Recording a live band for the first time

  • Thread starter Thread starter maxabillion
  • Start date Start date
M

maxabillion

New member
I am recording a band in a week or so for the first time and was wondering on the best potential setup. I have tracked individual instruments plenty of times and am alright at mic position etc, but I will be recording 2 guitars, drums, and 2 vocals live which is new to me. My problem is mic limitation: I only have 4 inputs on my interface. They are bringing their PA so I was thinking of doing one of two things:

1) running both vocals through PA with nothing else and micing the speaker (1), micing the two guitar speakers separately (2 and 3), and micing the drums with a large diaphragm condenser positioned in front by about four feet and just above the kick (4) [how would you suggest getting a decent drum sound with just one mic?]

or

2) doing the same thing but getting rid of the PA and just having them share a mic for vocals

I know that neither of these are ideal, and I will most likely go back over it with individual instrument tracks where needed, but they said they just need a basic demo, so I am trying to get a decent live track so it will sound authentic. do you have any ideas on improving this setup?
 
maxabillion said:
I am recording a band in a week or so for the first time and was wondering on the best potential setup. I have tracked individual instruments plenty of times and am alright at mic position etc, but I will be recording 2 guitars, drums, and 2 vocals live which is new to me. My problem is mic limitation: I only have 4 inputs on my interface. They are bringing their PA so I was thinking of doing one of two things:

1) running both vocals through PA with nothing else and micing the speaker (1), micing the two guitar speakers separately (2 and 3), and micing the drums with a large diaphragm condenser positioned in front by about four feet and just above the kick (4) [how would you suggest getting a decent drum sound with just one mic?]

or

2) doing the same thing but getting rid of the PA and just having them share a mic for vocals

I know that neither of these are ideal, and I will most likely go back over it with individual instrument tracks where needed, but they said they just need a basic demo, so I am trying to get a decent live track so it will sound authentic. do you have any ideas on improving this setup?
Click to expand...

Not saying I know the right answer, just asking? Why can't you cut the instruments first then come back and do the vocals? If you want the bleed through in the mics (for live), play the music through the PA to give you a live like presence. Mic the drums with at least 4 Mics, Guitars and Bass. I am assuming there is some limitation you are trying to work around.

Once setup, cut all of their set list. Get a good cut at the vocals and have a better control over the sound.

Just a thought.
 
If all you need is a basic demo what I might do is one track for each vocalist + a stereo set of mics. That way you will get a natural sound of the live performance+a cleaner recording of the vocals.
 
I'm going to assume that when you say "live" you mean an actual gig with an audience. My answer would be different if you just mean a whole band all at once in a studio.

To a large extent, recording a band live is a choice of going big and miking/recording everything separately or going the other way and just finding a place front of house where the mix sounds good and just recording a simple stereo pair.

However, there are a couple of other options I've used in the past.

First, if the band's mixer gives you one or two spare pre fade auxes (and assuming they mic everything via the mixer--this doesn't work if they don't mic up drums or some of the backline) then you can use the aux to create your own mix for recording--mono with one aux or a rough form of stereo if you have two. This can actually work okay since the main mix rarely sounds right as a recording--it's too customised for the room where, for example, the drums are low in the mix because they're already very loud--but vocals are high in the mix because that's their only source. A specific mix on an aux can be a big improvement.

Or, a bodge of a trick I've used is to mic the whole thing from FOH (again walking the house to find a good position) but using the other two channels you have available for just vocals--then mixing in the direct vocals with the FOH recording. You have to be careful to just use the vocals sparingly since they're already in the main mix anyhow but, kept low, they can add just a bit of fullness and clarity.
 
Those are all good suggestions. By live I just meant the full band in the "studio" not with an audience - sorry I should have been more specific. I was thinking of doing all the instruments separately then doing vocal overlay afterwards (as DM60 said) but I'm worried that I won't get the best performances doing it this way. I might play around with doing the stereo set like JG96 said, but do you find it gets too muddy? Where do you think a good mic placement might be?
 
Why don't you take an aux line out from the 2 vocal channels on the PA and record the vocals on one input, I would not mic up the PA speaker.

Alan.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top