bigwillz24 said:
That's nothin'...
A little more rock he wants - Here's a (chopped-up recording of a) heavy-metal legend with a different flavor... Please, no names. I chopped up the file, but I'm not incredibly comfortable posting it even though it's for illustrative purposes only - Any 80's-90's metal fan is going to know who this is after about 3 notes into the lead (or you shouldn't be calling yourself a metal fan).
LIVE RECORDING - 6.25MB
Over the summer, I was asked to run live sound for a single show of a band featuring a guy I worshiped as a guitarist - I've met a lot of "people" in the business... He was one of very few where I was obviously "star struck" at the time when I first met him (probably 15 or more years ago) and I haven't seen him since that quick handshake and autograph.
Anyway - Right before sound check, he leans in and says "Hey - Can you record this?"
*Can* I?!? Holy crap... He had no idea the joy and utter terror that little sentence brought me... "Hell yeah!" I said. But of course, I didn't want to give him the board mix... I hate board mixes. I'd rather take a blind guess.
So, I did...
Live to two-track, essentially *blind* mix (headphones only, and during soundcheck in the same room) *from two aux sends* (aux 3 L, aux 4 R, mixing them together at various levels for panning).
No EQ - No compression -
No monitors - NO second chance.
Although one of the hats is a little hot (It was added after soundcheck, and not that it really bugs me) it's the perfect example of *the artist's* influence on he recording. Sure, you could change this and that - I'd love to have a whisker more bass and a whisker less hat, but that's the point - It sounds fine "as-is" and it'd *still* sound fine changed.
Of course, I would've given money to have a 24-track deck on hand at the time and would've gladly done the whole thing for nothing start-to-finish (because the guy was my freakin' hero). But the big point, is that it made a completely listenable product that I still rock out hard to in my car. It isn't perfect - But considering the technique and the gear selection -
Oh yeah - The gear... Five year old, beat-up Allen Heath GL2200 (cheapie board), Beyer M88 on the kick, 57's on the snare and hats, 81's OH, 504's on the toms, stereo direct bass, a pair of 57's on the guitar. Nothing that wouldn't be found in a thousand "budget-minded" home studios. An
Art ProVerb 200 (circa 1987) for a little verb (also very conservatively mixed in live). Out of the aux sends into
my MiniMe and straight into WaveLab at 44.1/24-bit.
And of course, a little run through the analog garden here...
And yes, it made a dramatic difference - But it had the potential already. That wasn't the point - This is about tracking. Although, this was tracked *and mixed* with no EQ or compression anywhere. The only EQ (very little for that matter) or dynamics processing happened here after the fact.
If I say so myself, I think it sounds fantastic for what it is - and pretty darn decent in the grand scheme. But I can only take so much credit for it - They were great musicians with a great handle on their sound.
I'll be more than happy to post a clip from some death-metal projects from 7 or 8 years ago (also no EQ or compression on the way in) when I get a chance if you really want it.
No need to hand-hold a jazz vocalist in fundamental microphone technique and then have to strap a ton of dynamics iron across their channel anyway just to keep the signal somewhere between the ditches because the singer couldn't work the mic right to save their life.
