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Recording in a Metal Pole Barn

TwentyHz

TwentyHz

Apr 9, 2011
372
459
Yellow Springs, OH & Newport, Ky
www.youtube.com
#1
Hi TB'ers. We're ready to do some recording soon. For a variety of reasons we prefer to find someone to come to us and capture a live feel in our practice space, rather than pursuing the studio route or a live recording during a gig. We understand we are giving up many advantages of a studio recording re: fidelity, bleed-through, post-production edits, engineer's tools etc.; this is our preference.

If we were still rehearsing in the concrete bunker we used to play in, we'd have no question for you. But, our current space is a big metal pole barn, and we're pretty loud.

Based on the limited info here and al the unknowns, is it your general opinion that:

a. the metal barn would have a significant negative impact on the results, regardless of the sound engineer's expertise, equipment, or strategy

– or –

b. that with those variables reasonably managed, the difference between a pole barn and another room can be proportionally small, compared to the difference between studio vs. live.

Or, of course, as a realist...

c. Some other opinion about this topic, about the wisdom of our preference, or about our professionalism, seriousness, morality, talent, or artistry… or jokes about the best barn for metal, carrots, poles, etc. ;)

Some details: We're a three piece. We have a heavy-hitting drummer, I'm thru a Hartke LH100 pushing a couple o' Hy-Drive 4x10s… Guitarist is sportin' a 100w Marshall DSL into a 1960. The barn is roughly 40 x 60 x 18. The barn is red, my instrument cable is a Lava Blue Demon, and I'm a Sagittarius.

Thanks!
 
#6
That's a big space for recording a three piece, which offers a lot of advantages. The key is going to be minimizing the disadvantages. All of the following is my guess as to how I would set everything up initially, and then would tweak to taste:

The first big step is going to be to remove excess "stuff" that's sitting around the building. Being a barn of sorts, I imagine it's used for more than just band rehearsal. You want the floor space to set up effectively. Once all of the instrumentation is setup, start bringing all of the excess "stuff" back in to act as rudimentary diffusers. They won't do much, but it's better than having a bunch of parallel walls causing flutter echo. You'll still get a lot of that, especially considering you're in a metal space which is highly reflective, but it will help. Bring back "stuff" that makes the room sound better to your ears, and leave out anything that makes the room sound worse, again, to your ears. If it's something that makes a lot of rattling noise, just leave it outside.

Next, I would start by NOT setting up in the format you normally do while rehearsing. You're most likely going to want the kick drum centered in the space as much as possible as it is the most omnidirectional instrument in the mix. You're also going to want to put the bass amp in a relatively centered portion of the space, likely behind the drums entirely. You don't want the bass off to one side or else you'll end up with low frequency content bleeding into one drum overhead more than the other which will skew the stereo image. The guitar amp can go on either side of the drums, but definitely don't put it out in front of the kick drum. I would put it on the ride cymbal side of the kit rather than the hi-hats as they tend to get used more than the ride by most drummers.

You're going to want to create SOME separation between instruments. For that you'll need gobos (also called go-betweens). You can make these out of very rudimentary elements, and even things like modular office cubicle walls will provide better results than just having everything out in the open air. Do what you can. If you can't find anything to use as gobos... Well... Keep your fingers crossed for good results and hope that your engineer knows how to use gating without it sounding awful and "pumpy."

Now for vocals... Forget them. Do them later on their own. You could do them in the same space if you want, but wait until the instruments are done and you'll get much better results. The same goes for any guitar solos.

Finally, make sure your mic selection is appropriate for the task at hand. Whoever you hire should have enough gear to close mic every piece of the drums, and at least a pair of overheads. I'll often individually mic the hi-hats and ride cymbals, but only rarely use them in the mix as opposed to just getting it done with the overheads. More options at mixdown for this type of setting will be a major help. A single mic on the guitar amp usually gets it done, but combinations of mics can yield nice results (a dynamic and a ribbon for instance). If the bass can go in via DI, all the better. If you're insistent on a mic, that's fine, but try and pair it with a DI as well for reinforcement of the lowest lows as needed in the mix. The drums don't have a volume knob, and in my experience, neither do drummers in general. They're the only acoustic part of this thing, unless you have acoustic guitar happening on some tracks. With that in mind, just like at a live show, only bring the guitar and bass amps up to as much volume as is needed. Guitar amps are tricky as many of them simply don't sound good when turned down. Do what you can, but know going in that you're going to have bleed from basically all of the sources in virtually all of the mics and your engineer will simply have to work within the bounds of those limitations.

Overall I suspect that the end result will be very reverb-heavy, which may or may not be okay given the desired sonic character. That said, I think if you're proactive to the limitations of the space, you play well, and your engineer has enough gear, ability, and experience, there's no reason that recording live in this type of space can't yield good results.

Good luck!
 
#8
I wouldn't separate the cabs. Sure you'll potentially balance out the amount of added low frequency content in the drum overheads, but you'll also be introducing more opportunities for phase issues with your bass reflecting all around the space. In this case, asymmetry is a good thing. The overheads will likely have a high pass filter applied in post to help with the low end bleed, but you won't be able to do much to fix the damage caused by the increased echoes and phase cancellations. Keep the cabs together and set the volume only as loud as is absolutely necessary. If you're going DI through your Sansamp, I'd consider going cab-less and have everybody wearing headphones. You'll likely already have headphones on if you're recording to a click track.
 

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