R
Richard Monroe
Well-known member
Well, on Saturday, I'm going to be doing something the wrong way, and I have very little experience with it, so anybody's input may give me useful ideas. It's a live studio recording of a 4 piece band in a very small room. The band is acoustic guitar/vocalist, electric lead, electric bass, and a small drum kit. Yeah, I would greatly prefer to lay down a scratch track of acoustic and vox, track the drums and bass, then overdub the appropriate parts, use click tracks, double the lead, etc., etc., but they aren't having any part of it. I've suggested a larger pro studio where they can have separate tracking rooms, etc., but they aren't going for that either. The material is classic early rock and rockabilly. OK, so we're going to do it WRONG, IMHO. The question is how to do it wrong as well as I can.
I don't know yet what the acoustic guy is using for an axe, but in a worst case scenario, he can use my Taylor, which has a Fishman stereo blender in it. There's a semi anechoid vocal booth with a heavily treated ceiling, which can be opened up enough for the drum kit. Here's what I have to do it with:
The main preamps are an Avalon AD2022 and a Joemeek twinQ, and a Digi002, which provides 4 more channels of middle of the road preamps. So I could use up to 8 simultaneous ins, although it may be less. I'm a less is more person.
Mics-
Condensers-B.L.U.E. Kiwi, Baby Bottle. Rode NTK, Oktava MK319, AKG C414B-ULS, C2000B. Shure SM82, Oktava MC012 (2), Studio Projects B-1, C-4 (2), Neumann KM184 (2)
Dynamics- Shure SM57, SM7B, AKG D690, D770, D320B, D112, Oktava ML52 ribbon
OK, for a jumping off point, here's my plan A- Take a line off the Taylor with SM7B on vox. The Taylor goes straight to a Fender PD250 Passport PA, using the Fishman's EQ and notch control for feedback control. The SM7 goes to the Joemeek, and then line out to the Passport line in. This allows me to use the EQ and the compressor of the Joemeek for feedback reduction and tone shaping, Bass and lead are using small amps, and like the tone of the amps. I don't think the bass amp has a line out.
Then, the whole thing gets recorded in stereo, using the KM184's into the Avalon. My guess is, if we can get the drummer to play softly enough (waaay light sticks), then we just start moving things around. Feedback will be the enemy. By moving the speaker cabs of the PA and the amps, and the Neumanns around, the relative level of the different instruments can be adjusted somewhat. We get acoustic/vox as loud as possible without feedback, adjust the volume of the amps, and pray the drummer has control.
I might also try sticking a dynamic on the acoustic, and sending that to the Joemeek for EQ/Compression, and then to the PA. More feedback problems, more cables and stands. I may put an RNC between the Avalon and Digi002, so I can lightly compress the stereo mix going in. Well that's my first pass.
Any different ideas are greatly appreciated. We'll probably do about 4 songs, so I think I'm looking at a 4 hour sound check followed by 30 minutes of actual tracking. Suggestions?-Richie
I don't know yet what the acoustic guy is using for an axe, but in a worst case scenario, he can use my Taylor, which has a Fishman stereo blender in it. There's a semi anechoid vocal booth with a heavily treated ceiling, which can be opened up enough for the drum kit. Here's what I have to do it with:
The main preamps are an Avalon AD2022 and a Joemeek twinQ, and a Digi002, which provides 4 more channels of middle of the road preamps. So I could use up to 8 simultaneous ins, although it may be less. I'm a less is more person.
Mics-
Condensers-B.L.U.E. Kiwi, Baby Bottle. Rode NTK, Oktava MK319, AKG C414B-ULS, C2000B. Shure SM82, Oktava MC012 (2), Studio Projects B-1, C-4 (2), Neumann KM184 (2)
Dynamics- Shure SM57, SM7B, AKG D690, D770, D320B, D112, Oktava ML52 ribbon
OK, for a jumping off point, here's my plan A- Take a line off the Taylor with SM7B on vox. The Taylor goes straight to a Fender PD250 Passport PA, using the Fishman's EQ and notch control for feedback control. The SM7 goes to the Joemeek, and then line out to the Passport line in. This allows me to use the EQ and the compressor of the Joemeek for feedback reduction and tone shaping, Bass and lead are using small amps, and like the tone of the amps. I don't think the bass amp has a line out.
Then, the whole thing gets recorded in stereo, using the KM184's into the Avalon. My guess is, if we can get the drummer to play softly enough (waaay light sticks), then we just start moving things around. Feedback will be the enemy. By moving the speaker cabs of the PA and the amps, and the Neumanns around, the relative level of the different instruments can be adjusted somewhat. We get acoustic/vox as loud as possible without feedback, adjust the volume of the amps, and pray the drummer has control.
I might also try sticking a dynamic on the acoustic, and sending that to the Joemeek for EQ/Compression, and then to the PA. More feedback problems, more cables and stands. I may put an RNC between the Avalon and Digi002, so I can lightly compress the stereo mix going in. Well that's my first pass.
Any different ideas are greatly appreciated. We'll probably do about 4 songs, so I think I'm looking at a 4 hour sound check followed by 30 minutes of actual tracking. Suggestions?-Richie