Well, I find it hard to believe in this day and age that trash is a sonic goal anyone aspires to create? But I find that trashy sound comes from a combo of poor acoustic enviornment, cheap made instruments and gear going through crappy-ass mics, with inproper gain staging of the audio signal path, and recording all that on a cassette 4-trk recorder. Bounce the trackes back and forth a few times for an extra touch of thrash. Don't forget to MP3 it so that it really sounds like crap.

Re: How Do I record a Three Piece Band "Live" Tra

Tuck wrote: Im getting ready to record and i want to have the recordings sound like the White Stripes first album "White Stripes". The key sound that i want is 'trashy' i guess. im going to quite a few drum mics and condensers. im going on to 1/4 reel to reel with a 14 track mixer then mastering to a Tascam 424. im going to be recording the guitar, vocals, and drums all at the same time and then doing what ever optional things that i want later. so what i want to know is what mics to use and what compressions to set up for this. Thanks
Tuck

Any chance you can list the mic's/outboard gear you have available? Also..what kinda board it is?

AudioGaff wrote: Well, I find it hard to believe in this day and age that trash is a sonic goal anyone aspires to create? But I find that trashy sound comes from a combo of poor acoustic enviornment, cheap made instruments and gear going through crappy-ass mics, with inproper gain staging of the audio signal path, and recording all that on a cassette 4-trk recorder. Bounce the trackes back and forth a few times for an extra touch of thrash. Don't forget to MP3 it so that it really sounds like crap.

*lol*

Gaff,

I'm a little perplexed. Did you purposely forget to mention that you should (after 4-5 generations of tape) Then compress the SH** out of it so you end up with 2 solid bars of audio crap that are REALLY LOUD before you convert to MP3 or were you saving that for a follow up mastering question? Just curious.

Phil

pmolsonmus wrote: Gaff,

I'm a little perplexed. Did you purposely forget to mention that you should (after 4-5 generations of tape) Then compress the SH** out of it so you end up with 2 solid bars of audio crap that are REALLY LOUD before you convert to MP3 or were you saving that for a follow up mastering question? Just curious.

Phil

No, I didn't forget. Mastering usually makes things sound better which is obviously not the goal here. And using compression to make it louder would make it appear to most people as sounding better which again, doesn't seem to be true to the sonic goal but if trashy dynamics is really needed/wanted then this might be a good candidate for using an old Alesis Micro Series Limiter...

The best way to get any sound is to make sure it is there before you record. So be sure the band is not well rehearsed and drunk. Get them high on pot and pills if possible..

Next be sure all the instruments are not in tune with each other. Guitars should be tuned as low as possible to insure there is no tension on the strings ...

Be sure the gain stageing is out of whack ... Pump up the levels to clipping at the inputs and turn down the masters and sub faders.. generate as much white noise and hiss as possible.. If your recorders have DBX, engage it when recording and then turn it off for playback...

Maybe you can set up a white noise generator run through a noise gate triggered to open whenever there is signal present?

Hope that helps ...

Someone asked what i was recording on. Im recording on a 14 channel Mackie mixer on to a Stellavox 1/4 reel to reel and then on to a Tascam 424 4 track master. Im getting a set a drum mics and i have a Scheops 444 and a Shure condensser. But im getting a bunch more mics not including those drum mics.

I'd say use a 57 mono OH, a LD condensor about 3ft outside of the kick..and another LD on the snare top..

For guitars just use a 57 and for bass use a LD.

Most if not all of this sound will come from the band more than what you do....an API console wouldn't hurt...

Cedar? You suggested "The best way to get any sound is to make sure it is there before you record. So be sure the band is not well rehearsed and drunk. Get them high on pot and pills if possible.. "

How uneconomic of you, take ALL the booze, pot and pills and just give them to the engineer! Then it doesn't matter how the band sounds anyway.

(I should know, voice of my wild youth experience talking here ;-)

Takin' it a day at a time...

im not like for like a totally trash sound. the type of music im going is lo-fi/garage like the White Stripes.

I would say the Stripes sound is fairly sophisticated in the manner that it's trashy.
I would recommend goboing the bass and guitar amps away from the drums and consider putting the singer in the control room. Get a little bleed from the git into the OH drums but not much (about the same as grace notes on the snare, if that). take a DI signal from the bass pre eq (for low end) and roll some of the sub 100 hz off the cab so that the kit doesn't shake too much. Set the guitar amp distortion 25% cleaner than the player sets it (you can OD a mathcing track later that will give it a killer crunch OR treat the recorded signal)(that or send a signal to a 2nd amp in another room with a more distorted setting).
Treat the room and make sure the room sound is good. Mike up all the drums close, the amps close. Set up a couple of room mics that capture room trash to mix in to taste.
I think you should go multitrack instead of 2 track.
Good luck, tricky job. David

what he said!