recording live

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:27 am

hi....we are about to record a show which is not gonna be live but will be recorded and broadcasted. The song has one guitar, one piano, one drum set, and one bass player....making 4 people playing 4 instruments and one singer<playn and singing at the same time>. It will be recorded in a audotorium.. ..we will mic all instruments...can anyone give tips on how to capture the best sound so the intruments and voice sounds nice.....it is also a really slow low beat song....

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:30 pm

Stay away from studio quality esoteric condenser microphones but rather keep with good general-purpose microphones like the SM 57 and SM 58 for most everything. Maybe a pair of condensers over top of the drum set? Perhaps you can also track to a digital multi-track machine for later mix down? Then you can mix before the project goes to post, where your remix track can be laid in. Make sure to mix your drummer as the audience will see and hear it, not from the drummer's perspective which will be backwards to the cameras.

And if you are going live to 2 track, I would highly recommend inserting a compressor/limiter on the vocalist and some limiting on the bass player. Don't add too much in the way of effects like reverb and other fun time delay processes. Remember to KISS the production. As in KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.

You're going to do one of the things I have always done best and found the most fun with some of the greatest challenges. Try and set up everything as early as possible making sure everybody's monitor sound is good. Make sure you build in some headroom when the band starts to play for level check. Do not try to push it up as hot as you can as bands always seem to give more during the performance than for the soundtrack. You might even find the need to use a stereo bus compressor to keep things as consistent as possible?

We're on in 3, 2, 1
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:42 pm

RemyRAD wrote:

We're on in 3, 2, 1
Ms. Remy Ann David

I LOVE the custom sigs. Love 'em!

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