Hi!
Need a LITTLE more info!
Like:
What are you recording live ( a band-if so how big?) ( nature sounds?) (a sermon?) WHAT?
What gear do you have now?

sorry

Sorry. I figured you would as it is a very vague question and there are hundreds of answers. Ok. Its a church. We have an A&H GL2400 32ch mixer. DBX PA xover.... And thats really about it when it comes to what I believe is needed or matters when it comes to recording. We have about 7 singers each with their own mic. Im not using any groups so I can group tha back ups easily enough if I need to. Drums are mic'd. No gates/comps on anything. 2 overheads and each drum is mic'd. One electric one acustic guitar. One bass guitar. 2 pianos.... Thats it. lol.

Thanks for the speedy response.

Im wondering what we need to be able to record all or most of the channels one by one into pro tools. Dont have anything except for what I listed. Mixer, xover unit, instruments and mics... Of couse I have the pa system but I dont think that matters...?

Unregistered, post: 372529 wrote: Sorry. I figured you would as it is a very vague question and there are hundreds of answers. Ok. Its a church. We have an A&H GL2400 32ch mixer. DBX PA xover.... And thats really about it when it comes to what I believe is needed or matters when it comes to recording. We have about 7 singers each with their own mic. Im not using any groups so I can group tha back ups easily enough if I need to. Drums are mic'd. No gates/comps on anything. 2 overheads and each drum is mic'd. One electric one acustic guitar. One bass guitar. 2 pianos.... Thats it. lol.

Thanks for the speedy response.

Im wondering what we need to be able to record all or most of the channels one by one into pro tools. Dont have anything except for what I listed. Mixer, xover unit, instruments and mics... Of couse I have the pa system but I dont think that matters...?

Still curious what a good set up would be.... Also... If you had the money what would you buy to have a recording set up that you could take with you to different gigs or live shows? Say some one wants to record their CD live. But they already have everything in place. PA, Mixer, etc... What would you take to record their show?

Still wondering whats needed to record live. Also. If money wasnt an issue... What would be an ideal mobile recording set up? Say for example a band wants me to record their live event for a CD. They already have everything set up. Mixer effects etc. So all they want is to have everything recorded. Of course post editing will happen but to at least record with their set up what could one buy to easily integrate into any system to record the gig?

I'm rocking a Tascam US1800 as my interface for live recording. And if I have to burn a CD for the band at the end of the night, I just fire one off directly from the laptop.

I'll usually either set up two room mics somewhere and take a feed from the board, or i'll mic up certain pieces of the band/take the rest from the board. Occasionally, I'll use all my own mics and work it out - but this way is really hard because of all the reflections from the room.

I used to just bring my four track recording device and plug four dynamic mics in that were placed across the stage and record that way... wasn't all that bad sounding.

Here's a song from a live recording I did a couple of weeks ago: [[url=http://[/URL]="http://snd.sc/lS6xer"]BTH AfroFunk Band[/]="http://snd.sc/lS6xer"]BTH AfroFunk Band[/]

Unregistered, post: 373097 wrote: Still wondering whats needed to record live. Also. If money wasnt an issue... What would be an ideal mobile recording set up? Say for example a band wants me to record their live event for a CD. They already have everything set up. Mixer effects etc. So all they want is to have everything recorded. Of course post editing will happen but to at least record with their set up what could one buy to easily integrate into any system to record the gig?

To assure it can integrate with ANY system and improve your chances of a good recording, you need to be as autonomous as possible. You would need your own set of quality instrument mics / stands, and at the very least mic splitters for all the vocal mics. (and a soundman sympathetic/tolerant to the cause) Your own snake, your own mixer, your own signal processing, your own room or production truck away from the din, reliable monitors and headphones, and a recording system of your choosing. (computer based, hard-drive based, tape based).

The [="http://www.alesis.com/hd24xr"]Alesis HD24XR[/]="http://www.alesis.c…"]Alesis HD24XR[/] is still widely used among RO members. It can be patched into any good mixer that has direct outputs on every channel (such as your A-H GL2400 would have). Then transferred into ProTools, or whatever for editing. Recording success will depend on the mic-placement, gain-structure, general skills of the FOH soundman, and acoustic characteristics of the venue. I return my reverbs and delays to mixer channels and record them too, but a delay that sounds good in the venue may not work well for the recording. But since they're recorded separately, I can always replace them with something else later.

The [[url=http://="http://www.presonus…"]PreSonus StudioLive[/]="http://www.presonus…"]PreSonus StudioLive[/] is another format winning over some forum members (like myself). It makes a nice mixer and firewire recording interface in one.

The same could be said of the A-H Zed R16 which is another viable firewire recording option.

