hey everybody, I just put together a band and I've been reading up on some of the posts on the board that ppl have put up who have similar questions and I just thought it best to tell you what I have and see what you think I should do... *takes breath* lol ohk here' goes...
we are a rock/acoustic/blues/heavy rock... I don't even know how to describe it in terms of genres because I hate genres... we are unique let me just put it that way... anyway I am the rythem (sp?) guitar and lead vocals - Jon (20), while Tod (23) is the lead guitarist and the drums are played by Derrek (21), we have a bass player who will be playing seperately for the demo... all three are VERY accomplished musicians and all but the drummer write music... the drummer plays his own style and has very creative, flowing yet sincapated (sp?) drum riffs that he uses...
ohk that was the band in a nut shell, here is what I have in means of recording eq and mics... I run my DAW with a 3000+ Athlon and 512 ddr ram, in this windows bassed pc I use a Delta M-Audio 10/10 that is then routed from a Mackie 1400 series (6 XLR inputs and 14 total inputs I believe which are 1/4 inch). I then have two condensor mics, one is a Audio-Technica 3035 (or 3530 I don't remember the name) 10 db cut off with bass cutoff... and the other is similar in style. I have a four piece Audio-Technica drum mic set (two tom mics and two snare mics) I then have three Sennheiser vocal live mics 825's I believe, and an SM57. . sooooo
here are the questions - with this equipment... how would you set up a drum set for recording (one floor tom and 5 cymbals) - would you record a rough draft of the song so that the drummer has a mix to listen to? what order would you record in? percusion - bass - guitars - vocals?
I want a good live sound that is full of energy and inspiration I don't like the polished-over glazed-over robotic full of nothingness sound that you hear on the radio so much these days, when we play live, the few times that we have, we have brought the crowd to an uproar and the demand just "one more song" so we are musicians fully capable of the inspiration I just don't want the demo to sound dead, or caught up on the imperfections of the music so much that it destroys the feel...
anyways, who is brave enough to tackle this request? lol
Comments
Where the hell is the info about the, and I quote "EP that will
Where the hell is the info about the, and I quote "EP that will inspire"?
I guess you figured you would use a catchy subject to sucker people in. Guess that makes me a fish.
Anyway, in answer to your question I would set up the drum kit mics. Work on getting a decent sound from those. I'm confused as to why a set of mics for drums would only include two tom and two snare mics and no kick drum mic, but I digress. Mic up two of the toms and the snare and the kick, using one of the snare mics. To pick up the cymbals and stuff, take two of the sennheiser mics and fly them over the drum kit as overhead mics or you might want to try using just the AT 3035...it might sound better. That right there takes up 5 or 6 of your mic inputs on your mixer. You could always change that set up to use mics on just the snare, kick and overheads. You wont get great separation of everything but it frees up some mic inputs for other things.
Put the 57 in front of the lead guitar. Stick a remaining mic on your rhythm guitar. If the Bassist has a DI ouput on his rig, use that to record the bass. For Vox, use whatever mic is left.
If you are low on inputs but really want to separate the drums, mic them all up, and record...just the drums. Everyone can play along but when you record, record just the drums and maybe the bass. Then once they are done you can add in the guitars and vocals afterwards, playing with the recorded drums instead of the live drummer. I know that's not ideal when you are looking for a great vibe but you have to make do with what you got. You will probably want to record the vocals separately so that you can focus on them without worrying about playing the guitar.
I've really only given a couple suggestions here and there are probably 100s of ways of doing this. Hopefully this will give you a place to start and you can move forward from there.
in response to JWL's post, I agree with your thoughts on being a
in response to JWL's post, I agree with your thoughts on being an engineer and being the musician, I can hear things that I want to happen and put those into sounds but for some reason it is difficult for me to mix my own work... I need a seperate engineer, who knows though I have never recorded a full band yet, so this may turn out better than mixes have in the past, (I am a very critical musician :-() but more advice is needed so carry on folks!