Recording Live Mixing Problem

spencer · #1 07-11-2007, 10:07 PM

I run sound partially for sunday morning church and all the time for Wends night youth service. Im haveing a problem when it comes to mixing the recording. This is mainly on wends night, because I run sound loud then. The problem is when I try to record, Its hard to hear the recording through the headphones, FOH sound passes right through them sometimes ending up with no bass or no piano because I think I hear it! Im not sure what I could do to fix this, one thing would to put a monitor in a seperate room but I would still have to be at the Mixing Board to adjust the volumes. I don't think there is a "simple" way to allow mixing of the recording to be in a different room. Are there any suggestions that I can try? If there is something cheap that I can buy I will and if its not so cheap the church will probably pay me back, I don't want to go to extreme I just want my recordings to come out decent.

driver800 · #2 07-11-2007, 10:19 PM

probably the best solution is to get some isolation headphones. a quick google search turned up a few good links:

http://www.extremeheadphones.com/

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...nes?sku=443954

I have some Sennheiser hd280's that I've used live before. They claim 32db attenuation, but that's mostly for higher-frequency. You'd probably be lucky to cut out 10db of the lower tones like bass and piano. Still, it's better than trying to do it with regular headphones.

edit: another idea...does it need to be in stereo? if not, send the bass and keys to the left channel and everything else to the right channel. you can mix them to mono later.

spencer · #3 07-12-2007, 09:30 AM

I'll look into some of those.

As for the Mono thing, well I really have a problem with all instruments but the hardest thing is bass and kick drum because the headphones can't make the low frequency's and the real bass and kick drum pours right through. My last recording had way too much of both and this one had none. Also I don't think there is a way I can not do it in mono. I have two options, burn it straight to a cd burner, And I think the sound board sends it out in stereo but the recorder only has a mono input so we use an adapter, [I think] Or I can record it on my laptop but with it haveing only one input whats the use?

OriginalCrash · #4 07-12-2007, 09:40 AM

Some good isolation headphones are definitely the way to go here, even if they don't solve the problem entirely. Are you there to run sound when they practice, as well? If so, try recording then, too. Part of it may be learning how to "adjust" for what you're still hearing through the headphones. Example... my dad does a lot of the recording at our church. Like the previous poster mentioned, he puts the vocals into one channel and the music into the other while monitoring the recording (due to the way our church's humble recording gear is set up). It then gets mixed together later. He's spent enough time working on it that he's gotten to where he can hear it one way and, at the same time, "hear" how it will sound once it's mixed together. Good luck, though. If only we could all have soundproof, isolated recording studios!

Brian

driver800 · #5 07-12-2007, 09:43 AM

One inherent problem with headphones is that they just typically don't reproduce low tones very well. So it's never comparable to a big speaker.

If there's anyway you can position yourself behind your "backline" when monitoring for recording levels? That way everything projects forward and you temporarily walk behind it to adjust levels for recording. It may help some.

spencer · #6 07-12-2007, 01:44 PM

Yes Im there for the practice, I guess I could get better at it just from experence, its just I hear so much more of the live sound than I do of the recording, that I think I hear an instrument but it turns out thats just from the PA. On Wends nights I push about 106db in the back of the place which is probably about 100 ft away, but im really bad at judging distances, so it could be +/- 50ft. And on Sunday mornings I run it at about 90db. I think I could just go early and Turn off the PA while they practice so that way I just hear the headphones.

See most of the time I don't even go to practice and then just wing it when they begin to play, im pretty good at it but I know its not the best way to do things. Then you have to figure out who is on what channel because an extra guitarist showed up and is being micked into a vocal channel and the lead guitarist is useing the Pastors mic ect. I guess I should just start showing up on time and doing like I mentioned before.

fenderhutz · #7 07-12-2007, 01:47 PM

this may sound silly but use an old VCR as a "ADAT" machine. Most VCR's have an awesome built in compression and just then run the sound out to whatever you want to record to. I have done this many times when a decent compressor isn't available and got a good compressed even sound that can be then loaded onto whatever medium you need.

anderbass · #8 07-12-2007, 06:24 PM

+1 on the isolation headphones, and you could also try patching a dedicated EQ, to bring the kick and bass frequencies way-up, only in your personal headphone mix.
(patch EQ between your consoles headphone output jack and your headphones)

You would need a 2 ch. EQ, and two (commonly available) 1/4" FX-insert cords and a balanced 1/4" female to 1/4" female adaptor.