Premier Rock Forum

I had the idea to record live with cabs in a room (2 guitars 1 bass), the drummer in another room. Ideally I wanted both guitarists and bassist at the same time in the same room. But for some unexpected reasons, one of the guitar players will record later. My issue is about bleeding:2 cabs with mics will lightly bleed in eachother. It's not a problem generally. But in this case, I fear an imbalance in the mix with a guitar recorded alone later. How would you proceed? Am I worrying for nothing?

I would worry more about positioning and volume settings than anything else. A secondary guitar track that didn't have bleed in it would be incredibly unlikely to stand out or be some sort of challenge. The biggest trick is to keep bass out of the guitar mic. Cardioids are your friends here, fig-8 not as much.

It'll probably (almost certainly) be ok, but if you're really worried about it you could try having him play to a cranked version of the mix (say through a PA) rather than through headphones.

try to minimize bleed between the guitar and bass with placement and baffles (couch cushions, panels, mattresses, what have you) when recording the two together, maybe play the guitar and bass through speakers into the room with the guitar player recording later. Don't worry or think about all that impulse response bullshit. that is ridiculous and wormy. Just try to make it not an issue, and deal with it. It's probably not going to be a big deal unless you have so much bleed that every mic has every source, if that happens just smash it and make a big loud mono mix like the old guys did.

Christophe H wrote:Am I worrying for nothing?yes.

How I would proceed...Lay things out for the band. See if it even matters to them. Take it from there.

Finally, here's ma decision: I'll record drums and bass live with guitar only for monitoring. And then I'll record the guitars. I will not use that session for experimentation. Some people count on me. But thank you all for sharing your experiences. It was surprising sometimes but all very interesting.

Band-aids, for larger cuts, stitches. Superglue if you're feeling manly.

RSWRecording wrote:numberthirty wrote:How I would proceed...Lay things out for the band. See if it even matters to them. Take it from there.Agreed! I find myself always freaking out and trying to figure out what to do in these situations and they end up not being a problem (ie. band not noticing something you were really worried about). Usually ends up fine. WhewFrom the looks of it, it seems like Christophe might have had a situation that could have lent itself to throwing some spaghetti up against the wall to see if it would stick.I'm actually kind of interested in if drums/bass first round and then taking things from there works out.

total\_douche wrote:Band-aids, for larger cuts, stitches. Superglue if you're feeling manly.As a doctor, I'm always slightly alarmed by this topic, and then I remember where I am