recording eq. suggestions

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:38 pm

Hey, I've started a diy band that will only use live equipment, mainly to save money. We consist of a lead singer, singer/guitarist, singer/guitarist, singer/bassist, guitarist, and drummer. I was just wondering what we're going to need to record live and/or where I should go to find cheap equipment, that still has relatively good quality. As for a recorder we need a minimum of a 16 track with 16 playback and 16 input. We do not want a clean studio sound but instead a live raw sound. <b>We are a new band that does not know much, so any education would be greatly appreciated.</b>

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 7:26 am

If your mixing desk has individual pre-fader, pre-EQ channel outputs at line level (+4dBu), then take these to an Alesis HD24 (or better, HD24XR) hard disc recorder.

Alternatively, take them to 16-channels worth of FireWire interface for a PC.

Your sound will be determined by what comes out of the mixer, not by the recorder.

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:56 am

The ability to record 16 tracks live will be the deal-killer here. Most (all?) of the "bargain" 16-track recorders (Yamaha, Korg, Roland) only record up to 4 or 8 tracks at one time. Like Boswell said, you should look at the Alesis 24HD, which is great bargain. Than you can feed it from a suitable mixing board, preferably one that you will be able to mix those tracks back through when you're done. BTW, assuming that "live gear is cheaper than studio gear" can be a big mistake. And as far as sound quality is concerned, it's the old "garbage in, garbage out" deal. You put in "raw", you'll get "raw" right back.

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 4:24 am

They used to make recordings with one mic. I record all my bands jams. I do this with a pair of Samson CO2's in an XY pattern panned hard left and right, through a Yamaha MG8/2fx mixer to an iriver mp3 player. If you start with a great room set the drums up to sound good in it and then set the levels at your desk to sound good with a little headroom. Then set the amps up in relation to the mics as you would percieve them in a mix,ie drums centre to the mics, bass near the drum guitars left and right, pa,etc.I set all the volumes relative to the drums being the only instrument without a volume knob. All this is a compromise to having individual tracks for each instrument making it difficult to edit tracks later on (although you can clean up your sound a little bit with your software when you put it to CD later). BUT it is El Cheapo! and I've found quite an effective way to archive your progress or knock up a demo to get you some gigs. Taking the time to set it up and getting good sound levels really does pay off what ever level you are at, you can't polish a turd!

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 7:35 am

cheeseman wrote:

you can't polish a turd!

You can if it was a dinosaur turd, flash frozen during Noah's flood, as hard as a diamond. You can freeze a turd and try it, but it will eventually warm up and fall apart, or just smear all over your cloth.

I find that Turtle Wax is a good turd polish. I keep a bottle by the console here. When someone plays something crappy, I act like I am going to break it out and go to work.

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