Recording a Live GIG- HELP!

[pdpdrummer989]

ok first thread on here and I have a question....

I got asked to record a live gig in october. The venue is a medium sized room in a local theater. The band is one guitar player who also does vocals, a drummer and a bass player. They play bluesy-jam music...picture stevie ray vaughn and sublime mixed. Heres my question, How do I go about recording and capture them and the audience? My equipment is:

1 Yamaha 1204 mixer
1 fostex vf160 16 track digital recorder (going to use this as the "hard disk recorder"
2 Behringer c2 small condensor microphones
1 shure sm57
1shure pg52 kick mircophone
2 mxl 990 large diaphram condensor microphones
2 shure pg58 vocal microphones
1Nady cbm40x Boundary Microphone

*NOTE*-I am NOT providing live sound for the concert just the recording of the band. In this hall they rarely mic anything other than vocals. So my question is should I mic the instruments and then run the 2 behringer condensors as audience microphones and then use the nady boundary for room ambience? Or should I just use the nady on the front of the stage and use the conensors in the room? Any help would be awesome!

 

[Pahtcub]

I would start by telling the artist that the recording will suck in that venue with that gear IMHO

 

[gecko zzed]

mike up kit with 52 on kik, 57 on snare and 990 x 2 as overheads

use the pg58s on the guitar and bass amps

use the c2s as room mikes

get a feed from the in-house system for the vocals

 

[Mo Facta]

I would start by telling the artist that the recording will suck in that venue with that gear IMHO

That's a bit presumptuous, don't you think?

I would just use the inserts at half-jack straight into the multi-track. That way you get discrete tracks and don't have to hassle setting up your own mikes, etc. You could even combine your mikes with the venue's for the best selection.

Cheers

 

[gecko zzed]

I would just use the inserts at half-jack straight into the multi-track. That way you get discrete tracks and don't have to hassle setting up your own mikes, etc. You could even combine your mikes with the venue's for the best selection.

I would have suggested that, but according to the OP, they only mike up vocals, so that's all you'll get from the desk. Oh, unless you're suggesting going to the multitrack first.

In any case, there's still a mess of mikes to set up

 

[pdpdrummer989]

yeah I know the recordings I get with that equipment wont "suck" because its the same setup I use in my recording studio at home and get good results IMHO.

I was thinking of miking all the instruments (DI for the bass) and then I have an ART mic splitter that I can throw in before the front of house board and take a vocal track that way. Just wasnt sure where to use the PZM mic (if I use it at all) Im afraid if i set it up on the stage that it would boost the low end to much on the PZM mic and would really get over loaded from the kick and bass guitar.

What I was going to do was mic all the instruments run them into the Yamaha 1204 board and then run all the "inserts" into the channels on the 16 track fostex. I do this because A) The preamps in the yamaha sound alot "warmer" and B) Because the VF160 only has 2 xlr inputs and the rest are all 1/4 where as the yamaha has all xlr. I took the wiring from my old alesis electric kit (since all the 1/4 cables are already snaked together and labeled) and run it into the fostex, then I can burn a CD that has each individual track (kick, snare, vocal etc) and the bring it into sonar to do the mixing.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Where is the live board going to be, on stage or in the audience?

If it's in the audience then I would just set up an X-Y array with the C2s near the board centered between the main speakers and then take a feed from the board. Then in your DAW time align the mics to the board feed, eq, compress and mix. If the mix in the room sounds decent the recording will be okay if a little "roomy". The board feed will help clarify the vocals.

You probably could track everything on stage but it may not be a good idea to add complexity to the live sound by adding yourself and your gear to the chaos.

 

[gecko zzed]

If it's in the audience then I would just set up an X-Y array with the C2s near the board centered between the main speakers and then take a feed from the board. Then in your DAW time align the mics to the board feed, eq, compress and mix. If the mix in the room sounds decent the recording will be okay if a little "roomy". The board feed will help clarify the vocals.

That is the simplest solution, and is the easiest way to get reasonable results with the least amount of complication,

 

[pdpdrummer989]

well like i said in the origional post, They never mic anything BUT the vocals so there wont be any other mics on the stage so if I set up next to the stage I shouldnt really be adding to much to the "chaos"