bay area, CA: live location recording on your 2, 4, 8 track

[bunny]

on july 9, el buzzard is shooting a video at a live show in san jose, ca.
we want to record it without using the house system at all on an analog multitrack.
this likely means placing our own microphones alongside the venue's mics, but i have plenty of mics. i don't want to take my mm1100 and console down to the venue to record on 16 tracks (moving drums is enough work for my lazy ass), so we're looking to record smaller.
possibly as small as 2 track, but we'd prefer the flexibility of mixing afterwards, so 4 or 8 track is ideal.

DO YOU HAVE AN ANALOG MULTITRACK MACHINE?

if you want to participate in this effort, please get in touch. and sorry, we're snobs, no little fostex or mini-tascam machines. bigger, tougher, ampex type machines are preferrered.

el buzzard sounds like melvins, jesus lizard, etc...
big drums, two guitars, bass, yelling.

probably it will go like this:

4 track:
drums to one track
bass/vocals to one track
guitar to one track
guitar to one track

8 track:
drums to three tracks
bass to one track
guitars to one track (each)
vocals to one track
noise/crowd to one track

see a non-live video we made at el-buzzard.com.

this will hopefully come out on dvd and then you'll be famous. thanks.

[leigh]

this likely means placing our own microphones alongside the venue's mics, but i have plenty of mics.

Sounds like a nightmare. You ever thought of using a mic splitter box?

Leigh

[bunny]

i think this practice used to be done all the time. i've seen plenty of old footage of hendrix, otis et al singing into two microphones at once.

and i'd much rather get the sound from 421s, 666s, and d20s than rely on the club's 57s and 58s for everything. it seems where fidelity would most be a concern in such a situation is with the vocals, it's hard to sing into two mics at once. luckily with this band, it's all screaming, so not worrisome.

[jamoo]

mics at once. luckily with this band, it's all screaming, so not worrisome.

This must be at the Cactus Club.


Provided, there still is a Cactus Club? (haven't been there since '96)

[aurelialuz]

This must be at the Cactus Club.

hahaha! i was thinking the same thing....

alex

[leigh]

i think this practice used to be done all the time. i've seen plenty of old footage of hendrix, otis et al singing into two microphones at once.

I don't know about those specific photos, but it was popular for a while to use 2 mics for a certain noise cancelling technique. See this thread for a more detailed description of that.

and i'd much rather get the sound from 421s, 666s, and d20s than rely on the club's 57s and 58s for everything.

Yeah, I agree. But why not feed the club those same, higher quality mic signals? All those mics you're listing are directional, you shouldn't have feedback issues. The reason people don't use nice mics like that for club sound is that they don't like to put more expensive gear in harm's way. But once you've decided to do that, take advantage of the better gear for better live sound!

Then rent a splitter box, which will give you 2 xlr outs for every xlr in. The club gets one set of outs, your recording equipment gets the other set. This solves the problem of singing into 2 mics at once, as well as keeping the stage real estate from choking on 2x the mic stands and mic cables.

Leigh

[Spiderhead69]

I too live in the South Bay, but can't help you with the equipment

I've heard your stuff on KSCU...DJ Naked Rob is a big fan and plays your stuff. He's on THursdays from 3-5. Perhaps if you contact him at KSCU.org he may have a connection somewhere that could help...

Good luck;

[ctmsound]

mics at once. luckily with this band, it's all screaming, so not worrisome.

This must be at the Cactus Club.


Provided, there still is a Cactus Club? (haven't been there since '96)

The Cactus Club is no more. Was shut down a few years back.

[dokushoka]

I could do it, but with a metric halo 2882. i've got a 1/4" that I could mix down to. Why are you so set on having a tape machine?

[Rick Hunter]

Dosnt EL Buzzard have one of the guys from Duster in it? Duster is awesome!
I saw El Buzzard at the El Rio a few months ago, they (you) are really good

I cant really help at all, but good luck.

[bunny]

cactus club:
it's one of those psuedo-urban dance type places now, maybe they have zima on tap. someone was stabbed there recently, which i don't think ever happened at the cactus club, as sh*tty as it was. my favorite show there was yo la tengo (in 1997?), but san jose didn't agree, there were probably five people in attendance.

mic splitting and analog:
ok, i should have mentioned this earlier. no way do i trust the soundman at the blank club to get good sound going to tape. i've recorded practices to cassette 4 track with good results, this shouldn't be too different than that (though i can't listen to playback between songs and make adjustments). i'm not about to bring the analog/digital battle royale into this, it's just a personal preference. the cassette four track has left town with its owner, and stepping up to bigger tape/better electronics would be good anyway.

aesthetics:
this is a video shoot, so we're thinking that it should probably closely match the way we normally do things (our mics to an analog machine). i don't mind having two mics on everything, double the cords, etc... if it's a show and a recording, then it's okay to have both being represented visually, people who understand recording and things will maybe recognize that in the video. but maybe we should wear spider costumes since we might end up in a web of cables.

duster:
yeah, guilty.

thanks everyone for your comments.

[takeout]

...no way do i trust the soundman at the blank club to get good sound going to tape.quote]
Nor would you have to. The purpose of a splitter is to give two XLR outs per channel prior to the board; you would need a separate set of pre's completely independent of the live board. The soundguy would play no part in the "getting of sounds".

[bunny]

duh.
of course, sorry.

still, the mic needs of the club will be different (at least for drums), and i'd rather just let the club do their thing, and us do our thing. they seem easily confused ("there's no hole in your front bass drum head, where do i put the microphone?"), and i don't want to make it more difficult for the other bands that are playing, or take forever trying to figure out why something isn't working.

in a perfect world, at the perfect venue, with the perfect sound engineer (or at least a competent one), absolutely split it. [/b]

[jamoo]

cactus club:
it's one of those psuedo-urban dance type places now, maybe they have zima on tap.

Like people couldn't just walk accross the street to Agenda for that vibe. Or even 1st Street Billards for just the Zima... but I suppose it's not as cozy.

someone was stabbed there recently, which i don't think ever happened at the cactus club, as sh*tty as it was. my favorite show there was yo la tengo (in 1997?), but san jose didn't agree, there were probably five people in attendance.

I don't remember anything going down there either. Nearby, yeah, but never at the Cactus. Maybe it was a dive, but it doesn't sound like they made an improvement. Last live act I remember seeing there was the Untouchables (probably in '96). I'd been there are many dead nights, but it was packed. I guess enough people in SJ remembered "Freak in the Streets" and "I Spy". They were encouraging everyone to get stoned.

Thanks for the update.