It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Recording live and recording all instruments separately is a different game. The spill picked up in other mics can actually add to the ambience and sense of space .... it can be a pain in the arse if you need to heavily compress the vocals and there's a ton of cymbal spill in the vocal track but spill in guitar mics and others can actually add nicely. Of course spill is a no no if you record to a click and want to move drum hits around and time everything up afterwards but that's a whole other long trip down a rabbit hole
Being old and all I can tell you basically in the days of 4 track recording we used to sub mix the drums, bass and guitars done to one stereo track called the backing track and that left you the vocal on it's own track and backing vox .... the solo's would then punch in and out between vocals.
A: Samples are to augment the live performance. They're not replacing anything. I didn't mention overdubs. OP did in his subsequent posts when he talked about recording guitars at home. What I suggested wouldn't necessarily require any overdubs. It depends. And The idea that it wouldn't sound anything like his band... that's preposterous.
B - Such as?
C - No. It would take a couple of extra days. It's really not the earth-shattering amount of work you're suggesting. I've done it many times myself.
D - Quite possibly. But I see no reason to discount the OP's abilities. Plus he could always get someone else involved to help out.
E - LOLOLOLOLOL!!! That's funny. Almost like you're trying to suggest there is only one way to make and enjoy making music!
FWIW, I did suggest borrowing an additional Zoom as an alternative. I'm well aware that there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to the art of recording and mixing music.
But really... in the current year, what I suggested was not as crazy or radical as you suggest.
Also, OP is in a stoner rock band. Those bands play LOUD. You guys are downplaying the severity of bleed I think. It's going to be quite severe, especially in a small room, and especially with condenser microphones.
Another thing to do would be to just use room mics. Put one in each corner of the room, and phase-align and mix them later on, coupled with the X/Y on the Zoom itself, that would give 6 tracks to work with. If you can't get a great mix out of that, then more schooling is needed I'd say.
We plan on doing a few proper studio recordings later on down the line, for now this is just a DIY patch to show people what we sound like and give a fair representation of what to expect if foolish enough to come see us live
With Stoner stuff you very often have a busy low-end, so think about what you want the focus to be in the lows. Kick or bass?? If kick... mic the kick. If bass... mic the bass, or take a DI. You wont need to worry too much about the snare I don't think - snare is the one thing that will cut through in a live context. Particularly in a small room.
X/Y: Drum OH's or general room sound - make a decision on the day as to what sounds the most balanced. Position of the H6 is going to be uber-critical here.
XLR 1: Kick or bass, depending on what you want to be the focus of the low-end
XLR 2: Snare - being able to add a bit of snare transient back into the mix will be beneficial
XLR 3: Vocals - sounds like you're after a "live" vibe, so record the vocals
XLR 4: Guitar
That's how I'd tackle it.
Compression is going to be your friend on the X/Y recording. A bit of tape saturation too.
Make sure you set your Zoom to record in 24bit WAV. Easy mistake to make.
Thanks for all the advice in this thread, hopefully I'll be able to put it into practice this week.
Edit - like an idiot I completely forgot I could use my laptop and 2 channel interface to let me record every channel live. As you say sync in post is easy and I'll now have enough channels to play around with and use dedicated spot mics for the drums
Will have another attempt in a few rehearsals time. As we have 2 guitars and bass I'll do my bits at home to save an input for the snare. Need to figure out a better overhead position for the zoom i think. And definitely without vocals. I underestimated how much spill would come through his mic.