Any recording tips?

I’m trying to record my band…we’ve got drums, two guitars, bass, and vocals. The problem is that I only have 4 mic inputs, and no mixer. And I’m not interested in doing overdubs.

Vinster has it right. With a few mic’s spread out around the room and a LOT of listen/move ‘em around/listen/play some and move ‘em around then you can get pretty decent results, if everyone knows how to keep it down.

When I did this last I put a mic close to the drums, a mic on the guitar, a mic from the ceiling, and a mic for the vocalist. I left my bass amp un-mic’d. With a bit of blending, I actually got a pretty decent lo-fi recording. It sounded very live and very garagey, but it wasn’t too bad.

It doesn’t hold a candle to the quality I’ve got now, and I’m not even doing much more – but now I’m recording one instrument at a time, playing to a scratch track with headphones, and replacing each instrument in the click track as we go. Multiple mic’s means I get a better, clearer, and bleed-free signal to work with – ambient mic’ing, close mic’ing, different mic’s to get different tones, etc etc. I’m using a 4-channel mixer into a computer, with a decent sound card, etc.

With a bit of work I can get nearly professional quality – no discernable noise, solid bass, good imaging, all of it.

It makes you a better musician. Learn how to make an overdub.

Saul

How to record Bass Guitar in your Home Studio

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