Recording 4 People Live In Bedroom...Advice Please!

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Robertt8

Robertt8

Well-known member
Okay. I'm trying to record 4 people with 4 mic's live in the ol' bed room and need some advice.

I've got a drummer (on brushes), a bass player (with an amp), a lead guitarist (on acoustic guitar), and me on rhythm guitar and vocal (acoustic guitar as well)... now i think I can record up to 4 tracks on my VS-880Ex at one time....I've got two Shure SM58's, One Studio Projects B1 and a C1...(I can run two phantom powered mics at once).

any suggestions as what I should use where? Use them all? Just two?

Any advice would be great!
Thanks!
Robert Tait
robert@roberttait.com
http://www.roberttait.com
 
Give your bass player some headphones and ditch the amp - then DI him in with a mix, turn your bed on its edge and make a little triangular room in the corner and hide the drummer in there, close mic whatever he's hitting and tell him not to hit it too loud, use one of your dynamics.

Put your two guitarists back to back and use your two condensers wherever they sound best, and then sing into your second 58.

My $0.02.

People playing out of tune / time can be attacked with spare pillows...
 
Since you have limited space, mics and inputs, recording the parts separately is probably the way to go. If you have the budget, pick up a AKG 112 or Shure Beta 52, for micing kick and bass.
 
Do the aforementioned "drum room"...set up your two condensers in a Modified Spaced pair (search on here for RecorderMan's 3 mic drum micing technique) with a 58 on the kick. Bus these three mics to a stereo pair and record them on tracks 1 and 2, panned hard left and right. DI the bass into track 3. Sit side by side with the other guitarist, stick the other 58 in front of you and send it to track 4 and use it to record a scratch of the guitars. Then go back and overdub each of the acoustic guitars using the condensers with whatever 2 mic technique works for you. Lastly, go back and add vocals with whichever condenser sounds best on your voice.

If I'm not mistaken, the recorder you have can do up to 8 tracks, so you'd have as follows:

Track 1: Drums left
Track 2: Drums right
Track 3: Bass
Tracks 4: scratch guitars
Tracks 5 and 6: Acoustic guitar 1
Tracks 7 and 8: Acoustic guitar 2

Erase Track 4 (the scratch guitar) and use it for vocals.

Thats how I'd do it, anyways.
 
all good stuff! I've always recorded one piece at a time before (usually just me, but now I've got a little band, and wanted to capture a quick shot of us playing live), I'm just wondering how you'd suggest doing a down and dirty live recording...no overdubs. We actually don't mic (or amplify in this case) anything besides the bass, so the guitars, singing and drums are all at a volume that can be heard by all (and I'm not screaming) without any trouble. It seems like it might be easy to mic, but I realize the less I focus on separate instruments, the less control I'll have at mix down...

how would you mic or set that puppy up?
 
There's plenty of discussion around on micing techniques for choirs, ensembles, etc...maybe try one of those with two of the tracks using your condensers, another track of DI bass to boost it in the mix, and a 58 for vocals, also for boosting/clarifying in the mix.

Edit: Just to clarify, I'm a relative "newbie" to all of this...I've been recording stuff for years, but have only in the last 8-10 months gotten really into learning a lot about it. Sooo...take my suggestions with that in mind. I'm sure there are other guys here that can offer much better insight...this is just how I'd do it. I've recorded a whole band with a single Radio Shack (oops) mic about 8 feet away. Just put the mics where you get the best results and they sound most natural and pleasing to you.
 
It seems like it might be easy to mic, but I realize the less I focus on separate instruments, the less control I'll have at mix down...
Click to expand...

Thats right!!!, so I suggest 2 mics for drums (kick and overhead) I say 58 and B1 as OH. Run the bass direct to the VS, then you can use the other 58 for vocals and the C1 for acoustic guitars.

My .02 cents

TS
 
I know this comes a week after the original post, but I'd suggest trying to find a good spot for a single condenser on the drums....it'll take a while to find it, but it sounds okay once you get it....the hard part is being able to find that spot and yet still not have any interference from everything else....

Use the 58s on the guitars....the other condenser on the vocals....direct in for the bass....

If that doesn't work out well for you....just throw the mics all over the room and just see where you get a good sound....if you do it well enough....you won't need to mix it down
 
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