it will cost alot. you should mention your budget and if your instruments are being miced already for the gig. if so, just use the house mix and record that onto a laptop and your good. if you want to be able to edit each instrument after the gig, though, than you might need to do it all yourself.

Let's see, today's April 1st and your show is April 7th. You haven't the slightest idea how to go about recording your own show, and you have less than a week to get ready. The answer is simple - hire someone who knows how to do it, and leave the job in his/her/their hands. Concentrate on doing the best performance that you can, and let someone else worry about the recording.

You don't say where you are located, and you didn't mention how many vocalists (if any) there are in your band.

You could do this with as little as 8 discrete tracks (with mixdown later, in the studio) or as many as 16, depending on the # of vocals.

I'd suggest something like this, depending on your needs:

1. Mic 1 guitar
2. DI 1 guitar (optional)
3. Mic 2 rhythmn guitar
4. DI 2 rhythmn guitar (optional)
5. Mic 3 Bass
6. DI 3 Bass
7. Voc 1
8. Voc 2
9. Voc 3
10. Kick
11. Snare/HH
12. Toms
13. OH L
14. OH R
15. Ambient Mic L
16 Ambient Mic R

Don't pass up using two ambient mics for the crowd. You'll want SOME crowd reaction stuff before and after the tunes, sometimes even during - for reactions to solos, etc. WHen mxing, you can bring these up and down as needed. Trust me, you'll be glad you mic'd the crowd's reaction to your stuff. It'll sound terribly dead without it.

You may not need the DI's on the two guitars, and you may not have three vocalists. If so, that would give you more inputs for the drums. (I know your drummer will probably want to mic everything in sight. :wink:

You can probably find a local recording company with a good remote reocrding package that'll be far more cost-effective that try to do this all yourself. (put that on your schedule for: "Someday".)

As has already been mentioned, you're better off concentrating on your music for now, and hiring a pro to capture it.

I have quite a good setup myself. We could record the band whenever we'd play live.

I really need someone other than the bandmembers to operate the whole setup. If I do all of this myself there is too much energy flowing in the wrong direction.

cfaalm wrote: I have quite a good setup myself. We could record the band whenever we'd play live.

I really need someone other than the bandmembers to operate the whole setup. If I do all of this myself there is too much energy flowing in the wrong direction.

Yep. I think it's a great way to learn: recording your own band or youself, etc.

You're right in that it can be too distracting. "Back in the day", we'd be at a club for several nights at a time. I'd plan on recording one or two of the best nights, giving me a night or two to set levels, listen, tweak again, and finally get some good stuff after some trial and error.

It's still easier to hire someone else, though. 8-)

i would say forget about recording this upcoming show yourself. hire someone to do it. but if you want to record yourself in the future, buy the gear and practice with it during a band practice. you'd be so lost if you tried to record your band for the first time at a gig.