Live Recording

[TechZilla]

Does anyone record their bands perfomances live? If so what Gear/Methods give you the best results?

[anderbass]

Ok...
I do most of my recording with a live band, in my home studio.

I originally started out a few years ago with a lowly 4-track cassette, and then slowly worked my way up to this 24 track system using an Alesis HD-24 (adat) recorder with several various outboard mic-preamps.
This 24-bit recorder uses two (hot swappable) IDE hard drives and can record all 24 channels simultaneously for hours on end.

I mix down with a 24 ch. console (with outboard FX/processors) into a standalone CD burner.
So far, I'm not using my computer for recording at all, but I've been thinking about looking into some mastering programs.






24 track recording gear:

Console:
Allen & Heath GL 2200 (24 ch.-10 bus)
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Recorders:

Alesis HD-24
Ampex 300-2,(1/4") transport
2-Ampex 351 electronics (black dot)
Tascam CDRW-700 (CDR)
Sony RCD-w1 (dub deck)
Sony TC-we435 (casette)
___________________________________________

Mic-preamps:

Groove Tubes "The Brick" (4)
FMR-Really Nice Preamp
Joe Meek Twinn-Q
Ampeg 351-black dot (2)
ATI M-100
Symetrix SX 202 (2)
M-audio DMP-2
M-audio DMP-3
Yamaha MLA-7
Studio projects VTB-1
ART- tube m/p (2)
___________________________________________

Mics:

Beyer-Dynamic:
M-700
M-600-(sound star III)
M-88
M-69
M-400-(soundstar-II)-(pair)
TGX-480

Sennheiser:
MD-441
MD-421-U5 (3)
MD-421-II
MD-21-(2)
MD-531-(2)
MD-405s
E-609-silver
MD-512

AKG-3600

Shure:
SM-7
Unidyne-III 545-(6)
SM-58-(2)
unidyne A 5805a
Unidyne B 58sd
Unidyne c 5895
414a

E-V RE-11

Blue Ball

A/T 220XL

Oktava MK 012-(2)
Studio Projects B-3
Studio Projects C-1

___________________________________________

Compressors:

FMR-Really Nice Compressor
Joe Meek Twin-Q
DBX 128
Ashly CL-50
Behriger composer mdx-2100
Alesis CLX-440

___________________________________________

Reverbs, FX and EQ:

TC electronics M-1
TC electronics M-300
Lexicon Alex-(2)
Electro-voice EVT 4500
Rane MPE-14
Univox pro-verb
___________________________________________

Monitors, playback and PA:

Mackie HR-824
JBL 4311-B
M-Audio BX8
Carver Amazing silver
Bang & Olufsen beovox 545
DCX CM-17
EV-SH1502ER
JBL MR-825

[TechZilla]

WOW, That may yield some decent results.

We're way behind on the cornucopia of gear but we do have a decent live setup. For the most part we've been running direct from our board to a recordable CD. We've had OK? results with this but it takes alot of digital doctoring to make it sound live and adjust for the room etc.

Our next experiment may involve using a separate mixer to combine the direct feed with mics placed in the venue.

We have discovered that we learn a great deal from recording our shows. Mostly, what needs fixing as well as some motivation to clean up our playing and crowd feedback that we may not notice during the show.

We've stumbled across a few jems but we're always looking for a better process.

Thanks for the detailed post its a great list of potential additions to our setup.

[Dave Muscato]

We've done some very decent sounding live recordings with a dinky little Olympus digital voice recorder. Our has a stereo microphone built-in, and you'd be surprised at the quality of the recording if you feed it with a couple of Shure SM-81s (using a little Rolls two-channel mic preamp):

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_se...p?product=1153

I also have a Presonus Firepod (8 mic preamps with Firewire) A/D converter. Once I get a better computer (I'm using a 4-year-old iMac), I would like to record some live stuff with Cubase or Garageband or maybe even ProTools.

Right now, we are using the Firepod for band practice (Roland TD-6SXT electronic drums, Line6 POD Pro for guitar, and Line6 Bass POD xt Live for bass, with a Shure Beta 58 for vocals), and recording to that little Olympus. I don't have any audio samples handy but I'll upload some later. If you wanted to record live, if everything's running into the board, you can easily just plug in this little guy to the CR outs. They're only about $130, and all you'd need otherwise is an insert cable and a 1/4" male to 1/8" male adaptor to make it happen. If you're playing live and everything isn't mic'ed, you can use something like the Firepod (Presonus makes a smaller one with fewer channels that's a lot cheaper) and mic everything into there, or alternatively, set up a pair of Shure KSM-44s, or some Shure SM-81s or even just some SM-57s a high up on boom stands, few feet apart & pointed at the stage. It depends on what you want to do with it. It's quite a bit cheaper to record the room, or the mix from the board, than to keep all the channels separate for mixing later.

[bassbrock]

Two condenser mics used in an XY stereo configuration can yield amazing results for live recording.

[BetterBottomEnd]

Yeah I'd blend two room mics with an out from the board. Mix levels will certainly be different depending on the room and what not but having room mics will also help you get a feel for the crowd interaction. Video taping could certainly help with that too.

[TL5]

Originally Posted by bassbrock

Two condenser mics used in an XY stereo configuration can yield amazing results for live recording.

Great suggestion.
Two cardioid condensers XY (as suggested) is a great method.

I like a Baffled pair of small omni condensers (A-B Stereo with a baffle between). The DPA Microphone University has a great section on stereo recording techniques. IMHO, too many rush into multi-tracking when a simple stereo technique could get surprising results.