Traveling to a nearby city to record a band. Tips?

thelowerlip

thelowerlip

New member
These guys came to play in my little town some time ago. I sat in with a mando and thats how I came to know them. Sort of a bluegrass/Greatfull Dead/rock thing. If memory serves the lineup is something like this...

Bass---electric with amp
Acoustic/ singer
Acoustic / singer
Steel---with amp
Harp--with amp

The first time I saw them they had full PA but I'm told this gig will have no amplification for the vocals or acoustics.

I think it will come down to capturing the 2 acoustics and 2 vocals without making the guys feel awkward.

The amps should be easy.

And...I have the opportunity to see a rehearsal on Thursday.
And...we do set up Friday night (gig is Saturday morning)

So far the plan is to bring all my stuff and assess the situation when I get there.

Any other tips...serious of otherwise?
 
No PA, then let them get their sound as balanced as possible in the room, capture it with 2 room mics. If you can DI the amps into your interface, set the room mics to try to emphasize the 2 singer/acoustic people.
 
I like that.
I can record 14 tracks at once so I can do a few things at once and use whatever works best.
My limitation is quality not quanity. I dont know if the handfull of nady codensers I have will capture the room worth a darn but I may as well have them set up and see if I can pull anything usefull from them.
From a mixing stand piont I feel the most comfortable with close up sm57's.
 
With 14 tracks I would cover everything, mic the harp and guitar amps (SM57's), DI and Mic (SM57, LCD or kick drum type mic) the bass. DI the acoustics (this is a safety may not get used) Set up the condensers out from of the singers to pick up an even mix of guitar and vocals. If the singers don't mind I would prefer to have separate vocals and guitar mics but they will need to be closer to the singers so in this situation they may be in the way of the performance. Set up a stereo pair out from of the whole band, set up a couple of audience mics. If you don't have enough mics of the type mentioned, what have you got so I can make suggestions?

You will need to suss out the LDC's in front of the singers during sound check, you also will have to watch for amp spill. With all this recorded you must get something that will be usable, you may have to slightly time align the mics during mixing to adjust the mic phase.

Alan.
 
I had a situation similar to yours and all I used was a Zoom H4n about 3 feet out in front of the band and it turned out a beautiful recording.
So .... maybe a few SDC in an X/Y configuration at about the same area as I used would give you similar results.
 
There are lot's of options for how to mic such an event. Personally, I lean more to the "use all 14 tracks and give youself options in the mix" camp but there's arguments both ways. I tend to reserve things like X/Y stereo recording for situations where the acoustics are great and I have time to play with mic positioning.

However, a more general comment: take everything you own. This includes all your mics, every adaptor cable and connector you have, all your XLR cables and a ton of mains extension cords. You may not need them all but carrying extra boxes is better than finding you're three feet too far from a mains socket or could really use that RCA to XLR adaptor because the band brought a new keyboard they didn't tell you about.

Finally, do you have or can you borrow a snake? You can be tidier and more stage-friendly using a single multicore to your mix position and shorter mic cables around the stage.
 
For witz and Bobbsy, you may have missed that the band is doing this thing 'unplugged' - the acoutic guitars/vocals anyway. I doubt they want to be worrying about plugging in their guitars or singing into mics in this situation.
 
Equally, they've asked to be recorded so I assume they will be willing to co-operate with the needs of the recordist. Otherwise, they've given him an unfair and thankless task. (Hmmm...that sounds like a definition of sound recording.)

Room mics are fine in a good room but would worry me in a blue grass venue of unknown acoustic.

Of course, if they're good at their technique, the other way with blue grass is to put a single condenser with a relatively wide pick up (even an omni) in the centre and let them wander to and from the mic to control balance. This is a common technique for live blue grass but I'm less certain how it would work for recording since the band can't tell how their control of dynamics is working. One mic and a monitor wedge maybe?
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys.
FYI I have three 57's, one 58, three pensil condensers, one MXL vocal condenser, one kick drum mic, and I'm told these guys have a bunch of 58's we can use.

I am leaning twards the kitchen sink method. If they have electric/acoustics, I will be getting those signals too.
 
The only time I did this I put a stereo pair to capture the group and a dynamic mic for the vocalist.
Everything in the room was amplified except the vocalist; I didn't like the vocals coming through a PA.

This was what it was, but from that experience I don't think micing the guitars and bass would really have helped unless I was able to mic the kit too.

I suppose I'm suggesting a stereo recording (+vox) or 100% coverage rather than any middle ground.

To make that decision just listen to how well balanced they are. If they sound good live or are prepared to let you make them sound good live, then a stereo pair might just be good enough.
 
mjbphotos said:
For witz and Bobbsy, you may have missed that the band is doing this thing 'unplugged' - the acoutic guitars/vocals anyway. I doubt they want to be worrying about plugging in their guitars or singing into mics in this situation.
Click to expand...

Yes not plugged into a PA does not mean it can't be plugged into a recording rig, the point I made about the vocal mics not being in the way was that if the mics are LDC's out front of the singers and out of sight lines this could work.

Alan.
 
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