What equipment is necessary to record a group?

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dmt

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I am a music therapist, and have done some recording with individual clients. I am used to using garageband as the software, and have used either an alesis i02 express or a very simple imic as my interface. I often use the different tracks on garageband to allow for a clean sound. I'm really, very, very, very novice when it comes to recording.

But now I'm going to be working with a group. Money is not necessarily an object, as the organization is submitting for a grant for the equipment, so we can dream big even if we don't end up getting it. They are adults with down syndrome, and they have been accustomed to "performing" shows for their families. Now we want to step up and have opportunities to record. They have created a music video, using already pre-recorded music, and now they want to be able to create music videos and make the music themselves.

There could potentially be guitar, live drums, piano, and up to 10 vocalists. Is there anything I can do to record multiple 'live' instruments and still be able to balance those tracks separately? Or, let's say, I had a drum and guitar track down and wanted to record the group of vocalists singing - how do I allow them to hear the existing track and sing along with it - without the first track being "re-recorded" on the second track and muddying the sound?

I don't know if I'm making any sense - but if anyone can at least point me in the right direction, that would be fantastic.
 
There are a few ways...but the current norm is to use a computer with a multi-track DAW (Sonar, Pro Tools, Samplitude, Reaper, Cubase...etc), and since you want to record multiple sources at the same time, you will need a multi-input analog-to-digital converter card/box. Probably at least an 8-channel A/D, though if you plan on having a lot of sources, then consider a 16-channel A/D (RME, MOTU, Lynx, Mytek, Layla...etc).

You will also need some kind of headphone cue/amp system so you can provide cue mixes to the performers, and a bunch of headphones.
Add to that a bunch of microphones, and if the A/D converters don't have built-in preamps...then you will need as many preamps/channels as your sources.

That's the very basic start-up...
 
Mike and miroslav - that is very helpful. Thanks!!
Mike - your brief thread of an overview of recording that you posted is probably one of the clearest and concise that I have read on the subject - very nice.
 
There's a special new mic out for this, called a "Group Microphone". 'Saw one on CSPAN under an MSNBC reporter's armpit during a Congressional coffee break. You might be inclined to call it a bug, but it's definitely not. It's a Group Microphone.
 
I do location recording whenever I can. This is somthing that I really enjoy doing, so I make a good offer to the bands in the area here and, when done, most love the work. I use a couple of Presonus products for the recording (a Firestudio, actually two of them, and a Digimax FS). My typical project is about 15-16 channels of mics. I record to Reaper software and have enjoyed it quite a bit. As for the Presonus, when the product works it's great, but, when it needs tech support it's a lot of wasted time as they don't answer the phone, don't return calls and don't respond to emails, so, getting problems taken care of is a big problem. It's been this way for the several years that I have owned the equipment. I haven't been able to get my gear to work with my new computer properly and no response from their tech support dept. It's great gear when it works properly though.

You can go to my site to listen to some of the location recording that I have done in the past (one song was recorded in 1975 or so, the others using the gear I mentioned above). Go to page 2 Richard King Media | Media Conversions and Location Recording Services
 
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