Multiple musicians one room. Help!

[Canobliss]

I have a client coming in tomorrow who plays Brazillian folk music . She plays guitar and sings. She also has a bass player, a congas/tambourine player, a Surdo player and a Contra surdo player all whom do vocals as well.
I have a single room about 19x19x8 which acts as the control and tracking room. She wants to play as a band.
Based on some of her previous recordings (link below) she isn't looking for an incredibly polished sound.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/angelapatua?cdbaby=5207c779225f0be60fba867723fa6d24

So the approach im thinking about is to just approach it like it is a live show but get as much separation as I can using blankets and a drumshield.
I have plenty of mics. 4 Md421s, 2 57s, 2 c414s, 1 beta 52, 1 U195, 1 sm 81 and 1 rhodes NTK. I have 10 channels of great pres and 8 more ok ones.

My plan is to use my dynamic mics on percussion and backup vocals, maybe even lead vocals to minimize bleed. I can run the bass and the acoustic gtrs direct and maybe throw a 414 on the guitar as well. Even though the U195 sounds better on most vox, I will probably use a 414 on lead vox in cardiod to reduce bleed.

i have never recorded this many instruments at the same time and have no experience with this type of music so suggestions would be a huge help.

 

[bennychico11]

just use the polar patterns as much as you can to your advantage. it's not going to be perfect and she shouldn't expect each mic to be dedicated to only picking up one instrument. take it slow too....give yourself plenty of time to setup and move the mics around and listen to the sound you get. Have them all practice as a band while you do this. You may also want to position the players so the head of the mic is facing away from other members of the band...assuming the band doesn't care where they stand. recording the guitars in DI and reamping them later might help too.
good luck

 

[Canobliss]

just use the polar patterns as much as you can to your advantage. it's not going to be perfect and she shouldn't expect each mic to be dedicated to only picking up one instrument. take it slow too....give yourself plenty of time to setup and move the mics around and listen to the sound you get. Have them all practice as a band while you do this. You may also want to position the players so the head of the mic is facing away from other members of the band...assuming the band doesn't care where they stand. recording the guitars in DI and reamping them later might help too.
good luck

I wish I had plenty of time. She has trouble getting her band together so we have 2 hours total (Its tough to get one instrument sounding great in that time). Im planning on 1 hour for setup and hopefullly they are well rehearsed and can nail stuff on first take.
Thanks for the tips though, ill definitely keep polar patterns and mic direction in mind.

 

[gtrman_66]

I wish I had plenty of time. She has trouble getting her band together so we have 2 hours total (Its tough to get one instrument sounding great in that time). Im planning on 1 hour for setup and hopefullly they are well rehearsed and can nail stuff on first take.
Thanks for the tips though, ill definitely keep polar patterns and mic direction in mind.

Wow,how many tunes are they expecting to do in 2 hours? Hell, I'd be tempted to record the whole shebang with a stereo pair and a couple of spot mics for vocals or whatever with that kind of schedule.

Obviously, her band doesn't care for recording. If I was her, I'd start looking for some musicians that did.

Good luck

 

[TimOBrien]

Yup, in the old days they just put one or two mics in front of a band and went for it... worked for about 80 years until everyone started close-micing every instrument.

But if they expect to bang everything out in 2 hours they don't sound very professional anyway.... goood luck!

 

[FALKEN]

I agree. the fewer mics the better. I would think about how to get your setup time down to 15 or 20 minutes. then when it takes double that, you will still have time to record. in fact, you should probably set up all of the mics before they get there. a pair of 414's through a "great" pre will probably make a better recording than she is expecting anyway. plus it will stay true to the style.

 

[Kasey]

She probably likes that live, quasi-lo-fi sound. Don't worry about isolation so much... it's over rated. I've always looked at it from the perspective of why would i get a bunch of different sounds and then mix them electronically? It takes more work, but I like getting things to mix in the air, just the way you'd hear it if you were there. I went to a professional studio recently and the head engineer was telling me how a few weeks ago they recorded a very large folk band, roughly a dozen people. They sat in a circle with their instruments around a single microphone, or maybe it was a stereo pair... i don't remember... but either way i thought that was pretty cool. I'm sure they probably added on lead vocals or something later but still, if professional studios can do it (and this was an extremely professional studio) then I don't see why other people cant.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

...just the way you'd hear it if you were there.

Thank you. This is something I have a hell of a time convincing many back-seat engineers of. If it sounds good to two ears situated stage front, it can sound just as good, if not better to a simple mic setup. There's often no need for a million microphones unless you want to do some special effects or special showcasing techniques. Sometimes multiple special purpose or close mics are really the best way to go, but as often as not the opposite is true.

I especially have this problem with drums. I really abhore close miking every part of the kit and adding overheads. For my style - and I'm not saying it's my way or the highway, just saying this is one perspective and one style that works for me - anything more than a stereo pair (either frontal attack or overhead) and a kick mic is more often than not nothing but overkill and extra work. "What about the snare, which is arguably the most important part of the kit for r&r music," you say? I respond to that question with another question: "When was the last time you listened to a decent rock and roll band in person where the drummer didn't also realize that the snare was the key ingredient and play it that way?" In other words, when was the last time that you stood in front of the stage or in the audience when there were unamplified drums (kick excluded) and thought that you couldn't adequately hear the snare? In those *very few* cases where I thought that it was because the drummer was lousy. If I have that, then I might mic the snare. Otherwise I leave it alone and let the drummer and drums do the work.

I have a real hard time convincing the drummers themselves of this until I tell them to go ahead and bang out a few measures while I record with just a kick mic and either a coincident pair of frontal 57s or A/B'd OH condensers. I play it back to them and ask them if hey have any trouble with the way they sound and they'll more often than not stick their tail between their legs and let me move on.

G.

 

[Canobliss]

Thanks everyone, if I happen to get any complaints tonight Ill show her this thread and explain to her that 2 hours is nothing in recording time.
I would love to just throw up a stereo pair, but my room is decent at best, though I might give it a shot.

Right now im planning on using a mic on each surdo drum, mic her vocals with a c414 in cardiod, use my other 414 on her guitar and run the bass direct. Ill dub the backup vox and other spiceup instruments if there is time.
To save time i plan on just doing a setup based on what I know works most of the time. If it sounds ok Ill leave it if not Ill make adjustments. Im by no means going for the absolute best sound.
Ill post here again tomorrow and let you know how it went.

Thanks again for the advice

 

[Tonio]

Hey Canobliss, whos backing up Angela? I think I might know them at least the surdo dudes.
I'm with using the 414's and some spot mics. Thats a nice size room , so its shouldn't be too bad as long as you have some acoustical treatments.

Welcome to the board BTW. Where are you in SD?

T