Help?! Recording live band.

[leechee]

Hi guys.

I need some thoughts on how to improve recording live band.. The sound in person is perfect with no feedback what so ever but when I come back home and listen back, I'm not getting the full sound as in quality isn't up to par.

1. My board is the soundcraft LX7. Microphones used are the ulx2/beta87a for vocals. Drums: SM57/beta 52a rest were into direct boxes to snake blah blah. Speakers were JBL and amps were itech / lab gruppen.
2. I'm recording out of the soundboard onto a dvd player with live video.
3. Place is at banquet hall with little echo.

I don't know if it's the lack of quality from the DVD player, the DVD, the cable, but is there a professional recorder out there that will record the best quality out of my board? I don't mind if the format is only CD. And I'm not saying that my skills are the best, but what are your ways when recording a live band?

Any thoughts are much appreciated!

[leechee]

im such an idiot.. I actually never ever ever ever looked into multi track recording.

[ears2thesky]

Doing a stereo board mix into a stereo recorder can sometimes yield a decent result, but my experience has been that it's a crapshoot. What is loud in the room may not need so much help from the PA and therefore it is low in the resulting stereo mix. EQ, compression, effects, etc. that make a great sounding room mix often add up to a lame recording.
The LX7 has direct outs on each channel, so I would run these into a multi-track recording device of some sort. If that's not possible or practical send a couple of auxes into your stereo recorder of choice with one patched to the left input and the other to the right. Set these pre-fader so your live balance doesn't affect the recording. Solo both auxes into your phones for balance adjustments. If you want something to be panned a little more left than right set the aux levels on that channel so that the aux that goes to the left channel is turned up more than the right aux. If you want it in the center make each aux's level equal.This at least gives you the ability to optimize your live mix and recording mix without much concern for the other. Obviously the quality of your stereo recorder is a major factor, but if the mix going to it sucks guess what the recording will sound like?
There are a plethora of devices capable of doing a good quality stereo capture: price, portability, recording medium, interface capability, etc. all factor into what is best for your needs, so it is hard to recommend one particular unit over another from the basic info you provided.
A laptop with a stereo audio interface and a recording program would be ideal since you could manicure the recording later with various software tools, burn it to CD, convert it to MP3, post it on the 'net.... You get my drift.

[Remoteness]

You will (almost) never yield the right mix balance when you use the same live sound console mix output feed, especially when you're mixing for the room.

You may want to consider adding a couple of room mics that are balanced correctly with your FOH mix. There are a few ways you can accomplish this. If this approach is applicable to you we can discuss this further.

Another way to handle this situation if you don't want to add some room mics to your recorder mix is to create a second stereo mix output that is derived by a matrix mixer or a stereo aux send buss. This way you can balance the recording exactly the way you want it without compromising the FOH mix.

I hope this was helpful.