Recording a live band - need some advice.

[larry_emder]

Hi all,

Am planning to record my father's band live this weekend. They are playing in your run of the mill pub.

This is the gear i've got:

2 X MSH-10 Omni condensers
Audiobuddy Dual Preamp
Tascam DP-01 (8 track recorder, 2 tracks simultaneously)

Various cables

Also have a behringer dynamic mic but doubt that this will factor into the equation.

Another important piece of information is that only the vocals (3X) and 1 X Acoustic guitar goes through the PA.

Here are my 2 recording options as i see it:

1. Put both MSH mics up in front of the band and PA, and capture 'what the audience hears'. I was thinking of hanging the 2 mics from the roof on either side of the PA about 10 metres back, and somehow finding a good balance of sound
My main worry with this technique is that it will just be too difficult to get everything sounding even.

2. Take a line out from the PA to the recorder, and use one of the MSH mics to just record the drums, bass amp, and 2 X guitar amps. Again, positioning of this mic would be fairly crucial and tricky to find a balance.

Anyone have any experience with recording a live group???

What method would you choose to give the best balance?

I realise that both methods will require a lot of trial and error (and are likely to sound not so great), but i'm trying to be as prepared as possible before i go in there.

Thanks heaps if you can help

 

[muttonchopsrule]

Re: Recording a live band - need some advice.

i'd first try option 1. just place the mic's like you said and pan them hard left and right respectively on your recorder. it sounds off, take a couple minutes to position the mic's if you'll have the time to.

you'd be surprised how good a simple stereo recording can sound, even though you won't be able to do any mixing afterward. mic placement is key.

 

[larry_emder]

Re: Recording a live band - need some advice.

Cheers mutton. I'll definately bring my headphones as well and try and get them to do lots of soundchecks!

 

[jlaarod]

Re: Recording a live band - need some advice.

Umm...if you have a good headphone mix, I would use the first method and pan hard left and right, respectively, then use the line out from the board to back up the mix. This way you double the tracks...

I've personally used line out to do all of my live recordings...The best method in my opinion is getting a firewire setup to run with your pc.

--Aarod

 

[sstanfield]

Re: Recording a live band - need some advice.

Here's a third possiblilty:
I hope I remember this correctly, it's been 25 years!
I did the sound for a friend's band and I got surprisingly good recordings using my home stereo cassette recorder. I ran the PA into the Line In on the back of the recorder, then I put a mic in front of each of the two guitar players plugged directly into the tape deck (my Sharp tape deck had separate mic and line inputs). The three open vocal mics did a pretty good job of picking up the bass and drums.