recording a band w-o headphones

11
How would you suggest setting up the vocalist (also the guitar player in this case)?

I was considering using a u67 on his voice, but I'm worried that there will be a lot of bleed. Also, I'd guess I'll be setting him (and possibly the other band members) up with a floor minitor so he can hear the vocals.



n.c. wrote:can't see any reason a setup with everyone playing live without headphones and the singer singing live without headphones wouldn't yeild great results.

my only suggestion would be take carefull note of stereo bleed issues, or whatever.... like, if the guitar/bass amp is on the right/left of the drumset, make sure to be aware of this when panning those instruments in relation to the overheads and any room mic's...... this would be one of my prefered recording setups, actually. Enjoy!

nathan
Justin Millar

recording a band w-o headphones

12
Ausgang wrote:How would you suggest setting up the vocalist (also the guitar player in this case)?

I was considering using a u67 on his voice, but I'm worried that there will be a lot of bleed. Also, I'd guess I'll be setting him (and possibly the other band members) up with a floor minitor so he can hear the vocals.


I think you'll have the most success with a hypercardiod vocal mic - the Shure beta mics are cheap and live soundpersons use them all the time. Remember that hypercardiod mics pick up sound in the rear, so you have to watch where you point it.

I've done recordings like this a couple times and they came out great - I'm sure the performances were better for it. I used floor wedges for the vocalist and drummer and the bleed was minimal.

Have fun. -Charles

recording a band w-o headphones

13
i would have the room set up like how you are going to be mixing/listening to it on the monitors/stereo, pan the guitars according to the bleed favored on that side of the drum overheads, one famous engineer mounted a mic inside of a motorcycle helmet to help isolate the bleed for live vocal takes. it was a sm 57...so the u67 might be great, but condenser mics are so sensitive to cymbal bleed a sm7 or re 20 might have a more a useable bleed...just thoughts.




----gtr amp w/ figure 8--gobo--drumset--gobo--gtr amp figure 8----


-----------------------------------bass cab----------------------------------
-------------------------------------mic--------------------------------------



the figure 8 pattern is great at keeping out most of the kit, the bass usually ends up in the center when i mix so i place it in the center of the room/drumset facing away from the drums, ideally this will have the bleed be somewhat uniform...the hardest thing for me in this situation is a cymbal basher and a quiet vocalist, then things get interesting...find the spot that the vocal mic also sounds good as a room mic, that has worked well for me on numerous occasions...be patient and persistent! good luck.


one to on....sheesh
myspace.com/trackandfieldrecording
http://www.myspace.com/monsonia

recording a band w-o headphones

14
Man, I do this junk all the time, with less to work with. I hate recording with headphones, and wouldn't want to put anyone else through that kind of misery.

Hired Geek's setup suggestion is good - but you might get a lot of guitars in the OH's unless your gobohs are like, 8 feet tall. Which defeats the purpose of having the guitars together in the first place.

I like to put goboh's around the drums instead of the guitars. Try to keep the bass cab as far from the drums as you can, as long as the drummer can still hear/see the guy. If possible, try to keep it quiet. That's your biggest bleed problem, for sure - omnipresent, omniscient bass frequencies.

I like to set up the guitars with the backs of the cabinets together, facing towards opposite walls, perpendicular to the drummer's line of sight. I record bands that rely on their feedback a good bit, and this gives the guitarists full access to their cabinets.

For vocals, okay, I've never done this, but I've seen/heard it done. Condensers are a bad idea. Let the dude get up on a good dynamic - the ones I've seen most often in my limited experience are 421's, 441's, RE20's, SM-7's. Unless the band uses pop filters live, I would discourage their use as well. Set up another, perhaps crappier mic as close to the good one as possible and run it through a pa so everyone can hear it.

Basically, check out how the band practices, and modify it as little as possible to please the purposes of recording, without making the band uncomfortable with the sound/feeling. If they close enough to their practice setup, they'll get a much better recording than if they're unfamiliar with click tracks, isolation, and headphones.

You might want a mono room mic to make everything "gel", and you certainly sound like you have the equipment/tracks for it (i don't, usually) - but I think you'll find that recording this way gives you a perspective - lets you hear whats really important, and makes your recordings simpler, more efficient, and easier to mix.

Hope none of that's redundant, I'm on my 3rd espresso machiatto of the past 2 hours, and I haven't had caffiene in days, so I "speed read" the earlier posts.

Oh, and PM me if you want to hear some stuff I've done in this manner. In a 2 car garage with a tascam 388, and no mics that cost over $150.
HotATLdiy|HAWKS[/img]|[url=http://www.myspace.com/blamegame]Blame Game

recording a band w-o headphones

15
The Audix OM7 is a low-gain mic you have to eat to use. It is pretty good at rejecting loud 'stage' volumes. Using one, and working with the bleed, might be an alternative. Crown makes a decent phase-cancelling mic that works maybe a little better, but can make the vocal sound kind of hollow.

I think this is a cool approach to recording...like how it sounds when the band is actually playing. What a concept.

recording a band w-o headphones

19
skatingbasser wrote:Look up Bill Porter techniques. The "disapperaing drum kit" discussed here not too long ago (involving placing a figure eight just right in relation to the drum kit so there is cancellation) sounds perfect for your task of having to record vocals with everything else.


This technique is quite uncanny when utilized properly (Mr. Porter was one of my instructors back in the day), but it becomes difficult with extremely high volume bands. It can sort of work, still, but be prepared to spend lots of time tweaking it...amp placement, volumes, etc. We ended up pointing our amps at the ceiling...

Bill is a great old guy.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests