Recording a Live Band

R

rockdude326

New member
I have some questions for you guys. What are your experiences with recording live bands, particularly live rock bands? And I don't mean recording a show in front of people, I mean simply recording a band jamming out an album.
I wouldn't want to necessarily completely isolate every instrument, but I would want to get some control over mixing separate channels and still retain that "live" kind of spontaneous feel.
The reason I ask is because with the type of music I'm into and like to play, I love the off-the-cuff interaction between musicians. I think that's what makes the best music, and a lot of that "gel" factor seems to be lost nowadays.

Any thoughts?
 
I have a large open live room (around 30' x 30') and have recorded a few bands performing "live". I use no isolation panels what so ever and the bleed thru is very minimal. And the decibel level gets loud at times, especially rock bands. I feel what little bleed thru there is just adds to the mix. I do mic each instrument and a few occasions used room mics also.
 
We did this recording live off the floor no problem with isolation. Done in a big room drums off to one end and the amps at the other, bass di'd. Isolation was no problem we had a few gobos out in front of the amps but that was it. And we all just monitored through phones. We found we got way better results then multitracking cause of the "live" feel.
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7366727

o and mics if its any interest were:
sm57s on guitar amps
57 on snare
audix d2's on toms
d112 on kick
akg perception 400's for OH's
a yorkville DI on bass
andd some ADK mic on vocals.
 
My experience with bands recording live has been positive . . . mainly because the bands have got their act to gether and know their stuff.

I have a room that's about 6 x 7 metres. Recently I recorded an acid jazz band, "The Matthew Ives Quintet".

This was recorded live. Four mikes on kit (kick, snare and two overheads). Bass was DI, keyboards through DI, Guitar amp was miked, as was the sax.

I've got a firepod, so I managed these eight tracks ok.

There was spill from instruments onto the drum, guitar and sax mikes, but that was not a problem of concern.

They've recorded six tracks so far, all going between 6 and 8 minutes. The longest is 11 minutes.

Here is a sample that goes for about a minutes of "Big Smoke", an original tune from saxophonist Alex Howroyd.

http://www.box.net/shared/ggi08h0122
 
gecko zzed said:
My experience with bands recording live has been positive . . . mainly because the bands have got their act to gether and know their stuff.

I have a room that's about 6 x 7 metres. Recently I recorded an acid jazz band, "The Matthew Ives Quintet".

This was recorded live. Four mikes on kit (kick, snare and two overheads). Bass was DI, keyboards through DI, Guitar amp was miked, as was the sax.

I've got a firepod, so I managed these eight tracks ok.

There was spill from instruments onto the drum, guitar and sax mikes, but that was not a problem of concern.

They've recorded six tracks so far, all going between 6 and 8 minutes. The longest is 11 minutes.

Here is a sample that goes for about a minutes of "Big Smoke", an original tune from saxophonist Alex Howroyd.

http://www.box.net/shared/ggi08h0122
Click to expand...
On an off topic... That sounds good!

Who was playing keys there?
 
Gherkin said:
Who was playing keys there?
Click to expand...

Matthew Ives Quintet consists of:

Matthew Ives ~ Kit
Alex Howroyd ~ Horns
Charles Harris ~ Bass
Nick Parish ~ Guitar
Steve Bumford ~ Keys

On the recording Steve played a Technics Sx-PX554 piano, its line-out plugged straight into the firepod.
 
gecko zzed said:
I have a room that's about 6 x 7 metres. Recently I recorded an acid jazz band, "The Matthew Ives Quintet".
Click to expand...
The sax sounds real nice. There sounds like there just a bit of a slap back filling it out. Is that the room or are you playing with pre-delay?

G.
 
gecko zzed said:
I think that what you are hearing is the guitar that's following the sax melody line pretty closely, but maybe a fraction ahead.

Here's the sax more or less by itself: http://www.box.net/shared/vpjk5hldbr
Click to expand...
Nice job both by the guitarist and a nice mix by you, then. It really gives the impression (to my old ears anyway) of filling the sax sound out a bit without drawing attention to istelf.

The second sample is missing that follow, obviously, but there is some nice verb on it. Same question there, natural or silicone? Sounds a bit big for the room dimensions, so I'd assume that's you and not the room (or am I batting 0 for 2 today? :o).

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Nice job both by the guitarist and a nice mix by you, then. It really gives the impression (to my old ears anyway) of filling the sax sound out a bit without drawing attention to istelf.

The second sample is missing that follow, obviously, but there is some nice verb on it. Same question there, natural or silicone? Sounds a bit big for the room dimensions, so I'd assume that's you and not the room (or am I batting 0 for 2 today? :o).

G.
Click to expand...

No . . this time you are on the money. It is a reverb plug in, and it is a way bigger size than my room. It's my 'go to' reverb, Timeworks. One of my reverb techniques is to use a very large room, but not much of it. Interestingly, I used a $AUS50 Behringer C2 on the sax. I used this mike because though it is a condenser, it behaves very much like a dynamic mike and is not as sensitive as other condensors, so there is good off-axis rejection.
 
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