buddyrich wrote: hi everyone.
this is the situation:

My band is trying to record a demo with quality enough to avoid the use of a studio. In the band there are 2 guitars, bass, drum kit and vocals.
to record drums we can use. 2* sm 57, beta 52a, 2*C1000S, and 4* md 421
guitars- sm 57
vocals- sm 58
and we could use the PRESONUS FIREPOD. ( http://www.thomann.de/iw_smb_suche.html?SUBJECT=KOMFORTSUCHE&iwid=10&SUCHBEGRIFF=presonous+firepod )
the software would be cubase.

is it possible to get a demo with good quality?
p.s: we can record instruments outside the drummer´s house.

thank you

after closely analizing your post i have come to the conclusion that the answer to this question would be
yes...

A couple quick questions.
1. How many instruments can you record simultaneously. How many inputs does the firepod have?
2. What are you using for a Mic pre-amp?
3. I am going to go ahead and recommend in your situation to layer the tracks and record each player seperately. Due to the obvious environmental constraints, I don't think you will be happy with the end product playing together as a group. You may be able to control environmental factors better by recording individually.

My two cents worth.

we re going to record instruments seperatly.
the firepod has 8 inputs (to record drums we need all of them).
the firepod has eight high-quality PreSonus microphone preamplifiers.

thank you.

more opinions?

buddyrich, you can't fool me. I met you when you wrapped up your show with your famous 20 minute long drum solo, while rolling your snare drum with one hand at the Masonic Auditorium in Detroit in 1970. That was so cool when you shook my hand! But I thought you were dead??

Anyway in answer to your question, you have at your disposal an absolutely excellent recording system there that should yield you totally professional excellent results.

Now the basic problem here is, you have 8 microphones you want to record on the drum set and only eight inputs to record with. Quite frankly, it's much more cohesive when the entire band can track together at once. So here is my recommendation.

You will record 4 tracks of drums i.e. bass drum, snare drum, overheads utilizing your C1000S's for overheads, beta 52 for bass drum and SM57 for snare. Or, try the MD421 on bass drum and on snare drum. One of my favorites. So, use those SM57's for the guitar cabinets and 421's on snare and bass drum. You could probably plug the bass guitar directly into the 1/4" combo input? Or perhaps his amplifier head may possess a balanced or unbalanced 1/4" or XLR output that would be great. Of course your live reference vocal on the SM58 as you so brilliantly surmised!

Now you track all of this live. Do it a couple of times and get a good groove. You'll now have a marvelous 8 track recording. You might even find the drums sound totally adequate with just 4 microphones. They should.

Now since you are using this lovely audio interface, if you decide that any parts of your track session needs any overdubs, you'll be there man. Want to replace the drums? No problem. You can also then replace the guitars, bass and vocal, in perfect synchronization to an already good take.

Once you have everything tracked and overdubbed, remember the KISS principal when you start mixing. LESS IS MORE when it comes to equalization, effects, compression and limiting. Assuming you are a live oriented band? I would assume you want to represent yourself as you basically appear alive? So you are not trying to be steely Dan here and shouldn't be.

I think you'll find that you want to add a fair amount of compression to the vocal. It will always help it to sit better in the mix.

Happy new recording year!
Ms. Remy Ann David

Think of it this way. There are three things you get when you go to a studio.
1. equipment
2. good acoustics
3. experience and knowledge in recording and mixing

As other posters have said, your equipment is fine. Studios will have better, but yours is good enough to produce an excellent demo recording if the other two items are taken care of. In fact, focusing on gear is more likely to be a barrier to a good recording than the quality of your gear.

I'll skip item 2, but you shouldn't. Think about spaces that you can beg, borrow or ... borrow... that sound good.

So, item 3 is the key here, and the point is that you can get the experience if you simply practice enough. Of course, like music, talent and good teachers speed things up. But (again like music) practice is the key. Case in point: Remy is right - recording one track at a time is a skill that takes a lot of work to master. You are better off tracking "live in the studio" at first. (Note that this is no reason not to try recording separately, but you want the demo in the next year, prepare to record as a group.) The basic point is to get working at it and spend lots of time.

Good luck and merry Xmas.

ok,so...
1- the equipment is fine
2- acoustics- outside the drummer s house ( i think that s amazing, there are no hard problems with reverbation etc...
3- we re going to spend lots of time working with cubase, there s no problem...

thanks

p.s: RemyRAd... that s it... buddyrich`s the best.

Heck yeah, you can get a GREAT recording (not just demo quality, but several steps up) with what you already have...remember it wasn't too many years ago that folks were tracking to just 4 (like the Beatles, for example) and had to think up ways to use the other 4 tracks when 8 track came out.

4 mics on drums, 2 guitars, 1 bass DI, and 1 vocals. Play it all as a group -regardless of gear, your results will likely be much tighter, much more cohesive.

As for recording outdoors, I just WISH I could do it more...I read somewhere a lot of King's X drums were done outside....

Anyway, careful setting of mics to reduce (but not eliminate!!!) bleed and some care when mixing, and you'll end up with much more than a demo.