What equipment needed to creating a band scratch track

[texasfm3]

Hello,

I have been making demos of our band for quite a while now. The problem is that even though everything is mic'd up. There is still bleed on the channels due to all instruments playing at the same time. i am wondering what other equipment i need in order to make a scratch track and thus allow me to create the recording of each instrument that I need that are not gated to much or bled over when I am mixing them.

I currently a have computer that is firewired with a Phonic Helix 24 channel board. It has 16 XLR inputs and thus 16 channels that can record at the same time. We run the mains into a power amp that then gives us a live sound thought the PA speakers. I then take these 16 channels and mix and master them down. Of course dealing with all the bleed and gated vocals is a problem, but it makes for an alright demo.

Talking to a friend, he said that when he recorded at a local small studio in town they made a scratch track and thus the instruments and vocals were direct input and recorded along side the drummer while his tracks were being recorded. While everyone was playing they were wearing headphones and were able to hear everyone else as though it was a live sound. The recording of the drums thus did not have any bleed from the other guitars and was all drums plain and simple.

After the recording of the drummer each remaining player came in with his true amplification and listening to the recorded scratch with his part muted he then played along with the music to get a good recording done of his instrument.

After all parts were dubbed these are what would be mixed and mastered. The final product was very nice

My question is what other equipment do I need to be able to do this.

I was looking at a headphone amp as I am assumming this is needed, but how do I use it in my current set up. Do I still leave all XLR's hooked up to the mixer the same way. I am assumming yes or else I will be unable to record into Adobe Audition. To dub each piece after wards, how do I play the music and record at the same time. This seems like a really dumb question and please forgive me if it is, but I simple do not know. I guess I set the channel that I am recording on up for record and unset the recording option on all other channels. Hitting the record will play the other channels while the one channel is recording????

I am confused and please forgive me, but this scratch tracking is a nugget that I am trying to understand to create better recordings of our band.

FM3

 

[eighteez]

Our band does this too.

We do it in one of 2 ways when we want to record some or all of a rehearsal.

***The headphone way***

Just like you said. Each member wears headphones. The signal comes from a headphone amp. We have this one.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Behringer-Powerplay-PRO8-HA8000-Headphone-Amp?sku=240109

Obviously you don't fire up your mains.

Run the guitars and bass direct. Either thru line outs from the amps. Pods. Gnx units. Whatever. There is a lot of direct guitar gear avail now. It’s mainly just so your drummer can hear while you record the drums in the first pass. The guitar/bass players can record their stuff over the top later. Of course if they use direct capable gear to play anyway they can go ahead and knock that out now. The key is they are playing silently while the drums are recorded.

The singer can be moved to a different room if possible. Even being on the other side of a single insulated wall may be enough to get them from bleeding into the drums. You also don’t want the drums bleeding into the vocal mic.

Mic up the drum kit and record them as you normally would. The drummer is hearing the rest of the band in his phones so he can play normally.

Hit record and play.

When done you'll have your drums, vocals, and possibly throwaway guitars/bass recorded.

Delete the guitar and bass tracks (if you recorded them at all) and overdub those separately. The guitarist can listen back to the mix on headphones while he records his part.

**The Separate Rooms Method***

This way is the same except the guitars go ahead and use their main amps. Just wheel them to a separate area where they won’t be heard by the drum/vocal mics. Large basements with multiple rooms can do this. You may need to be creative with building something around the cab so you can crank it up without it bleeding all over the basement.

Record everyone playing at once. The vocal mic and drum mics just need to be far enough away and have enough deadening crap between them and the guitar cabs so you don’t have bleed.

This method is harder.....

Hope this helps.

 

[texasfm3]

Thanks for the insite...

I am starting to get a feel for this.

I do have 1/4 inch direct ins on the Mixer board. I am thinking I will put these to use with the guitars and bass... and have the vox move to another area so that he will not bleed on the drums. This will give us that cleanness for the drums.

We will then overdubb everything else so that we can get that up an working good. Thanks for the insight... Will up date when we get something going...

FM3