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I will start by listing my initial plan for a set up.

Large condencer mic on 15" sub/bass.

Smaller condencers on guitar
and drums. (Needing some advice on placplacent for a small kit )
Dynamic mic for the Bass drum.

All running into my Mackie > saffire pre>Live.

I'm also wanting to record the room with a Zoom field recorder. Perhaps at the front of the stage? Not really sure where to place it for a nice full recording.

I then plan to mix the bass,guitar, and drums stage appropriate on the mixer, and then overlay the 2 recordings.

What do you guys think? Time and equipment is limited to what I have. Any experience doing something like this?

It's a very musical recital hall luckily.

How many condensers do you have to spare between the guitar and drums?

Which dynamic mic are you using for the bass drum?

Personally I would use the zoom field recorder (the one with built in stereo condensers, right?) as a room mic. I don't know how you're arranging your instruments geographically or what the room dimensions are, but you could try having it facing the opposite wall with its null point facing your instruments/sound sources from a distance. Alternatively you could have the mics facing everyone as a full-band mix.

I have 3 condesers, 1 for each. I do have more dynamics available, I have a SM58 a senheiser, and a couple less appealing.

That's what I was planning to do with the zoom, record the room and overlap the recordings, using the zoom to fill out the track. Just not sure the best place to put it.

Depends a lot on the room, but I wouldn't put it near the stage, I'd probably place it at least halfway across the room and centered with your band's setup to get an even stereo spread. I might even put the mic behind a buffer of some kind to minimize the direct instrument's sound.

You could also consider using the Zoom on the drums, unless you definitely want a mono drum track.

I have also thought maybe the 2 pencil condensers on the drums and SM58 on guitar?

Also field recorder I'm using is now a Tascam DR-40. If that matters at all.

Psyre wrote:I have also thought maybe the 2 pencil condensers on the drums and SM58 on guitar?

Yeah that's totally doable. Are you familiar with the Glyn Johns drum recording technique? If you can spare three mics on that kit you can get a really great sound.

I'll look into the technique tomorrow at work when I'm setting up the Live session. I'm pretty limited on time, 2.5hrs. But we are hoping to get 2 tracks recorded. (About 7 minutes each)

The music is really verby with delay, so I definitely feel the room recording is essential.

Psyre wrote:I'll look into the technique tomorrow at work when I'm setting up the Live session. I'm pretty limited on time, 2.5hrs. But we are hoping to get 2 tracks recorded. (About 7 minutes each)

The music is really verby with delay, so I definitely feel the room recording is essential.

It's pretty cool, just be sure to bring some measuring tape to make sure you're phase-aligned. Does the 2.5 hours include setup time? Hopefully you have some helpers to expedite the process.

Yeah if you're recording atmospheric music, I can't recommend recording room ambiance highly enough. If any of you use reverb pedals, I might suggest adding those effects in mixing, or at least turning them down more than you would in, say, a basement. Reverb echoing off a very live room can get muddy in a hurry.

Good luck!

Yea, 2.5 total. Luckily we are all fairly competent and can get ourselves set up.

I really appreciate the help, true friendship

No problem, lemme know how it goes

friendship wrote:

Psyre wrote:I'll look into the technique tomorrow at work when I'm setting up the Live session. I'm pretty limited on time, 2.5hrs. But we are hoping to get 2 tracks recorded. (About 7 minutes each)

The music is really verby with delay, so I definitely feel the room recording is essential.

It's pretty cool, just be sure to bring some measuring tape to make sure you're phase-aligned. Does the 2.5 hours include setup time? Hopefully you have some helpers to expedite the process.

Yeah if you're recording atmospheric music, I can't recommend recording room ambiance highly enough. If any of you use reverb pedals, I might suggest adding those effects in mixing, or at least turning them down more than you would in, say, a basement. Reverb echoing off a very live room can get muddy in a hurry.

Good luck!

What this man said!
It might be good to use more dynamics on the drums. pencil condensers on toms can sound cool, but i try to avoid using them for anything except acoustic stringed instruments, or spot mic'ing cymbals/overheads etc.

The condensers are going to be best served as overhead mic's on the drums and/or room mic's for everything. If you can scrape together or borrow some 57 or 58's for the guitars and bass you will be in good shape. The Glyn Johns technique suggestion is a good one. It's easy to do, but takes a little time.

So overall it went pretty well. We had only played the song about an hour prior to this attempt. Definitely should help us address how to further it. I'm by no means a drummer, but this definitely sparked my interest in playing drums more than once every 4 years.






[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/tyler-darnell-1/part2[/soundcloud]

it sounds like the guitar is only being heard through the room mics/bleedthrough. Maybe it's just me though - the bass and drums sound good.

Great room sound, well done!

How much if any mixing did you do on that clip?