What would you do?: 8 Piece, 2 Drummers, 5 Amps, Etc: Live.

[deadair]

i think i have a pretty good plan, but nonetheless i figured i'd see what you fine folks thought. here's the deal. 8 member band.

2 drum kits
2 guitars + 3 keyboards + 1 cello = 5 amps
1 sax
1 clarinet
1 melodica
and additional percussion.

my snake will get 16 channels from my single room that they will all be in, to my 24 track. what i'm hoping i can do is:

4 mics on each drum kit (the 3-mic deal with an added snare mic) = 8 tracks
1 mic on each amp = 5 tracks
remaining 3 mics will hopefully cover the additional stuff, and if need be i can put different parts on different tracks on my 24 track to make mixing easier (i.e. if the clarinet and melodica share a mic, i could split it to two tracks later when the different instruments are playing.

other thoughts i had was diminish the drum mics to 3 per kit, then add i general room mic and another misc mic.....

advice is appreciated.

[jajjguy]

what room will they be in and how big is it? Will they be on stage performing, or is this "live in the studio"?

And who the heck is that band? Sounds interesting.

[deadair]

this is live in the studio (how i do most bands, but most dont have this much going on). the room is about 12' x 18'.

[jajjguy]

my imagination may be sadly limited, but i can't imagine this not being a total clusterfuck, mud city.

any chance you could put the amps in another room, maybe with blankets over them, put the electric players in the control room, etc..? or maybe just put the non-amped players in the control room. i mean, how much melodica are you seriously going to be able to get through a mic when there are 2 drumkits and 5 amps going? at the very least, plan out a way to gobo things as much as possible.

the only way i can see this working out nicely without anyheroic isolation measures is if the band happens to be a quiet, sensitive band. if they are a loud act, you will have difficulties.

[deadair]

well, i've got a more positive outlook than that...... they will all have to be in the same room though. i usually use blankets to take bleed out of amps mics, so i will probably do that.

i'm not worried, i just hoped other folks might have some cool suggestions......