FuzzBob wrote:I used to record from the monitor send of my PA head to an old hand-me-down '70s TEAC cassette deck with Dolby C that sounded great. Two 57s on drums, 58 on vocals with a touch of onboard delay, DI'd guitar and bass, trial-and-error mix onto high-bias cassettes slammed pretty hard.

By the time we got the mix right, we ended up with some great raw, lo-fi mono mixes we actually considered releasing until a) the drummer quit and the new drummer wanted to re-record and b) the bassist broke the tape deck. But, I do want to get back to this approach, though. Much more rewarding than a laptop with way less ear fatigue.

Yeah, We're a three piece instrumental band, so I was thinking mic(s) kinda in the front of the bass cabs, and one mic in front of the drums. I have no idea about the mics, so i was just going to use the vocal ones in the room.

I've been looking for a 70's tape deck to record to, but no luck yet.

Verbs and Nouns wrote:

Yeah, We're a three piece instrumental band, so I was thinking mic(s) kinda in the front of the bass cabs, and one mic in front of the drums. I have no idea about the mics, so i was just going to use the vocal ones in the room.

I've been looking for a 70's tape deck to record to, but no luck yet.[/quote]

One guy showed me a great "one mic wonder" technique for drums: assuming the mic is a 57/58-style cardioid, place it pretty close to the floor in between the kick drum and floor tom, pointed at the snare. You'd be surprised how well-balanced the air-mix is. Proximity to the kick drum batter head gives you a nice tight deep kick drum sound, too.

Make sure none of the amps point into the drum mic, and you should have zero phase problems. Have fun and good luck!