remote session setup?

M

mam

The Round Mound of Sound
Ok guys/girls:
I've got a remote session coming up in a week and I'm wondering how y'all would use your available tracks. I'll be working with 16 tracks of ADAT. Band consists of 5 piece drum kit (enclosed in Lexan), keyboard player, bass, guitar, sax and 3 vocal mic's. They want to be able to come back to the studio & repair any problems from the live show so I'll be tracking the vocals on separate tracks with splitters. Oh yeah, they want the crowd noise recorded also. I've got a few different ideas as to what I'll do, but am curious as to how you would make the best use of 16 tracks.
Fire away folks!
 
Welcome to the world of remote recording! I have no idea what kind, and how much equip you have so I will ramble on as if you have it all...

Drums - 7 mics. kick, snare, tom1, tom2, floor tom, overhead L/R
Keys - 1 channel DI
Bass - 1 channel DI
Guitar - (assuming electric) 1 mic on amp
Sax - 1 mic
Vocals - 3 mics (one for each
Crowd - 2 mics pointing out from stage.

This would fill all 16 tracks. What did you have in mind?
 
My first thought was 5 on drums: K/S/HH/2 OH's. DI on bass, 2 DI on keys (stereo), 4 vox, 1 sax.
I posted wrong previously. There are 4 vox.

My second thought was eliminate the 2 tracks for crowd noise. Use 7 on drums: eliminate the HH, add all the toms. Take a stereo recorder just for the crowd noise.
 
I think you may also take into consideration what you are recording and get a rough idea before recording of how you may mix. Then you can ask yourself, do I relly need stereo keys? Can I get away with a single mic on the crowd? Can I only track 3 vocals and plan on simply overdubbing one back-up vocalist? Do I really need mics on all the toms?

If you are not going to use individual mics on the toms (perfectly okay) know that your overheads will now be there to pick up the entire kit, not just spot mics on cymbals, and the positioning will be critical and usually (for me anyway) a real challenge to pull off well in a live situation.

Also, I probably would not attempt a seperate recording of the crowd unless I knew I could sync it well with the rest of the tracks. If not, and those tracks are present much in the mix, you could present some real probs with phase, stereo image smearing, and mud. If they only come in during select parts of the recording and disappear through the majority, you may be able to pull it off.

By the way, what kind of band is it going to be and what is the room like that you will be recording in?
 
I'll be recording a black gospel band in a small church which is shaped like the letter "T", with really low ceilings. If I did record the crowd separately, I should be able to line it up time wise in Pro Tools and just bring the crowd up during the applause & such. Of course I've not done it before, I'm just assuming it will work that way.
 
The gospel band sounds like it would be a fun gig to record. The room size and dimensions aren't going to help you a whole lot. For that kind of gig you may do fine without miking each tom. This will give you a more 'live' sound, but as stated earlier, be cautious of mic placement to get a good blend of the toms and cymbals. That will also free up 3 channels and give you a little bit more flexibility.

Soak it all up, those gigs are the kind I always seem to learn the most from because you have to accomodate so many challenges. Have fun!
 
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