"live-in-studio" sound in basement?

[AnalogAnxiety]

Just going to throw this out there, but if you'd like some help with this I've got some more mics we could use and a good amount of free time at the moment...

[radkins]

Having the bass live in the room can definitly be a plus. If you work to hard at isolation tgen you are going to loose the live feel. This requires a good band and good initial sounds to make work. If your band isn't good it's probably goung to show even more this way.

[lefthanddoes]

I know you're trying to avoid headphones, but I just wanted to note that that Behringer headphone amp is terrible, and it's worth it to get any of the other cheapie ones because they can get way louder. I had the old Samson and it was great until the AC jack broke. Then I got that stupid Behringer and it was useless in any actual practical situation with volume. Now I have the cheesy Live Wire one from Guitar Center and it's F'in loud and great. Used it to record a demo for a cover band - drums, bass, guitar, keys all in the same room.
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Live-Wire-H ... 1372413.gc

Call me Mr Heaphone Amp Buyin' Fool and learn from my mistakes.

Also, +1 for DI'ing the bass and split it through the amp (maybe re-amp it later) and have the guy sit on it. The key here should be getting everyone to be able to hear their own instrument as well as possible without turning it up a bunch. Amp stands for the guitar players to angle their amps directly at their own heads.
Also if you blend headphone stuff with live sounds out in the room, you can get a fun sound that doesn't need to be as loud. Here's a great tool for the vocalist (or anyone who must hear themselves louder):
http://www.guitarcenter.com/ART-MyMONIT ... 1125059.gc

[Bill @ Irie Lab]

You will need headphone capability at some point, overdubs, etc.so spring for one and save some headaches, now and later.

A submixer for the drums might be useful, too; leaving open tracks for b/g vox, additional instruments, and overdubs.You'll lose mix flexibility but you're going for a live-in-studio sound anyway.

Good luck and post as you go along.

[JWL]

Good advice above. The best advice I can give is to treat the room, especially if it's an unfinished basement. Bleed will be much worse (and much less beneficial) if there is a wash of reflected sound all over everything. Treating the room properly will reduce the amount of bleed, and improve the quality of the bleed at the same time. It will make everything sound better.

http://realtraps.com/art_basics.htm