Recording Advice with 4s4MKIII

[forcesofhabit]

Recording Advice with 424MKIII

Hey everyone,

Well my band just recorded our demo with our 424MKIII and this was our first time recording and well for it being our first time I feel our results were pretty good. You can check a song out @ www.hxcmp3.com/crapsuckaz to hear how things went.

Now that we're done with that and plan on recording again soon we'd like to try and sound even better so we'd like some advice on things.

We now plan on buying a mixer and doing stereo drums into two channels on the 4-track and we also will be doing two guitars. One on each side. The bass will be set in the center and we also do some vocals in stereo as well. This process obviously requires mixing down a few times and we want the best quality possible so what would be the best way to do this while keeping the quality as beefy and clear as possible?

Also how does everyone who records guitar EQ? Guitarists obviously want "their tone" so I figured it would be best to mic the cabinet, EQ on the amp how we like then after its recorded change the EQ from there. If anyone does it like this how do you EQ usually after its been recorded? Any suggestions for a better process is much appreciated.

For bass we really like growl, our bassists tone is mean when playing together but when we try and get that same tone on the 4-track it's just so hard. We've tried the DI-out on his GK head, micing the cab and EQing alot and no matter what its hard to get anything real close.

We play screamy emotive hardcore just fyi if the style of music will help any of you with your advice. Thanks alot in advance.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Keeping your existing 4 track recorder, the best way to maintain the sound quality and end up with the tracks placed in the stereo position that you indicated, I would suggest trying to do a live off the floor recording of the bed tracks. Meaning, drums, your two guitars in stereo and the bass guitar panned center all recorded in one take and printed to two of the four tracks on the Portastudio. On the two remaining tracks, you can do your vocals.

This method will give you one pass quality which is important to analog recording. The obvious disadvantage is that your mix must be good going in and your performance must be to your satisfaction as well, just as it would need to be if you were playing live on a gig.

This method also allows you to at least do the critical balance of instrumentation to vocals afterwords and also allows you to redo vocal takes if you screw that much of it up when recording.

Using an external mixer, you will need to get one with enough channels and microphones, DI boxes and cables to accommodate a live one take recording.

A decent 12 channel or higher board should accommodate this depending on how many microphones you have at your disposal to capture the drum kit. A minimum of two overheads and a kick drum mic would be required for a stereo drum track.

As for the fear factor of doing this right the first time, keep in mind that for decades in the last century, professional recordists used this very method to record some of best music mankind has seen and captured.

Cheers!