums slightly as last resort (I don't like to print compression or any other effects to a track usually), but you're only using 2 mics, so you don't have any dedicated to just drums ... not an easy situation to control. You may just have to continue to lower your input volumes to the point of almost drastic if your percussion is the real culprit of your distortion.

 

[Lead_Dog]

do you think the proximity of the mics to the noise has anything to do with it? Tonight, I'll have the mics 40 feet away or so, facing the band, to see if that helps.