Recording alt country/folk rock live in the same room

[Pete G]

So, the plan is to record a band without headphones in a sort-of rectangular warehouse apartment. (15m long axis but not more than 6m wide, concrete floor) I'd like to try Lanois' approach to the Dylan recordings, getting a sense of ambience into the recording, but although I've read every interview and his forum on Gearslutz I'm still not sure of best approach. Have a good set of mics and pres and recording to PT. Line up is drums!, acoustic guitarist/lead vocals, acoustic bass, cello, fiddle, acoustic slide guitar, vocalist. Both guitars and the bass want to use amps, all have a DI output as does the fiddle and cello. I will close mic all, and will take DI feeds, but most interested in a setup up to capture a good organic sound with room mics (ms in a circle, blumlein, omni??) and get a creative use of spill. Might need to use a bit of PA for monitoring! Yes I will find the arrangement that sounds best to my ears, but hoping some specific advice might be out there.

cheers

Pete G

[Roland]

I would go with an omni pair, spaced, as their image will be less distinct, all the other will require you to have a much more formal layout for the band which might be more uncomfortable or impractical for them. You have to remember with vocal mic's and drum OH's you are going to be getting a fair bit of bleed already. It also sounds like your room is fairly ambient. As you say I would most definitely take the DI signals as well as the amp signals for the instruments mentioned. Much of your sound will depend on the quality of the band and the room sound these are the variable that you can't change.

Good luck!


Roland

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Best recording I ever did of a blue grass band in a room was with a pair of spaced omnis. It really sounded amazing. The players were tight and knew when to lean in for their solos and go back when they were not soloing. It came out great and the band was really pleased. I had them stand in a circle around the microphones.

Make sure the group knows that they have to come forward when soloing and try and leave enough space around them so they don't feel crowded and aren't banging into each other.

Best of luck