A Recording Log, A live recording Options

[Staffy]

As some of You may know I recently bought a combined mixer/soundcard from Presonus (reviewed in the WIKI).
As a test I took it out yesterday to record some friends of mine as well as run their live sound.
The music itself was solely jazz (which some may not like, but thats not the point here) and is performed by
some of the top musicians in my area of Sweden.

Well, I got the idea to share this recording here in the forum along with the improvements, mixing and the final product and
I invite all interested taking part in the progress with comments, advices, ideas etc. Im not a recording pro, even though I had
a studio back in the eighties with analog stuff, but I think I know how the stuff works (or shall work at least)...

But before I actually start to describe the process so far, I want to show a pic of the whole rig (all equipment except the musicians own instruments) lying in the trunk of my car. As You can see its ultra-portable, but for small clubs it works excellent and gives a nice sound
if You dont play too loud.



The gear I actually used is:

Presonus Studiolive 16/4/2
Dynachord 2*600 W Power Amp
EV 200 speaker boxes
ASUS-G2 running Vista 64 with Presonus own program for recording "Capture" (even though Cubase or any DAW would have work)
and an external harddrive for storing the sound.
Some SM-57's for micing guitar
Stands for the speakers, mics etc.
Cables, of course

The singer had an own mic, the new Shure with phantom power. The bass player uses a DPA-mic (an active condenser mic) + a fishman mic. I decided to record both since the more channels and sources You have the better - then You can choose or blend them into each other. Same procedure was made with the guitar, we had one SM-57 close up to the guitar speaker (amp was Peavey Classic 30, guitar Gibson SG) and used the effect loop on the amp to record a line-signal.

So in total there is only 5 tracks to play with, but that can be challenging enough, especially in this kind of music where the sound shall be
as "natural" as possible.

The track list is as following:

1: Upright bass with DPA-mic
2: Upright bass with fishman-mic
3: Guitar, close miced with SM-57
4: Guitar, line out
5: Vocals

It's pretty easy easy to set up a mix that works live for such skilled musicians as these one's, since they are pretty much
adjusting their own levels and adjusting the dynamics in their playing by themselves rather than rely on a mixer guy.
A good rule of thumb when mixing acoustic music is to walk back and forth from the stage and different areas at the location, trying
to duplicate the instruments sound on stage in the P.A-system rather than "colour" it since this will sound most natural.
Also, its a good idea to keep the ears open for "bass-traps" and try to filter them out since these really ruins the sound when
the bass player plays certain tones. Another good tips here is to really focus on the vocals (if there are any vocals present).
I've been on SO many gigs that would have been really great if You just have heard what the vocalist is singing......
Another trick to do (if possible because of the guests) is to run the soundcheck a little bit louder and then back of the volume
when the gig begins. Then its easier to judge how the speakers/rig/EQ sounds at the location.

Anyway, the band played two sets and the microphones was recorded without any EQ or effects since this shall be done later.
I didn't use a microphone for the audience. If this was supposed to be a record, I would have though, since its nice to have
the sound of the audience that You can fade in/out in the beginning/ending of each song. The Presonus console streams audio
via Firewire straight to my computer and the external disk, and the recording went out with any problems except that the
bass player actually played harder on the bass than on the soundcheck. So I had to adjust that in the second song or so.
This is VERY important, since digital equipment cannot be pushed above 0 db level-wise, it will simply ruin everything. So make sure
that there is enough headroom for strong signals and back off the gain a little..... Of course a recording like this can be made
with any multi-channel soundcard hooked up to a mixer that have direct outputs on each channel, but watch out for the levels!!!

So now I'm sitting here with all the material and will soon begin to mix it, I will do it in two versions:
1: One version using just the Presonus console with built-in effects,EQ etc.
2: Transfer the audio channels to my "real" DAW (Cubase 5) and use other hardware/software to manipulate the sound.

Im posting the "raw" file here so You can get a grasp of what it sound like without no processing at all, eg. just the sound from the
mics itself. I will continue this thread in the next day's as I progress and any comments, thoughts & questions are welcome!!!

//Staffay

Here's the file:
Raw version of Route66

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!