What would you do?

[keVAn]

I recorded a live show with some people shotoing video for a sort of live DVD. I show up at the venue and the guy tells me he only has 1 aux for me to use for recording. No direct outs/inserts are either available or even on the "console". I made a rough mix of the aux provided and recorded them to one channel. I also took the headphone out and ran it into another channel. Does anyone have any recommendations on what I could do in the future at this venue aside from taking a seperate split? Also what suggestions do you have on mixing these two channels that I was able to record?

Thanks,
Kevin

[David Spearritt]

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it was something to do with Team America.

[Remoteness]

Kevin,

When I read this thread I thought of my thread called, "Five components to a successful location recording..." specifically component # 1 -- Pre Production.

Talking to the right people before you get to the venue is key.
You must find out what's available to you so you can act accordingly.

Surveying the location in person or with a simple telephone call is paramount.
Email is another option to consider.

If you only had one aux available, I would ask for the vocals and any channels that are not up in the FOH mix, typically, loud GTRs and such. I would then set up one or more stereo pairs, plus a few spot mics pointing towards the individual band instruments and/or audience to capture the vibe of the room.

I hope this helped.

[keVAn]

Pre-production would have been nice but I was called about an hour before the gig started. And literally all he gave me was 1 aux so i had to mix on the fly, recording to a mono channel. His headphone jack was also busted so the signal was all over the place which then caused alot of clipping. Needless to say it was hell. Any suggestions on how to make this mangled recording sound somewhat decent?

[bishopthomas]

Whoever hired you obviously doesn't have a clue. You were called an hour before show? Did they not think about audio before that point? It sounds like something happened to either make them fire the record mixer or he didn't show up/quit.

I'm kind of confused as to who this "guy" is that gave you an aux channel. What were you recording to? Did it not have a headphone jack allowing you to monitor the signal at that point (rather than the console's headphone out)? Doing this would have freed up "Guy's" headphone jack so that, had it worked, he could have used it too.

This is a tricky situation. The quality of the recording is a reflection upon you, no matter what kind of excuses you want to give. Hopefully you made the client fully aware of what kind of limitations there were with this type of recording. It certainly won't be HIS fault that you were called in to "save the day" right in the nick of time and therefore had no prep time, and it won't be HIS fault that the headphone jack was busted so you couldn't even hear what you were doing. You accepted the job so you'll have to be prepared to accept part of the blame (and hopefully all of the credit, although that may not happen). They could be happy that they got what they did, but chances are that they will be unhappy with the results which could jeopardize your future work with them.

Sorry for such a cynical outlook, but I've learned from the past to not take these kinds of jobs without a firm understanding up front. There's the "fast, good, and cheap" rule: you can have two of them, but never all three. They got fast and I'm willing to bet cheap, but that leaves good out.

[keVAn]

Hey thanks for the lengthy response.

First off, the "guy" (haha) is the FOH "engineer" for the club.
I was recording into ProTools thru a 003.
I was able to monitor what I was recording but it was hard due to the bleed from the actual live performance.
The headphone output I am talking about is the one on the desk. It kept dropping out during the show.
I do understand that pre-production is the key but it was just a little project that me and my friends have been doing for bands that tour through our area.

Anything else???

[bishopthomas]

So once you figured out that the headphone out on the console was bad did you switch to the 003's headphone jack? On this "little project" do you record at this club often? If you are going to be working in the same clubs repeatedly then you should build a working relationship with the clubs and their respective "guys."

[keVAn]

I wasnt using his headphone output to monitor. I was taking the headphone output directly into my 003 for another signal to record (since I was only given 1 aux). I have not done any previous work at this club so thats why there was no communication/preproduction.

[bishopthomas]

Oh, yes, I'm sorry. You probably had some pretty hot signal coming into the 003. The "dropouts" that you experienced could have been the FOH mixer soloing channels. My point is, now you have worked in this club, you know what they have, you've met Guy, and you should now know what you have to do to make it work for next time. For now scrap the headphone channel, go with your mono aux mix, and take it for what it is.

[loujudson]

You should put up a few mics to capture some of the sound from the room. Did you even take the house mix too?

This is how we learn, doing impossible things poorly so we can figure out how to do better!

<L>

[keVAn]

No, there was something wrong with the main outs so the enineer was using the busses to feed the mains. It was the most awkward recording I've ever done.