Recording Live with the 424 MKII

[Dizzy]

Hi, I'm a new user to this site which is pretty amazing. I've had the 424 MKII for about 2 years and have been marginally satisfied with it. The biggest problem with it is that it's just being operated by a total jackass (myself). So basically I need help recording my band. We just want to put three new songs down, I plan to record the drums, bass, and rhythm guitar at the same time (time is limited). And then throw down our singer and then my lead guitar. I was thinking I'd use an overhead and kick mike and send those two signals to track 1, then I'd DI the bass and mike the rhythm and send them to track 2, then later I'd use track 3 for our singer track 4 for me. Make sense?

We're recording in a small, noisy, bouncy basement so I'd have everyone turn down quite a bit. I'm using sm57s since that's all I have. As far as band equipment, we have good stuff it's really just me not knowing how to get a strong signal to tape. Drums will sound great alone but then when I record everyone else they sound like crap, same with guitars too. I just need some suggestions on sending the right signal to the tape. Also, I have an Alesis Nanocompressor so how should I (or should I even?) set it up during recording. Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[lazyboy]

i don't know if this is the best way to go about doing things, but it worked pretty well for me just last weekend. It requires a submixer though, without one you'll be in to some bouncing, signal degradation, mono drums, and other hellish situations. If you don't have another mixer, I'll tell you how I do it all on the 4 tr. but I've never been too satisfied with the results

3-5 mics on drums (play around w/ placement)
close mic guitar amp(s)
DI bass (run one of the outs to the amp so you can hear it when you're playing though)
-with 57's (uni's)there shouldn't be much to worry about with mics picking up the wrong sounds, but if it sounds overly muddy try something ingenious to better isolate your sources-

Rec (or tape) out from submixer to sub input on recorder (Usually RCA type). You'll need to record some rehearsal takes to get the mix right since there's no other way to monitor it,at least not one that you'd be able to hear in the basement through headphones. This includes setting pan controls for your desired stereo sound. Record away. Then you've still got 2 tracks for guitar and vox. We used both for vox so I don't know if you'll have trouble getting the leads to sit right in the mix. Best of luck! with a little experimentation you should get something pretty good even w/ old, cheap, and junkyard equip. By the way the basement studio is the Divine Studio. this could be a motto for us poor DIY'ers.