noob way over his head! help!

[morbe]

Okay so I have a Daw, cubase 7, with a zoomr16 interface/mackie controller. I can record my self, track by track. But the jazz band im in needs a demo and I offered to record it so we could save money. But its a 7 piece band and things are getting way out of control! We have a band leader who wants to call the shots obviously and of course each musician want to come by and record when ever they want.
Ideally I would love to record the band all together but because of the percussive pieces I cant, becuase I have no way of keeping each mic from bleeding to the next do I feel I have to do it individually.
So far I have to record as such.

Drums, using drum mics, and over head condensers,

congas/timbale, using condensers

Vocals, with mic or condeser

saxaphone, with mic

Keyboard, with line in

guitar, with line in

Bass, with line in.

I was planning the next time we all get together to just record all the line in instruments and move on to the instruments that need mics one by one.

Anyone have any pointers? Any pointers at all? Any would be greatly appreciated. Please no overly proud comments like I should pay to have it done. Becuase right now this is not an option for us.

Thanks!

 

[Lt. Bob]

First off, personally I would gladly accept bleed-over with the percussion mics if that was the only way to get the performance as a group.

But there's no real reason not to do the rhythm section at once.
That should be no problem as the bass and git and keys are all line in. In my experience it's gonna be hard to get a cohesive sound one instrument at a time and you're definitely gonna need the drums there from the beginning.
So, if it were me, I'd do git, bass, keys and drums for a rhythm section and then add the rest later.

 

[DM60]

You could go old school, use a mixer for the drums with a two channel output (two tracks used on the interface). Mic your drums, get your levels set for the downmix, then once that is set, the output from the mixer goes to two channels to the zoom, giving you panning control and some post processing.

That leaves 6 for the rest. Cut your vocals last.

 

[witzendoz]

I have recorded bands like many times and the best way they get a good vibe is live. You just have to point out to everyone that their can be no re-recording of parts due to the bleed. If you want to do vocals later record a guide vocal track with the vocalist in another room and everyone wearing headphones, then do the real vocals later.

Alan.

 

[mjbphotos]

I have recorded bands like many times and the best way they get a good vibe is live. You just have to point out to everyone that their can be no re-recording of parts due to the bleed. If you want to do vocals later record a guide vocal track with the vocalist in another room and everyone wearing headphones, then do the real vocals later.

Alan.

Bingo! That's what we did in my Beatles tribute band for demo recording (although we used in-ear monitors). It'll take some trial and error getting levels and mic positions correct, but will be the best way to get the band dynamic.