The [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.joeco.co…"]JoeCo Blackbox[/]="http://www.joeco.co…"]JoeCo Blackbox[/] recording interface also looks extremely interesting.

Like most, I would recommend some sort of redundant recording system. I have been using the Alesis HD24 and the PreSonus StudioLive - recording simultaneously to standalone hard-drive audio recorder and laptop DAW.

Live recording is a tricky proposition, anyone experienced enough to pull it off already knows what to bring and the thousand potential pitfalls. Most people seem to think you can just record the FOH mix from the board and be happy - rarely, if ever, is that the case. I'm not trying to be a buzzkill, I just don't honestly know how many opportunities you'll get if you're unclear on what it takes to do this.

Best of luck though!

What an awesomely informative and helpful post dvdhawk!

If I could add something to the gestalt of your process. It's such a huge question...

Compartmentalize everything. Divide jobs and think of them as subjobs of the main job. Take one element and draw or write or visualize what it would take to record that thing the best. Save those notes and move on to the next element.

When your done compare notes and combine. Your thought process at this stage should closely mirror the end process at least in terms of holy shit what's wrong?! and knowing where to go to fix it.

Again it's a huge question kind of like how do reach the top of mt. everest? Take it step by step man. You will make many mistakes.

The original poster kept mentioning the crossover in his existing gear.

Disregard the crossover for recording. That's there to split the lows and mids/highs destined for the PA. (Lows to subs/bass bins, mid/highs to full-range FOH speakers).

You won't use the crossover for recording.

Kapt.Krunch

Thanks dvdhawk. I just finished registering and I am the original poster. Really appreciate the info. And I see what Ripeart means as well. I understand there can be a million ways of doing what Im suggesting. Kapt.Krunch... Not sure why I kept repeating the xover. I know its not used in recording. Its more for the venue then recording. But thanks for pointing out my uneeded redundancy. lol. Also.... Sorry for the repeat posts. I forgot that they had to be accepted so I thought my computer wasn't working right.

My question really is a universal way to record in live venues. I understand it relys heavily on what is at the actual venue. Acces to cables, mics, etc. If I were to be asked to record a gig then I of course would make a list and go check out what they already have. I guess what Im looking for is a all around this could work with anything set up. Or at least key components that could work no matter the venue. Like what dvdhawk was saying. I know that the mics and preamps and etc impacts in a heavy way recording. But isnt that also the beauty of multitrack recording anything? Well.. Tom the bassist? He messed up on the chorus.. Every time we sang it. So what can we do to clean it up? Easy. Post editing. I think the great thing that live recording does is you get the FEELING of the event. Studio stuff is great too. And you can mix in the feelin as well. But its the live events that can be awesome as well.

A-H GL2400

I think that mixer has direct outs pre-fader. If so, that means anything the FOH guy does with just channel/bus/master faders won't affect the recording...but if he changes input trim, EQ, etc., it will. Even if he never touches it again, what might be a perfect EQ setting for the house PA may be horrible for direct recording.

If it's post EQ/pre-fader, you may want to think about splitting things before the FOH mixer. Of course, if it's pre-everything direct out, it will probably be everything EXCEPT the input trims? (Or, do some even tap out before that?) So, you'd have to watch that, though normally, once the input trims are set, they're pretty much left alone. So, you'd want the FOH guy to make sure all those levels are set, and won't need to be touched, before setting your own.

Without running all your own individual mics from all the guitar amps, drums and vocals, and splitting things like direct bass, keys, etc., you're probably best off splitting everything before the house mixer, if possible. Buying the equipment for that would likely be cheaper than all the mics, cabling, stands, etc., and sticking 5 or 6 more stands on the drums, alone, and trying to position them. (Yeah...wedge TWO stands into that tight little spot!)

As far as Tom, the bassist, screwing up? Though you may have a nice direct signal to work with, possibly on its own track in the multitrack recording...remember that there are also a bunch of other mics on that stage picking up Tom's flubs with his 2000W 7-foot-tall bass rig rumbling all over the stage. Of course, the lower the volume that Tom can play, the less that will be picked up and mixed in with drum and vocal mics, or even the guitar amp mic right next to him. Anyway, while some of that may be reduced, there's probably gonna be some that you just can't get rid of. You can always try to cut off the frequencies below a particular track's useful range in the mix, but with all those mics picking up at least a bit of it, you'll likely not be able to completely eliminate his flubs, even if he completely overdubs his parts, and you nuke his flubbed ones. He's messed up the other tracks. Tell Tom to learn his parts, and you'll record them after he does, so you don't waste your time. Tell that to all of them. In a diplomatic manner, of course.

Kapt.Krunch