What to rent..

[mwarkentin]

Looking to record my band separately. Have access to a Mackie 1604 VLZ-Pro, 2 Behringer Ultra DIs,1 AKG C1000 condenser mic, 5 Shure SM58's, several 57's and an unknown mic used for kick (the 57s and kick mic are from the local guitar shop).

Planning on renting a Korg D1600 (used this last time, liked it a lot). Also planning on renting another C1000 so I can use them for overheads on the drums.

Now I'm planning on using at least 4 mics on the drums..

OH - 2 C1000s
Snare - SM57
Kick - kick mic.. i'll try to find out what kind it is..
I may also try micing the toms/hihat, but not sure.

I'm planning on using several tracks on bass and guitar as well. DI + mic'd cab's.

I think my main stumbling point right now is preamp(s). Should I rent one? More than one? I read about a Marshall one on here with 2 channels, which sounds useful to me. Should I rent one of these, use it on the OH's for the drums, and just go into the Mackie with the rest of the tracks? I could also then use it for everything else as well... oh so confusing.

Edit: Oh yeah, we'll be recording some pretty loud, screamy (mostly) kind of stuff.. you can check out 2 of our songs at www.sharpspoonmedia.com/nonplus/

 

[TexRoadkill]

The pre's on the mackie will probably be fine for most of the stuff. You might want get something more colored like a JoeMeek for vocals or different effects.

The 58 should work well for screaming vocals.

Are you doing the mixdown also? I'm not familliar with the Korg but you may need some outboard effects and compressors.

 

[mwarkentin]

I'm planning on mixing on my computer.

Should I get a compressor which I'll use for certain things while tracking? ie. kick and snare, vocals, bass... ?

 

[TexRoadkill]

It gives you more flexibility to wait until the mix to add compression. If you have some good compression plug ins then you should be okay.

Do you have a way to transfer all the files to your computer?

 

[mwarkentin]

I'm planning on keeping most of the effects until mixing.. but I was wondering about for stuff like vox and bass.. if I should use some compression, just to keep the levels under control.. make sure there's no clipping, without keeping the trim turned down too low.

The Korg allows you to burn all the tracks separately as .wav files.. it's very nice.

 

[littledog]

If you haven't had a chance to "play" with whatever specific outboard compressors you might be able to find, chances are you will do more harm than good. A limiter might be useful on certain tracks if the dynamic range on the song is huge, but otherwise, just try to set your input levels conservatively to allow for any sharp transients.