Recording a whole (well most of) a band at once....

[singer202]

Usually, I track songs one at time and build from the "bottom up", but I havent been having the greatest results with my band at keeping everything timed perfectly when all is said and done. When we play together as a whole, we are very tight, but doing one thing at a time with a click track just doesnt work for us. That being said, I've made some upgrades to my studio and now have the ability to track 12 tracks at a time into Cubase for the purpose of doing a "live" in studio recording. For some isolation of parts, we will be in 3 different rooms, (Drums|Guitar and Bass|Keys and Vocal). Before I give it a go, I was wondering if anyone had any tips for recording this way and anything I should look out for??

 

[CMB Studios]

recording live is going to be a lot more challenging for a good take than isolation tracking... if you're hearts are set on it... then i'd do it the old fashioned way of getting a bed track.. meaning... drums/bass/rhythm guitar (or piano) ... and then add the rest on top of it.

 

[coreytx]

Recording live as a band makes for a much more interesting, inspiring, and exciting performance and sound. Just mic stuff up and record!

 

[singer202]

recording live is going to be a lot more challenging for a good take than isolation tracking... if you're hearts are set on it... then i'd do it the old fashioned way of getting a bed track.. meaning... drums/bass/rhythm guitar (or piano) ... and then add the rest on top of it.

Thanks CMB. I'll try a few different ways and hope for the best. I have plugged directly into our mixer at a gig using an RCA to 3.5mm into my laptop soundcard (obviously not looking for actual usable material) just for a taste of the live sound and it would come out pretty good, so I'm hoping that taking it to a studio "live" setting would translate well.

 

[gecko zzed]

My tips are:

Set up in the biggest room you have available and spread yourselves out as much as possible. Do this, rather than recording in separate rooms.

That way you will have eye contact, and the playing will be tighter.

You will get some spill, but, because you are all playing together, it should not compromise a good performance and a good recording.

 

[Tom Hicks]

I agree with the same-room idea. Either make gobos or use packing blankets for sound isolation.

 

[witzendoz]

I record a lot of bands playing together, I even record cover band demos totally live including vocals for that live on stage sound.

My current band always record live (except vocals) it is a simple line up, 3 piece Vocals x 2, guitar, bass, drums, I don't care about spill, to minimise it I screen off the guitar and bass amps, throw a few screens around the drums and off we go. If we don't like something in the take we do the song again, no over dubs no extras, the only thing we add later is vocals. I love working this way, a lot of 60's and 70's albums were recorded exactly like this.

I also sometimes record other bands semi live, drums and bass live with a guide guitar track (DI'ed) and a guide vocal (in the hall), to get a good dynamic rhythm section happening.

Alan.