Mobile Recording

[Space Pickle]

I'm becoming interested in doing some more mobile recordings of my band...I'd like to try making a music video, but I'm not sure how to go about it gear wise.

For reference, I've recorded many times in the studio and am familiar with the process. I figure I need about 12 mics to do my band (4x vox, 2x guitar, 4x drums, 1 or 2 on the bass). I have a Zoom H6 with the attachment that adds 2 more mic preamps. Initially I was thinking of buying a second one and running them both, but now I'm wondering if there is a better solution out there. What do you guys recommend? Laptop + interface? Those rectangle field recorders like the Zoom F8? Some kind of larger console-looking thing?

As I see it, here are the pros and cons:

Zoom H6: I assume this has the lowest quality preamps, although it would be the cheapest option. Trying to sync the audio on the computer afterwards would likely be a headache.

Laptop & some kind of interface: I don't have a laptop and don't really want to buy another computer, but I figure this would probably be the most expensive option although likely the best.

Console: These kind of intrigue me, I see Zoom and Tascam both make consoles that record directly to SD cards. Not sure of the quality, they're the medium price option. I'm kind of leaning towards this right now, as you can mix on the console without need of a DAW.

Field Recorder (Zoom F8 etc.): I'd need two of these I think, it's probably not worth the price as they would run me the same expense as buying a new computer and interface.

I do have an old Yamaha 01V, but it's much heavier than I care to transport and connects to an old Tascam DAT tape machine, so...a bit obsolete.

 

[bholder]

I'm planning on trying something like this with my Zoom Q8 video recorder - I also got the "2 additional inputs" attachment (fits the Q8 partially - works fine, just can't close it) - I got a little Behringer Xenyx compact 12 channel mixer I was going to use to pre-mix down to 4 channels (using the main outs and control room send outs). But if you want the 12 mics recorded each in their own separate tracks, that's tougher. I'm not sure even the SD card consoles can do that.

 

[DirtDog]

I’d be looking at any of the 12+ input digital mixers that have onboard multitrack recording capabilities. Something like the Presonus AR16...

Any way you look at it, you’ll need to do some heavy post processing of audio and video to get to your final product.

 

[Space Pickle]

Thanks, I'm leaning towards the Tascam Model 24 right now, but I have another question:

Given that I already have an H6, is there any 4 microphone configuration I could set up to capture the stage sound? If I cut it down to 2 vocals, that would leave me with four available preamps. Something like I mic between the 2 guitar amps (positioned close together), 2 mics on the kit, and one on the bass amp? Or would this likely not be much of an improvement over using the stock Zoom stereo mic.

 

[guts]

For making a music video, you generally don't record the music on location. You add the music in when you're editing the video.

I mean you can if you want to but it's probably going to sound worse and definitely be a huge headache.

 

[DirkP]

I'd say for this purpose one of the Zoom LiveTrak recorder would be the best option. The L20 has 16 mic inputs, records up to 22 tracks at once on sd-card or a computer. The H6 has rather good mic preamps, not on par with Sounddevices and the F4 and F8, but very good in comparison to the ones on the R8, R16 and R24 and on other mobile recorder. But for band recordings the Zoom Livetraks are very tempting. 6 independant headphone amps with 6 independant monitor mixes!!! I'm not 100% sure, but I have read somewhere that the mic-preamps are the ones they use on the F4 and F8.
I like those small field recorders and use my H6 a lot of the times, but for serious band recordings with 12 mics the F8b etc. are too expensive and too limited featurewise. These are made with fieldrecordists, mobile interviews and film-sound in mind, musicians not so much.
Another option: use an interface like the ones from Motu (Ultralite or 828 for example). And record with an iPad. These are very flexible because of all the routing options, but you have to master them!

 

[GlassToMouth]

I've had fantastic results with my Behringer X Air X18 mixer recording my band into Reaper on my laptop. I've gotten great compliments from folks on the results I've gotten. I've gotten quite comfortable simultaneously running sound for my band and getting clean recordings for the past 6 months. My next goal is to start building up camera equipment and I've started messing with Adobe Premiere. Very powerful program with lots of tutorials available.