Recording a band all at once

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Thrasher

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Hey, I am looking to record my band (once again) I've recorded us before, but this time i'd like to try and do us all at once instead of overdubbing. I have a Tascam DP-01 8 track recorder and a Mackie 1202 12 channel mixer (http://www.projection.com/equipment/audio/mixers/mackie1202.html) to work with.

What I would like to know is how could I record my (3 piece) band all at once with the equipment I have. I've sorted out how I would separate us to avoid bleeding, but we would still be able to hear eachother through headphones. I need to know how I can connect the Mackie to the DP-01 so that it records the guitar/bass/drums separately (on 3 diff tracks), or at least 2 together and one separate. I'm not sure if it's possible as i'm new to this so any help would be appretiated. Thanks.
 
Thrasher said:
Hey, I am looking to record my band (once again) I've recorded us before, but this time i'd like to try and do us all at once instead of overdubbing. I have a Tascam DP-01 8 track recorder and a Mackie 1202 12 channel mixer (http://www.projection.com/equipment/audio/mixers/mackie1202.html) to work with.

What I would like to know is how could I record my (3 piece) band all at once with the equipment I have. I've sorted out how I would separate us to avoid bleeding, but we would still be able to hear eachother through headphones. I need to know how I can connect the Mackie to the DP-01 so that it records the guitar/bass/drums separately (on 3 diff tracks), or at least 2 together and one separate. I'm not sure if it's possible as i'm new to this so any help would be appretiated. Thanks.
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I'm not familiar with the DP-01, does it allow you to record 3 separate tracks at once?

If so - plus the mixer into two of the line inputs, and then use whatever internal mic input you have on the DP-01 to record the third track/instrument.


You will need a headphone amplifier of some type to power your 3 sets of headphones.


Tim
 
Okay, I just went and looed up the DP-01, and saw that it only allows you to record 2 tracks at once, so here is what I would do.


I would set the room up just like you are playing on stage if you can.

Make sure the drumkit is extremely well tuned.

Mic the kick drum.

Use a Condenser as an overhead on a boom, directly over the drummer's head, and aimed at the kickdrum knee - this will give you a fair center of the drumkit.

Set your amps up with the EQ flat, and put a pair of mic's out in the room, with one on the left side, and one on the right.

Have the drummer play while you raise the bass amp's volume (keep the EQ flat for now) and make a test recording. You want to make sure that you can hear the kick drum over the bass guitar.

Next begin adding the guitar by raising it's level, and listen to the test recordings.
Now, rather than boosting the EQ, you only cut. so if you want more low end, you would cut some of the mid's and highs.

The main goal here, is to get a good drum track, with clean bass and guitar on that same pair of tracks.

I've used this technique before with good outcomes - I started out on a stereo reel to reel, so we had to think of how the sound would be on tape, and not how it sounded in the room.
You don't have enough mic pre-amps to mic everything, so you have to work around that. Since it is easiest for you to overdub the guitars and bass rather than drums, you want to make sure you have a good powerfull drum track, and this - if you mess with mic placement and do test recordings can yield a very good live sound.

But, again I will stress it - the drumkit has to be perfectly tuned.

Tim
 
I've literally recorded hundreds of songs at band practice (two bands) using two condenser mics. I find a sound level meter to be invaluable. Walk around the room with the band playing and you should be able to find a couple of sweet spots where the mix sounds good. Trust your ears, what you hear is what the mics will hear. Set-up the mics at the sweet spots. Use a sound meter at these same locations and point it just like the mic. Balance the volume between the kick drum and guitar amps at roughly the same dB. Set up the singer's volume by ear. This will serve as your baseline. I find that you usually only need to mic the kick drum through the PA. The rest of the drum kit generally cuts through the mix just fine. You'll find that maybe the guitar or bass needs to be a little louder through experimentation. You can't do much with the volume of the drums unless they're electronic. I just work around the drum kit and adjust everyone else relative to drummer. Tweak a little after several recording sessions. Your recordings will continue to get better each time you record.
 
Alright, thanks for the advice, I think i know the way i'm gonna go with this, but I still have a question. I will record the guitar and bass in the same track and the drums in it's own single track. This way i'll just overdub the guitar + bass later and it shouldn't be too difficult or time consuming.

This is probably basic recording knowledge but I need to know how I would connect the DP-01 to the Mackie mixer and get the Drums to come into the DP-01 on it's own track, no other instruments, and the guitar + the bass to come in on their own track. The DP-01, as mentioned before has 2 inputs which allows for 2 recordings going on at once. I just need to know how to spilt up the drums from the Guitar + bass coming out of the mixer. Thanks for any reply.
 
Thrasher said:
This is probably basic recording knowledge but I need to know how I would connect the DP-01 to the Mackie mixer and get the Drums to come into the DP-01 on it's own track, no other instruments, and the guitar + the bass to come in on their own track. The DP-01, as mentioned before has 2 inputs which allows for 2 recordings going on at once. I just need to know how to spilt up the drums from the Guitar + bass coming out of the mixer. Thanks for any reply.
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If I understand your question right you should mic drums up then pan all the drum mics on the mixer to the left then connect the left main output to the first input on the DP-01 , then mic up the guitar and bass and pan those tracks on the mixer to the right then connect the right main output to the 2nd input of the DP-01.This means that on the DP-01 the first track will contain all the drums ( in mono) and on the second track it will have the guitar and bass. If you do this make sure you have all the levels right on the mixer before recording. Hope this helps.
 
Yeah, I was messing around earlier just testing out recording two things at once and panning them to the left and right worked for me. Thanks for the help.
 
Thrasher said:
Hey, I am looking to record my band (once again) I've recorded us before, but this time i'd like to try and do us all at once instead of overdubbing. I have a Tascam DP-01 8 track recorder and a Mackie 1202 12 channel mixer (http://www.projection.com/equipment/audio/mixers/mackie1202.html) to work with.

What I would like to know is how could I record my (3 piece) band all at once with the equipment I have. I've sorted out how I would separate us to avoid bleeding, but we would still be able to hear eachother through headphones. I need to know how I can connect the Mackie to the DP-01 so that it records the guitar/bass/drums separately (on 3 diff tracks), or at least 2 together and one separate. I'm not sure if it's possible as i'm new to this so any help would be appretiated. Thanks.
Click to expand...

With a setup like that, you're pretty much going to set up a mix on the Mackie and record straight to two-track stereo on the Tascam. In that case, DO NOT SEPARATE THE INSTRUMENTS TO AVOID BLEED. You are going to need all the natural ambience you can get. Bleed is you friend in live recording. In fact, be sure to have at least one mic set up in the back of the room getting the best overall recording of the whole thing you can. Mix it in to "open up" the mix.
 
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