Recording outside?

[grimtraveller]

In the 80's the first two albums I released were done in my lanai outside.

It wasn't that big a deal. There were birds in a few spots that we left in but, especially considering that there is a busy road 50 ft from where we were just separated by a door, there was surprisingly few problems.

The reason we had very little background bleed I think was because we did all the mic'ing close. That's why when people talk about the room being a big issue I really don't think it is if you close mic. If you close mic it doesn't matter if you are outside in the Grand Canyon or in the best acoustically designed recording studio in the world, the room has almost no effect on the sound, that's what my first two albums taught me.

you could record a straight line in (guitar) to a DAW, then once your take is good enough, you can reamp it in a bunch of cool places to experiment with sounds. The nice thing about this is you already have a good take and now it's just a matter of finding a great place and messing with mics (fun times!) You can also use several mics placed near and far from the amp for a wet and dry channel configurations.
Another idea is to record a whole bunch of outside areas on its own track (or tracks) and your guitar on it's own track.

Great sets of ideas..........but they kind of defeat the object of recording outside to my mind. Unless you want specific effects (and as hollyrocket points out, there are cool methods for this) or are a nature boy/girl that feels good outside, I'm not sure there's any point in recording outside unless you want some of what being outside brings. So bring on the foxes yelping and the cockatoos and the trains and vandals........

 

[dintymoore]

Ya, you're right, that would be why you'd want to record outside. For me it wasn't "want" it was "where else?".

Dealing with my gear in the open humid air and no ac were some of the reasons I made a studio a few years after that.

Outside, probably the mic choice would make a big difference too. Back then we used a 421 for vocals and that might not have been a bad thing.

 

[benherron.rrr]

yeah, well when i posted this it was as hot and calm as it gets here a day later its started being all windy and rainy . I think recording outside would just be a change, like i siad ive got a lot of land so I pritty much have an environment for everything. It will be cool just massing around. Im a man of many genras, i thourght it would be a good idea to record some of my acoustic singer/songwritter stuff out side just cause' i think the music suits the environment. as far as mics go the few i have are fairly introductory so im not to worried about ruining a hyper sencitive condencer. I think there are so many things i can experiment with. Im interested in reamping a guitar part. but im not too sure how to do that.

 

[grimtraveller]

I think there are so many things i can experiment with. Im interested in reamping a guitar part. but im not too sure how to do that.

Record your guitar directly (or if you feel really experimental, mic the amp). Once you've got that down, connect an output lead to (via the send bit in your DAW or analog recorder) whichever amp and/or effects you want to colour the sound and press play. The sound should now be playing through the amp, at which point, you mic the amp and send the signal back via the return socket and you record that on another track. Depending on how you've played around, that reamped track should be utterly different in sound to the original guitar track. Or you could just connect a lead to your output, put the other end into the amp and mic that, with the mic recording what's going through the amp. I'm not sure if all recorders allow that but my analog Tascam 488 does and so does my Akai DPS12i. If you can hook the recorder to your stereo (RCA plugs in the out of the recorder go to the ins of the stereo amp), you can also get it to play through your speakers and mic that also for a slightly different sound that one might describe as 'the room'.

yeah, well when i posted this it was as hot and calm as it gets here a day later its started being all windy and rainy

Well, that's North Yorkshire for you ! Mind you, it was the same down here. Five glorious days of 70+ degrees and me in a T shirt for the first time this year and the washing on the line bone dry in 2 hours........then the sun went to Mexico, the wind and rain returned and England's wonderfully improvisational and unpredictable weather did it's thing !

 

[Whale Bone]

There was an article in Tape Op a while back about a band, I think The Great Lake Swimmers, who recorded an album in a old grain silo. They might've done other things outdoors, but I can't remember (and I can't find the issue).