recording real strings and horns

[mikoo69]

okay, here is the scope of the project.

4 piece psychedelic rock band recording an EP. i have scored parts for horns, woodwinds, and strings to appear in sections of the record. a friend of mine goes to boston conservatory and her friends agreed to record on my record for free. im not sure the best way to go about it.

each player will record individually (not as a section). i need to know a few things.

a) should i let them play to the track in headphones, or record them to the click track? the parts are scored correctly so if played to a click, it should work, however do you think its better for them to record to the actual track (i ask this because none of them have recorded with a rock band before and i wonder if it may throw them off)

b) once one of the parts is layed down, should i have the next instrumentalist play to that part, or should each play their own part without hearing the other.

**i understand this is a matter of their personal preference, but i want to go in with a game plan cause they have never done this before***

c) i am going to list the available mics, how should i mic each player?

AT4050 LDC (2x)
Senheisser 421 (2x)
SM57 (4x)
SM7 (1x)
Beta 52 (1x)

I am recording trumpet, trombone, tuba, violin, viola, clarinet and bassoon. which mics for each? i should have between 2-4 inputs so i can do both close mic and room mic.

[bove]

As a tuba player, I have recorded with rock bands in a variety of situations, some situations have been somewhat similar to what you are describing.... here's what I'd recommend for you:


It's ideal to have everyone playing at once! But, you have 4 inputs, so I'd advise to record the instruments in groups. This will sound much tighter and real. Do the 3 brass, and then the 4 others or 2 strings and then 2 woodwinds, or something like this. Mic each player, but you don't need to really isolate them, the

a- You want the track along with the click in the headphone mix. This way the musicians can tune to the tracks you've already recorded. They can also hear how it's going to groove. And they will also have the loud click to lock to.

b- Let the later musicians hear what the earlier ones played, that way they can tune to it, and know what they're fitting into. Although I'd imagine that they'd need more bass line and drums in their mix than the other acoustic parts, since it's essential that they hear these parts clearly.


Here is one album I played on where we had up to 5 brass and 4 strings on a few tunes. There were a lot of parts recorded at different times for this album in LA NYC and Chicago. We recorded them as I describe above.

Link:
Zeitgeist

Here's some tunes with brass:
"It's All Right" (Brass and strings)
"Just Enough" (brass)
"Z-Interlude" (brass and marimba)

Take a listen! You can download the tracks to listen to from the website... Dan Lipton is happy to share his music with you, and you don't even have to pay... all they ask for is your email and you can download tracks.

[mikoo69]

not gonna have all players there at the same time...also only one set of headphones.

[newyorker42]

Originally Posted by mikoo69

okay, here is the scope of the project.

4 piece psychedelic rock band recording an EP. i have scored parts for horns, woodwinds, and strings to appear in sections of the record. a friend of mine goes to boston conservatory and her friends agreed to record on my record for free. im not sure the best way to go about it.

each player will record individually (not as a section). i need to know a few things.

a) should i let them play to the track in headphones, or record them to the click track? the parts are scored correctly so if played to a click, it should work, however do you think its better for them to record to the actual track (i ask this because none of them have recorded with a rock band before and i wonder if it may throw them off)

b) once one of the parts is layed down, should i have the next instrumentalist play to that part, or should each play their own part without hearing the other.

**i understand this is a matter of their personal preference, but i want to go in with a game plan cause they have never done this before***

c) i am going to list the available mics, how should i mic each player?

AT4050 LDC (2x)
Senheisser 421 (2x)
SM57 (4x)
SM7 (1x)
Beta 52 (1x)

I am recording trumpet, trombone, tuba, violin, viola, clarinet and bassoon. which mics for each? i should have between 2-4 inputs so i can do both close mic and room mic.

Here are my suggestions...

If they can't all play together (can you find a way for this to happen? it will give you the best result... at minimum the sections), bring in as the first person the best player for each section; the player who has the most interpretive skills. Allot them more time than the others and let them mark up the parts with bowings (for strings) and other articulations as they see fit (take their suggestions, by the way, especially if they think something is awkward that you've written). Make sure the other parts are marked up correctly before they leave.

Let everyone listen to the rhythm section track (and the other orchestral players that recorded parts before them). Having people playing only to the click will be deadly when you try to superimpose on the rock mix. Deadly.

Keep everyone on a separate track as you might end up having to re-record someone with this type of session (again, try to get at least the woods, strings, brass to all come in to play as sections... at minimum).

Can you conduct? If so -- and I know it sounds crazy if there is a big "thwack" on 2 and 4 -- you should conduct each session so they can see you. I've done this from the booth when we've been in a small studio for a budget gig. When I messed up conducting a quickly shifting time sig on a rhythm section track in a film cue once in a similar situation, the player messed up right alongside me, lockstep. That is how much they are tuned in to looking out of the corner of their eyes and following. If you can't conduct, find a friend who can and buy them dinner or something. This person should also score supervise, as it doesn't sound like you've done this before. How much experience do you have knowing if you got "the take" when everyone is doing it one by one? This is actually a pretty difficult thing to know. People doing low-budget TV stuff become experts at this skill.

You could have issues with noise buildup on all the tracks, so record in a VERY quite space. You are going to have issues with reverb not sounding the same, so I'd advise recording them in a booth dry (but give them some verb in their cans) and putting digital reverb on afterwards.

The end result is you want it all to sound like it was recorded all together. So, in sum, you will have a much better time of it the closer you get to that... so again at least get the sections to come in to record together.

However, despite the difficulties, if you are VERY careful with each step as I have advised, you can make it work well even if you do it all one by one. Whatever happens, you can always be creative at the end with what you have by leaving out bad parts, applying effects to make something that wasn't great straight more interesting... after all it is psychedelic rock!