ZOOM MRS-4 Techniques

  • Thread starter Thread starter forcesofhabit
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forcesofhabit

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Hey I'm new here and have some questions about using this 4-track.

My band is getting ready to record a demo, we've ordered some better microphones and some impedance adapters and such so we'd like some advice on these things as well. I know the ZOOM isn't the greatest for sound quality but this is just for our demo so we don't mind having something less than spectacular just something that sounds decent.

We want to mic the drums and we only have two inputs. I figure one for the bass drum and one for the upper region. I've tried this before and managed to find a good spot arranging the mic is just the right position. Takes awhile but it works. Anyways, has anyone else tried this with good results? Any advice on recording drums with this?

We have one guitarist but we plan on doing some overdubbing (I think that's right). Basically all we want to do is when the distortion is on put the guitar on stereo panned totally to the left and right but the same thing on both sides. During clean the guitar is mono in the center. How would I go about doing this?

That's all I can think of at the moment. I'll be sure to ask if there's more. Thanks everyone.
 
I also thought about the possibly for the drums of maybe using more than 1 track and using say all 4 but then pasting all of them together into 1 and then continue recording from there. How would that work?
 
You probably should have posted this in the NEWBIE section. Oh well. The "upper region" is referred to as the "Overheads". You need a special mic for the bass drum. Pasting tracks is really called "bouncing" tracks. You got the overdubbing part right. I'm not real sure what you're trying to do with this "stereo" guitar/"mono" guitar. Explain?
 
Get yourself a cheap 8 channel mixer with stereo outs and plug that into your Zoom MRS-4.

That is the standard procedure for this sort of thing.

It is highly recommended that you mic the entire kit.

Short of that, you need to at least mic the overheads, kick drum and snare.


Get a good mix, and send it to two tracks on the recorder. The Zoom allows for up to 8 virtual takes, so take advantage of that and do 8 passes.

Use the one that works best.

DO NOT FORGET TO USE THE INTERNAL METRONOME FOR A CLICK TRACK!

Carl
 
It is highly recommended that you mic the entire kit.

Absolutely!

Short of that, you need to at least mic the overheads, kick drum and snare.

To mix to 2 tracks, make sure you turn everything off but the OHs, then mix them until the kit sounds "good" then bleed in the kick, snare, toms etc. only as needed to get the sounds you want!
 
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