please Help me record my band!!!

M

Milkfaj

New member
I have a three piece math/pop/metal band with drums, casio keyboard and electric guitar. we sound like a cross between the beatles and the melvins. please help me come up with a recording scheme based on the equiptment i have.
Im going to be recording into a Tascam TRS-8 through a 16 channel A/H mixer. i will probobly record about 6 tracks of drums and leave the rest for other insturments. I will at least use a mic on snare (M201) on kick (D112) two overheads (AT4040s) an SM57 on tom and a MD421 on floor tom. i will record guitar through a Mesa/boogie rocket 44 combo with med/high gain and lots of bass. I am thinking of using a royer R121 on it. or should i use the royer on kick and use the D112 on guitar??? (i do like bass) i will probobly record the keyboard direct unless we get a really good bass amp.
i have two outboard signal processors a DBX 166 and a DBX 266.
what is most important to compress?
please tell me if i am making any terrible mistakes.
 
Milkfaj said:
I have a three piece math/pop/metal band
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Was the math thing a typo? I'm gettin' older, been outta the loop for awhile for sure. Never heard that term. As for the rest, you sound like you already know how you're going to record.
 
Milkfaj said:
Im going to be recording into a Tascam TRS-8 through a 16 channel A/H mixer. i will probobly record about 6 tracks of drums and leave the rest for other insturments.
Click to expand...

The TRS-8 is an 8 track recorder. If you record 6 tracks of drums, that doesn't leave you with much room for the rest. I would suggest only using 2 or 3 tracks for drums.
 
Milkbomb said:
Beatles crossed with the Melvins?
...
doesn't that mean you sound like Nirvana?
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LOL!!
wait.... a math rock version of nirvana?

As far as your recording setup, you clearly know more than me, so I won't comment. :)
 
looks good to me. are you on some kinda time constraint? I mean, just go record and tell us how it went. If it comes out like ass, record again. One thing the beatles had was time and a really nice room. oh yeah, and great songs.

mean drums: put the two AT mics a foot off the floor about 4 feet away from your kick drum on either side, sorta triangle like. thick.

you might wanna do a google on glyn johns drum micing.

agree that six tracks of drums is overkill. unless you're not adding anything else (vocals, extra keyboards, solos), you're already outta tracks. put up at least one room mic.
 
ez_willis said:
Was the math thing a typo? I'm gettin' older, been outta the loop for awhile for sure. Never heard that term. As for the rest, you sound like you already know how you're going to record.
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math rock=prog rock with nerdy glasses and ironic t-shirts. ;-P
 
I'm glad you guys cleared that math thing up.

I hated math, so i'm guessing i'm not going to be a fan of the math/pop/calculus...metal...or whatever that was...
 
Milkfaj said:
I have a three piece math/pop/metal band with drums, casio keyboard and electric guitar. we sound like a cross between the beatles and the melvins. please help me come up with a recording scheme based on the equiptment i have.
Im going to be recording into a Tascam TRS-8 through a 16 channel A/H mixer. i will probobly record about 6 tracks of drums and leave the rest for other insturments. I will at least use a mic on snare (M201) on kick (D112) two overheads (AT4040s) an SM57 on tom and a MD421 on floor tom. i will record guitar through a Mesa/boogie rocket 44 combo with med/high gain and lots of bass. I am thinking of using a royer R121 on it. or should i use the royer on kick and use the D112 on guitar??? (i do like bass) i will probobly record the keyboard direct unless we get a really good bass amp.
i have two outboard signal processors a DBX 166 and a DBX 266.
what is most important to compress?
please tell me if i am making any terrible mistakes.
Click to expand...

um...well, it all sounds pretty good to me. I like to compress while tracking, but you can do it afterwards to. just start recording and you should be fine. Drums will probably be the biggest challenge, but just keep screwing with mic placement untilyou get it right...seriously...don't get impatient or it'll sound like shit. Make sure you check phase issues too with the drum mics.

good luck! and i hope you get an A+ on your math project!
 
Use three tracks for drums. Search for recorderman's 3 mic drum setup. It really works nicely and eliminates phase problems almost entirely. compress the kick a bit, but be gentle on the overhead compression. You want that real.

Then, you'll have track for guitar, a track for the keys, and a couple tracks for vocals with an extra for leads, more vocals, extra guitars, etc...

Record the keys direct unless you want a cool retro grunge sound, then amp and try some distortion...
 
Will you be recording the band 'live' or just recording drums and bass first then adding the other instruments one by one?

If live then bleed won't be so much of an issue, but if you plane to overdub then you'll need the drums to be free of any sound form the initial first recording, and in a home or rehearsal studio that will be tough if you play live through mic'd up amps at volume. So you may need to consider all players using headphones for the initial drum takes, that should ensure the drum mics pick up clean drums with no guitar bleed.

You seem to have thought out what goes on which of the 8 tracks, but maybe you need to consider the practicalities of how and where to do it?

Just my thoughts.
 
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