Minimum height for sound partitions?

[deepfrybonanza]

Hi everyone,

I've done quite a bit of recording with my band and I'm happy with the results, but up until now I have tracked everything separately. I'd really like to get a setup where I can throw up some mics and get a quick, reliable 4-track recording with decent separation that I can then transfer to a computer or 8-track for more overdubs. I'm capturing the live take with a 424 MKIII (3 mics on the drums, 1 mic each on guitar and bass cabs), and up until now there have been too many problems with bleed / phasing when recording my loud punk band live.

I'm thinking of making some portable partitions for isolating the amps from the drums (I gather from reading these forums that you call these "gobos"). I'm wondering, though, what height do these need to be in order to cancel most of the bleed but still allow the 3 musicians to see / hear each other enough to get a good live recording? I feel like 3 feet would allow us to see each other really well, but I don't think that would block the cymbals or the top of the bass amp. Any advice? I couldn't find any specific posts on this when I searched the forums.

Thanks,
Daniel

 

[danny.guitar]

The best way would be to isolate the guitar/bass cabs into another room, and keep the amp/head right there where you can easily tweak the settings. You can usually run long cables from the amp to the speaker without any problems. That would take care of the guitars/bass. And then keep the drums in the main tracking room.

If this isn't possible then I'm not sure how much 3' tall absorber panels would help. They would make a noticeable difference I'm sure but one that would warrant the cost?

I'm not an acoustics expert so I can't say for sure. But I would personally make/buy them 4" thick and have say, 1/4" to 3/4" plywood on the rear-side. This way, one side absorbs reflections and the other side reflects other sounds away from it. It would at least help.

My personal opinion is, if you want a good live recording, let there be bleed. If you want to do overdubs later on it shouldn't be too much of a problem with or without bleed, just might be slightly harder to mix in there.

 

[PhiloBeddoe]

Danny.guitar's suggestion is a good one and done all the time. Another option is to record only a DI from the bass and guitar and reamp later.

BTW, I count 5 tracks (3 on drums, 1 bass, 1 guitar). This won't work on a 4 track recorder without submixing.

Unfortunately, you will probably have to make some compromises to get a relatively clean recording. Bashing away at high volumes in a little room (assuming you don't have a great room) is going to be a challenge for getting clean separation.

 

[bdcomer]

What Do You Mean By Reamp ?

 

[89gtsleeper]

Reamping is where you initially record an instrument directly in as to avoid micing issues and things like you are experiencing to get a clean track through with no bleed. Then, you re-amp, meaning you play back the track you recorded clean and run the output from your mixer back through your amp or effects chain, and record that to a second track. The second track will come through with the full tone and sound of using the mic'd amp setup from the beginning even though that's not how you did it. There's lots of different ways to re-amp, but that's more or less how it works.

 

[TexRoadkill]

You want them to be at least 4' tall. 5' would be better.