Ever recorded a full band with only 1 mic?

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burn
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Ever recorded a full band with only 1 mic?

Post by burn » Fri Dec 02, 2005 7:33 am

Just wondering, have you ever recorded a band/artist in a room with only 1 mic?

How were your results? any tips, mic choice (omni?, ribbon?).

Also... do you believe they really did this on Trinity session (Cowboy junkies)?

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Girl Toes
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Post by Girl Toes » Fri Dec 02, 2005 7:45 am

Yeah!!! That was high school.

I forget what mic i used, some silver Shure dynamic with an on/off switch that was the same shape as a 58 pretty much, cost 80 bucks 11 years ago.

Anyhoo, I used to use it to record jazz band concerts, and it sounded rules. I'll have to find some tapes.

Also my first producing section, where we had two small practice rooms. In one room we had vocals/acoustic guitar/acoustic bass guitar, and across the hall I had the tape recorder and me playing the drums. Turned out great!!!

Even with a cheap mic....


I know I have some sound files around here some where.

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Gebo
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Post by Gebo » Fri Dec 02, 2005 8:06 am

A lot of times we record a band practice with just an SM-81, so we dont forget the songs and can capture "jams". I feel like with a better pre it wouldnt sound half bad. I really like the one mic vibe on quiet parts, but when we get loud it gets icky.
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Post by therealme4 » Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:28 am

I've done it in my home studio/garage with band practices in case something interesting comes up. I usually use a shure ksm27 or sm82 about 3 feet in front of the drums pointing away from them and at the guitar amps on the other side of the room (we have a weird set up). I still get too much cymbal, but I'm never going for a great sound. I'm sure with the right placement I could get a great sounding recording.
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Post by John Jeffers » Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:35 am

I do it occasionally to capture something at rehearsal so we don't forget it, but it always sounds like shit. Most recently, I used my Langevin LDC thru an MP-2NV, and that sounded a little better...like polished shit, I guess. :lol:

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Post by drumsound » Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:44 am

I've only done it once for a release. The song was a little acoustic number with banjo, tambourine, acoustic bass and vocals. I put a nice mic in mono and had the three guys in a circle around it. It sounds great.

I sometimes do it in rehearsal with my band. This week we recorded to the built-in mic on his iBook. We put it in the hall because we figured it couldn't handle the level in the room with the full band. We at least have a document of the new song.

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Re: Ever recorded a full band with only 1 mic?

Post by AnalogElectric » Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:04 am

burn wrote:Also... do you believe they really did this on Trinity session (Cowboy junkies)?
Yes, it was with a Calrec Soundfield single-point multi-capsule mic. The controller is like a rack mounted mixer where you can control gain for each individual capsule. The Cowboy Junkies rented a church (by way of donation to the church) and took a majority of the time with musician placement.

Lots of good stuff regarding Ambisonics here:
www.ambisonic.net

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eeldip
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Post by eeldip » Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:17 am

single mic in omni, and you can kiss phase worries goodbye.

its a great way to hear how bad your room is, record a band with it, see what you have to do to the eq to make it sound nice and that is one way to think about your room problems.

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Post by MichaelAlan » Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:42 am

I think we all have. I have used an omni vocal mic, sm57, cheap radio shack mic, camcorder...and random stuff. It never sounds good, but I'm not good. But it is pretty fun to move around and see where you can get the most balanced sound.
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Post by joelpatterson » Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:44 am

Once with a little General Electric handheld cassette recorder. Set it on the floor infront of the band. There's something to be said for lo-fi... its's the purity of amateurism, so raw and trashy, it just aches and begs for acceptance.

So the guys liked it so much, I sent it off with the drummer's mom to their next show--the same unit, the GE 3-5362. I put one of my labels on it. And then I ran off CDs of this show, and the drummer told me later it was his fave.

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Post by starscream » Fri Dec 02, 2005 11:42 am

I do this every week to record my band's practice demos. I use a CAD E-200, set to omni; placed in the center of the room, w/ an Aphex 107 pre into an old 16 Bit ADAT and it works great. I just fly it into Nuendo and burn cd's for the group.

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Post by Kyle » Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:20 pm

We started doing this for practice. We use a Realistic PZM w/tapeop mic mod and we love the results. We moved it around until we found a sweet spot in the room and that is where I drove a nail. I actually print this mic to tape with clients as well. It's made its way into quite a few final mixes.
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Post by drumsound » Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:23 pm

Am I the only one whe's had something released that was done this way?

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Post by burn » Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:38 pm

drumsound wrote:Am I the only one whe's had something released that was done this way?
exactly, my original question was more oriented around that type of recording for an album (instead of rehearsal recording, cause we all do that!)

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Post by Mix413 » Fri Dec 02, 2005 1:56 pm

There's an entire almum by a band called Aberfeldy that was recorded in 2004 entirely with one microphone. Pretty interesting methodology.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep04/a ... rfeldy.htm
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