Opinion question

J

Jack Simpson

New member
This is how I plan to record live (bass, guitar, drums)...
Guitar on the left side of stage, guitar on the right, bass in center, drums in center. Put two mics, one about 6' up and the other 1' up off of the ground. Through a pre-amp into the 4-Track and record. Later I'll add vocals and lead to the other tracks. Will this produce a good sound? (I'm experimenting constantly)
 
IT DEPENDS.......

...on the room,
...on the mics,
...on the mic pres,
...on the placement,
...depends on how well-defined the band's instruments are,
...depends on how tight the band's arrangement is,
...and most importantly, it depends on the skill of the band


How long is a piece of string?


;)

Bruce
 
The room is huge, it is a warehouse probably 25,000 square feet. Every instrument is pretty well defined. We'll have to lay off the distortion on the guitars a little for better definition. The mics are standard dynamic omnidirectional. The arrangements are fairly tight. It will take rehearsing before we get the complete arrangement.
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
IT DEPENDS.......


How long is a piece of string?


;)

Bruce
Click to expand...

it depends if it is woven into shoreline or not..

Jack...25,000 sq ft and omni's.....take care to not let the room overwhelm your music. I might space those omni's apart, and not the 1 ft high/6ft high deal you are talking about. Set them on each side of the band, "out a ways" [like 127 x length of a piece of string] and have at it. Play a little, listen to what you record, experiment, floss with the string....good luck.
 
To pull it off, you're gonna need a pair of condensers, not dynamic mics... and you'd better have a decent 2-channel pre.... otherwise you're going to have a muddy mess.

And you'll need to put up some blankets or something around the band to tame some of the reverb, because it's going to be heavy....

Live-to-tape can work in a good-sounding room with good mics and pres -- in a rehearsal warehouse space with lots of natural verb, some dynamics and god-knows-what for mic pres, you're pretty much guaranteeing poor results.

Bruce
 
I agree with the Blue Bear, you will need condensers. One thing you ddn't mention, except to say that it is a stage, is this a live club gig? If so, you will need to take into account the crowd noise.
 
No, there would be no crowd while recording. If we tried playing in a 30' X 12' room, with insulated walls, two windows, three doors, would this produce a good sound?
 
You will get less reverb, which will help from getting things muddied-up... but without getting condenser mics and a decent pre you're pretty much er..., pissing in the wind....

Bruce
 
I'm going to dissagree :)

you don't need a condensor mike, and you don't have to have a fancy mic pre - I'd try placing your two mikes in about 3 ft off the ground out front with one aimed at the left gtr and the other at the right. Ballance so the bass is in the center.

Shit I'm sick of hearing that you have to have expensive pres and large diaphragm mikes!! Bruce - you do this all the time whY???

Read what Harvey uses in his studio!! :mad: :mad:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40823

Has it ever occured to anyone that every live album they own was probably recorded entirely using dynamics and the vocals are usually a SM58!!

cheers
John
 
Ive recorded in this very situation and have gotten pretty decent results. Its not studio quality, but its better than bootleg quality. I used to make tapes of my old band for working out solo and vocal parts. We usually walked around the room while the drums and bass were being played, with someones girlfriend playing open E power chords, this wa y we founf the rooms sweet spot for the placement of the mics, which was usually about 1/3rd the remaining length of the room between the band and the wall facing the band. All dynamics, 57's and 58's mostly. Preamps were in the 4 track, Yamaha MT-120 was good for whats it designed for. I think we used 4 mics, one left and right position at 3ft off the floor and the other 2 in the middle, one at 3ft and the other at about 6ft, we moved the depth a little to achive a nice balance. I usually ping ponged the 4 down to 2 with some eq, then over dubbed the vocal and lead guitars. Ill try to post a song I did If I can find a copy at home. It was good enough for getting gigs and getting perspective of the music, but a far cry from studio stuff.


IMO...Condensors are not the best choice for live recording, fragile, usually off axis rejection is poor and feedback in large venues can be difficult...Dynamic Uni's as far as I know are standard equipment...


Peace,
Dennis
 
John Sayers said:
Shit I'm sick of hearing that you have to have expensive pres and large diaphragm mikes!! Bruce - you do this all the time whY???
Click to expand...
I never said "expensive" - I said "decent!" Nor did I say "large-diaphragm!" ;)


John Sayers said:
Has it ever occured to anyone that every live album they own was probably recorded entirely using dynamics and the vocals are usually a SM58!!
Click to expand...
Yes, but if I'm not mistaken he was talking about positioning the mics as room mics - something that dynamic mics don't handle particularly well - at least, from the few experiences I've had doing that type of recording...

For close-mic'ing, sure... I agree 100%!

;)

Bruce
 
im not a gear slut myself, but i dont think Eddie Kramer got famous sticking 2 sm58's in front of the PA stacks.....

in fact, almost 30 years after Kiss Alive was recorded (one of my favs) i find out that the drums were the only thing live......
 
Gidge said:

in fact, almost 30 years after Kiss Alive was recorded (one of my favs) i find out that the drums were the only thing live......
Click to expand...

Don't worry, cause The Song Remains the Same is still almost %100 live. Mostly cause they were too lazy I believe. There was an article in Home Recording (the mag)
 
i find out that the drums were the only thing live......
Click to expand...

Gidge - I did a live album where the only thing live was the audience applause at the end of each song :D:D

Bruce - he doesn't want a room sound he wants as close a sound as he can get with 2 mikes. 2 x sm57s would be fine.

cheers
John
 
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