Mercenary Audio - Recording a Band in a Room... together... at once

Live in the studio?

Hey,

So um a ��..?? I have this blues-rock band that wants to record their album live in the studio. Well my concern is major bleed, especially on vocals. Doing any vocal comps could be a nightmare? What would YOU do??
logic

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That's pretty much the only way I work... by choice even. The thing about "a band in a room" is to manage the bleed [and you're going to be pretty surprised at how little there is, but how much effect it will have on the outcome].

First, if you don't have a good sounding room... you're fucked. The room is major importance. If the room sounds boxy or shitty... so will the recording. IMNTLBFHO, 12ft.+ ceilings are mandatory!!

The hardest thing to get straightened out is bass bleed into the drum mics. If you work with no headphones [which is the way I prefer to work... I hate doing multiple cue mixes and I find the band never plays as well in headphones as they do without them] then the bass amp needs to be in some kind of proximity to the drums.

I've usually found that putting the bass amp up on a road case so it's like "ear level" with the drummer [and not kinetically coupled to the floor!!] helps a whole lot.

As for guitars... they also need to be in proximity to the rhythm section or the player is going to have a tough time locking... with the bleed, make sure you have a good balance between the drums, bass, and guitar while you're tracking [you may even want to print a mix while you're tracking... even if it's only for later reference].

Singers, I prefer floor wedges to headphones [unless the artist has been touring with "in-ear" monitors and is used to them]. Two wedges at a 75-90 degree angle in front of a 'straight stand' with a the mic in cardioid or hyper cardioid and you'll usually be able to find a spot where the bleed from the monitors is desirable.

I have at times added a bit of slap echo [and even some slap echo on the snare drum!!] to the singers monitor. If you hang several layers of packing blankets with some air space between them [like 3-4 inches, 3-4 layers] and put the singers back to that you generally don't have too many problems with comb filtered reflections from the wall behind the singer.

The key to the whole thing is to A) have fun; B) make sure the band is really comfortable; C) have fun; D) concentrate on all aspects of the audio without a thought to "fixing" something later; E) have fun [really, don't get stressed out... it's not "life or death" and if you're stressed, the band will sense that and won't play as well as they can... and the point of this exercise is to get the orchestra with it's head in a good place so they can give up the best performance].

Best of luck with it... remember to breathe.

- Fletcher

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