Topic: recording my friend's band (with a sample now)

[gkatz]

ok updated situation. i now have some behringer c-2 card's, and denecke ps-2, along with the SP-BMC-2's and a chuch BB. I already tested the rig with my home stereo system, fairly loud. my friend's party is next thursday finally! and here is how I think I should set up. I can hang the soundpros from a rafter about 7' feet up, split 3 feet or so, and put the behringer mics in DIN at the "stage lip" about 10 feet from the band, 3 feet or so high. the band will have probably 3 amps, 2 guitars and a bass, and drum set. but to my surprise! the drummer is only using brushes. SO my fears of the room being overpowered are much less now. THe band members are going to let me tune there amps as well for optimal sound, and are not concerned about it being too quiet. I will run all the mics into a mixer I have and do line out from the mixer via a darktrain dual RCA --> 1/8 into the mic in on my laptop. using cubase to record. DOes this sound OK? I also have a berhinger usb device that has dual RCA inputs, which I could also use.

I hope this isnt too many questions haha, just looking for ways I can get a decent pull with these mics.

thanks,
gabe

[crazifyngers]

The mic in on the laptop will work but probably does not have the best S/N ratio.  that being said i would still use it and the usb audio input.  my reasoning is this, first time and trying to mix on the fly is gonna be tough.  if you get all the audio then yoiu can mix in post.  also recording is a learning experience.  I have only been taping for a year and a half and i have learned quite a bit.  even the bad recordings i have made have taught me the shit that i shouldn't do.  one piece of advice i have, to get vocals make sure you have mics that will pickup the PA.  that was a mistake i made in the beginning, instruments are often not miced in small venues but vocals usually go through the PA.  good luck and welcome.

[runonce]

ok updated situation. i now have some behringer c-2 card's, and denecke ps-2, along with the SP-BMC-2's and a chuch BB. I already tested the rig with my home stereo system, fairly loud. my friend's party is next thursday finally! and here is how I think I should set up. I can hang the soundpros from a rafter about 7' feet up, split 3 feet or so, and put the behringer mics in DIN at the "stage lip" about 10 feet from the band, 3 feet or so high. the band will have probably 3 amps, 2 guitars and a bass, and drum set. but to my surprise! the drummer is only using brushes. SO my fears of the room being overpowered are much less now. THe band members are going to let me tune there amps as well for optimal sound, and are not concerned about it being too quiet. I will run all the mics into a mixer I have and do line out from the mixer via a darktrain dual RCA --> 1/8 into the mic in on my laptop. using cubase to record. DOes this sound OK? I also have a berhinger usb device that has dual RCA inputs, which I could also use.

I hope this isnt too many questions haha, just looking for ways I can get a decent pull with these mics.

thanks,
gabe

It sounds wildly half-assed IMO...like you'll be nuciance to everyone - and the band. What does "tune their amps" mean?

Drop this whole 4 mic routine...

Just put the C2s on the stage, facing the either side of the drummer, not right at the drum kit, but not right at the guitar. - and mix in your board feed.(probably just vocals?)

Even better, if there is enough room, put the mics behind the guitar players - You'll get a clearer backline, and less monitor interference (this is generally hard to achieve on a lot of stages)

Dont be afraid to separate the mics - if you get too far left or right, just use the pan knobs to bring them back together.

...depending on your mixers inputs, you may need to run the -10db pads on the C2s

When you set up this close - there's no magic mix percentages here...just set your levels for each source as if you were recording them independently.

You can use headphones to check, just make sure you are getting enough vocals. I can pretty much do it right with just the meters - but not all mixers have good metering. So YMMV.

Use the USB interface for sure.

Not sure why everyone is so afraid to mix on the fly,...especially in what seems a pretty casual environment.

Go for it...

