Hey guys,
I'm recording a quartet consisting of stand up bass, accoustic guitar, small drumkit, sax and air organ. All 4 guys sing/yell and sometimes switch instruments. I have 8 mics.
I thought
Each singer gets a mic/each instrument a mic, but I will have a lot of bleed. Any suggestions? It's done live of course and these guys have never seen a studio from the inside/recorded somewhere. Cheers, hermann
recording quartet
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casacassette
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recording quartet
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David Piper
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I love these sorts of questions because they always serve to remind me of how we all manage to find the most difficult projects and situations for ourselves when we are either just starting out or trying to keep things cheap. It amazes me to think of some of the things I tried to pull off when I only had a handful of mics, or channels, or stands, or whatever. Or when I volunteer to run live sound for my friends at a local church that own an old movie theater and runs a 16-channel A&H board with some questionable channels.
So you are recording 4 people singing (or yelling) while playing on 4 or 5 instruments that they trade from song to song. You mentioned that you have 8 microphones, but not whether you are confined to 8 mixer channels or 8 tracks. Is it possible for you to borrow more mics if you have the channels available? I'll figure you cannot for now, but it is helpful to know.
Next most obvious question - is this going to be at some kind of live performance or is this a studio session? (Yes, living room, garage or barn count as 'studio' to me since I only mean 'will there be an audience?')
Next important question - what does the band expect from the recording? Are you "trying to capture the energy and awesomeness of their live sound"? Or do they want the instruments to sound like a Sting record?
And the last one for now, what kinds of mics and how well do you know them? I don't necessarily mean brand and model so much as pattern & type. For example, if these are all cardioid dynamic instrument mics like an SM-57 then that is going to limit suggestions for avoiding bleed. But if there are some figure-8 mics in there, that could help.
Answer those and we should be able to narrow in on some better suggestions.
For what it's worth, I was working on and off last year with a group that is kind of similar. 4 brothers who play acoustic guitar, electric bass, cello, viola, violin, and were even trying to add drums. When they perform they trade instruments back and forth and are always changing lead and background singers. And of course in the studio they always everything recorded live, and would have preferred to record their live performances. For one session, I mixed sound for them at the school TV studio while they were filmed for an interview show (not live, thank heavens). I didn't bring much more gear than what you might be thinking of - I had a small 12-channel board (Spirit E-12), with a Lexicon MPX-500 for a little reverb, a couple of Presonus BlueMax compressors, and maybe 8-10 microphones that I brought along including AKG 414s, Shure SM-7s, Electrovoice RE-20s, Audio Technica AT-4051s, etc. I had a lot of mics to choose from and even had larger boards and more effects available. But the goal was to create a nice sounding live mix, adapt the stage layout, mics, and mix to each song, and reset really fast between songs to minimize time for the TV crew. Oh, and the only place to setup was in the TV studio's live room and I had to monitor through headphones. Not an easy session, and not a relaxing session, but it was fun to do in a very weird sort of way, and the sound turned out alright. Of course it really helped that the gear I had was flexible and I knew it well enough to make the choices up front and during each change.
-Jeremy
So you are recording 4 people singing (or yelling) while playing on 4 or 5 instruments that they trade from song to song. You mentioned that you have 8 microphones, but not whether you are confined to 8 mixer channels or 8 tracks. Is it possible for you to borrow more mics if you have the channels available? I'll figure you cannot for now, but it is helpful to know.
Next most obvious question - is this going to be at some kind of live performance or is this a studio session? (Yes, living room, garage or barn count as 'studio' to me since I only mean 'will there be an audience?')
Next important question - what does the band expect from the recording? Are you "trying to capture the energy and awesomeness of their live sound"? Or do they want the instruments to sound like a Sting record?
And the last one for now, what kinds of mics and how well do you know them? I don't necessarily mean brand and model so much as pattern & type. For example, if these are all cardioid dynamic instrument mics like an SM-57 then that is going to limit suggestions for avoiding bleed. But if there are some figure-8 mics in there, that could help.
Answer those and we should be able to narrow in on some better suggestions.
For what it's worth, I was working on and off last year with a group that is kind of similar. 4 brothers who play acoustic guitar, electric bass, cello, viola, violin, and were even trying to add drums. When they perform they trade instruments back and forth and are always changing lead and background singers. And of course in the studio they always everything recorded live, and would have preferred to record their live performances. For one session, I mixed sound for them at the school TV studio while they were filmed for an interview show (not live, thank heavens). I didn't bring much more gear than what you might be thinking of - I had a small 12-channel board (Spirit E-12), with a Lexicon MPX-500 for a little reverb, a couple of Presonus BlueMax compressors, and maybe 8-10 microphones that I brought along including AKG 414s, Shure SM-7s, Electrovoice RE-20s, Audio Technica AT-4051s, etc. I had a lot of mics to choose from and even had larger boards and more effects available. But the goal was to create a nice sounding live mix, adapt the stage layout, mics, and mix to each song, and reset really fast between songs to minimize time for the TV crew. Oh, and the only place to setup was in the TV studio's live room and I had to monitor through headphones. Not an easy session, and not a relaxing session, but it was fun to do in a very weird sort of way, and the sound turned out alright. Of course it really helped that the gear I had was flexible and I knew it well enough to make the choices up front and during each change.
-Jeremy
Ribbons to somewhat alleviate bleed and spaced omnis or blumlien to embrace it.
As many ribbons as you can get as close mics on instrumens, maybe double up front and back for horns and stuff if they are good. Use the sides to reject drums and hypercardioids are good for focusing on one instrument. Then either some omnis to get a whole picture or usually a blumlein pair in the center of the group is good if you can get the set up right or move the pair out into the room a bit.
As many ribbons as you can get as close mics on instrumens, maybe double up front and back for horns and stuff if they are good. Use the sides to reject drums and hypercardioids are good for focusing on one instrument. Then either some omnis to get a whole picture or usually a blumlein pair in the center of the group is good if you can get the set up right or move the pair out into the room a bit.
Mmm, lung butter.
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