Capuring Live Sound

[kyral210]

Ok, I need a fast response for this one!

My band I Am No One is playing a very important gig next Saturday, and we want to record the live sound. I know that the basic answer is 'take a line out of the mixing desk into a recorder', but what kind of recorder, and what is the best way to go about it?

 

[Lincoln]

if you have enough tracks use a DI signal and mike your amp. Is this with an engineer or DIY?

If it's DIY add in your compression afterwards and not live.
Use a good DI - like a Countryman and if you can beg, borrow or steal a decent mike for the amp you'll be in good shape - rent both if it's in the budget.

 

[kyral210]

Were already DI'ing into the mixing desk which pushes the sound out to the venue's PA. We need to know how to capture that mixing desk sound.

 

[stranger0]

mini disc?

if you have a mac book and an interface with enough channels, why not run it to a laptop?

 

[seanm]

Check with the venue. They probably already can record the gig for a fee.

 

[hunta]

mini disc?

if you have a mac book and an interface with enough channels, why not run it to a laptop?

Doing a full track by track feed into a laptop would obviously be ideal, but assuming you don't have that... Mini disc would probably be the easiest option. You'll probably need an adapter for whatever feed they're giving you (XLR or RCA or whatever), to mini-plug for the recorder.

 

[bluestarbass]

The line off the board is not always a great idea. I find that it sounds kinda sterile. Better bet is get that sound of the actual PA speakers. Get a little zoom h2 or h4, or a mini disc player with a stereo mic. Find the ideal sound space, usually near the mixing board, set it to record and there you go. With a unit like the zoom you could also take the feed off the board using just 2 cables, but it has the added versitility of having built in mics.

 

[Thunderfly]

My band The Basis have recorded quite a few gigs through line out to mini-disc, then I've recorded that into my PC (through a programme like Audacity, and a simple line out from mini disc to sound card) and then you can burn them to CD's, MP3s or whatever, as well as meddle with the sound in the programme itself. I've found it only useful to do this though if the gig you're playing has the drum kit miked up too as you'll lose a lot of that.

Also, be wary of what you say between songs, we've lost some good recording demo material to us not being very nice to each other/the crowd during songs and the bloody vocal mikes have snapped it up

 

[kyral210]

Ok, I have got a minidisc from ebay (£21, $42) with analogue line in, so that should be fine. We actually fun drums from a computer (programmed with Drumkit from Hell!) so everything is like playing live in a studio! Lets hope it all works out great!

I will post some mp3's of our gig here when we have it done.