"live" recording with no audience

[noamraz]

Hello dear slutz,

I've been booked to record a band in a club with no audience at that night.

What they are trying to achieve i guess is a low-budget "demo" recording.

Personally, i think that magic happens usually with Audience-Band interaction but i really don't care experimenting.

I know this specific club as FOH engineer and it's not the best sounding when it's empty (Though it's not terrible as well).

As i see it i have plenty of ways to do that recording (as usual) but this time i can organize in a different way because of the fact that i really don't have to use the PA system and i have an option to give head-phones monitoring to the band (though i am not sure how it'll affect that specific band).

I don't have to do a 2-track mixing on the fly due the fact they want to Mix it at my place afterwards.

Any recommendations regarding this non-usual situation?

Best regards, Noam.

[mrsteaks]

This is a rock band? How many pieces? What size is the room? Record to what media? Using preamps or the FOH console, or both?

~~~~Mark S.
Pretty Good Recordings

[noamraz]

Hi,

Will use the Alesis HD24XR as recorder and the FOH mixer's preamps (That's soundcraft 8000).

This band is playing world-music which is kindda instrumental (Cajon,2 Acc. gtrs, 1 Classic gtr, Pantam, Bongos, Electric Bass and Hammond).

Room is enough for 300 people.

Best regards, Noam.

[mrsteaks]

Not so "non-usual". I don't know how much of the instruments you mic to run through the house system (or go direct), but I'd do the micing pretty much the same way. I would put up a pair of room mics for some flavor, though. Walk around the hall with the band playing something and find a sweet spot - put those room mics there, and track them. Use omnis if you can, but wide cardioids will work, too. Don't try to run a "mix" into the HD24, just set your levels, and don't let anything go over. Clips are horrible things and mama's to fix in the mixdown!

I take it you have enough mics?

I usually record classical, live, but I have done a few big band recordings. I know for certain there are other folks here that can fine tune what I've told you, and they may even have a better approach. This one will work, though.

~~~~Mark S.
Pretty Good Recordings

[MichaelPatrick]

I would use good close-micing techniques with as many mics (practial here) as you can. Do the work in mixdown.

The challenge will be performance. It'll sound live no matter what you do but there won't be an audience, as you mentioned, and the band will play kind a flat -- I don't mean flat vs sharp -- I mean that it's hard for performers to perform when there's no one there to listen. If you can get them thru that little hurdle you may have some tracks with enough energy in them to mix well.

[jwh1192]

could you bring in about 20-30 people that are hard core fans that would respect the recording and not applaude until well after songs are finished .... would give the band someone to play for but not make it a nightmare for keeping it quiet ...

really as many people as you can control ...

even just a few in the front ... some cabaret tables with candles and shit would help ...

have fun ...

[noamraz]

Just came back from Tracking this act today, The band decided that they will have much easier to do it without audience and so we did it their way.

Used the PA system to excite the room (And captured the room with an Cardiod pair-Rode NT1).
The Soundcraft 8000 preamps did a nice job as well.
Lots of close mics, Few "over-heads" - Good results here!

The key here was butofcourse the band, Bunch of great players in the right vibe


Best regards, Noam.