[gkatz]

ok updated situation. i now have some behringer c-2 card's, and denecke ps-2, along with the SP-BMC-2's and a chuch BB. I already tested the rig with my home stereo system, fairly loud. my friend's party is next thursday finally! and here is how I think I should set up. I can hang the soundpros from a rafter about 7' feet up, split 3 feet or so, and put the behringer mics in DIN at the "stage lip" about 10 feet from the band, 3 feet or so high. the band will have probably 3 amps, 2 guitars and a bass, and drum set. but to my surprise! the drummer is only using brushes. SO my fears of the room being overpowered are much less now. THe band members are going to let me tune there amps as well for optimal sound, and are not concerned about it being too quiet. I will run all the mics into a mixer I have and do line out from the mixer via a darktrain dual RCA --> 1/8 into the mic in on my laptop. using cubase to record. DOes this sound OK? I also have a berhinger usb device that has dual RCA inputs, which I could also use.

I hope this isnt too many questions haha, just looking for ways I can get a decent pull with these mics.

thanks,
gabe

It sounds wildly half-assed IMO...like you'll be nuciance to everyone - and the band. What does "tune their amps" mean?

Drop this whole 4 mic routine...

Just put the C2s on the stage, facing the either side of the drummer, not right at the drum kit, but not right at the guitar. - and mix in your board feed.(probably just vocals?)

Even better, if there is enough room, put the mics behind the guitar players - You'll get a clearer backline, and less monitor interference (this is generally hard to achieve on a lot of stages)

Dont be afraid to separate the mics - if you get too far left or right, just use the pan knobs to bring them back together.

...depending on your mixers inputs, you may need to run the -10db pads on the C2s

When you set up this close - there's no magic mix percentages here...just set your levels for each source as if you were recording them independently.

You can use headphones to check, just make sure you are getting enough vocals. I can pretty much do it right with just the meters - but not all mixers have good metering. So YMMV.

Use the USB interface for sure.

Not sure why everyone is so afraid to mix on the fly,...especially in what seems a pretty casual environment.

Go for it...

ok thanks for this help. as far as I know the band does NOT have a PA, just the backline, but my friend says he may be able to run the vocals through these largish bookshelf speakers. as far as "tuning" the amps, I meant only volume wise, sorry about that. I was wondering how the amps should be set up in relation to the drumset. THe room is maybe 15 feet wide and 30 or 40 feet long. They are going to set up at one end, with the drumset back near the wall. Would that cause some weird echoes if the drums were too close? keep in mind the drummer is using brushes only.
Should the two guitar amps be on either side of the drumset, spread out some? I figured I would put the bass amp as far from the drums as possible, and the vocal speakers on either side as well?

oh and how far apart/high should the mics be? would DIN not be a good choice?

thanks agian

[gkatz]

so this was my first real venture into "live" recording. the sound system turned out as follows: two guitar amps on either side of the drumset, the bass amp on one side and what happened was we ran the vocals (two dynamics) into an extra bass cabinet they had. so the vocals are what I think are most lacking in the recording.

I ended up clamping the C-2's onto the center vocal mic stand, about 2.5 feet off the ground maybe, in the XY configuration. I think XY helped eliminate most of the drunken chatter (not the loud yells hahah, as you will hear). I really had low expectations for this recording. this was a house party, as I mentioned earlier, alcohol was involved, so the band's performance was not quite up to "standards."  it was an awesome party though. the band had to since break up due the the members going to different colleges.

any comments/tips/ridicules on the samples would be greatly appreciated. I recorded "on the fly" with sound forge 9.

I guess I'll post an mp3 sample for now.

http://rapidshare.com/files/418112334/cowgirl.mp3

[gkatz]

and don't be afraid to reem this recording out. I wanna know how I can do better in the future with what I have.

[live2496]

It turned out pretty good all things considered. If you had a mixer and could have blended in a direct feed from the vocal mic you could have placed the vocals more up-front. (Or alternatively placed the mics closer to the "mic amp".) Other than that I don't know what you could have done to make a better recording with what you had to work with.

[gkatz]

yea so I was doing some editing in audacity trying to bring out the vocals. I did a high pass filter to try and make them sound better, and also experimented with the FFT filter. this made it a bit better. any other advice? does sound forge 9 have some better features?