Any advise on recording live music

[Propelled Marine]

I need to buy a recorder for recording live music. In the past I've always set my old cassette player in the corner and hit the record button. I think it's time for me to step up to 2005. Looking for something that I can load to PC and burn CD's.

Seems like there's people here who know about everything so I thought I'd try asking here.

Thanks

[Scream And Fly]

Nick, what kind of a venue is this?

[Propelled Marine]

Greg, we mostly play in the garage. A couple acoustic guitars and vocals.

[mendo]

There a many ways to do it, my advice is capture as much as you can in as many ways as you can afford and mix it for best balance.


If you are on a budget you could get a cassette 4 track machine for CHEEP now and they do pretty good for capturing ideas and basic recording. They also allow playback on different tracks and multi track mixing. They are easy to use and can be plugged into your computer if you have a CD burner, you can burn CD's.

If you have enough room on your hard drive you can use it for multi track recording with various software.

There are many compact recording devices that are priced reasonably.

Here is a link to Musician's Freind.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=rec/search?c=4739&st=aux28_special&d=tn&c_gc=1&it=NXAV

[CDave]

If your recording just the band in a room and not at a gig, ya gonna need a dead room.
Back when I was younger I had two Bass players as roommates. One of um dad did the masonry work on a recording studio and he worked at the music store/recording studio, so he knew a little about recording.
We tried recording in our living room and it sounded like crap, carpeted floor drywall walls/celing. Ya need a room that is padded on all surfaces or get lucky and find a room that sounds good naturally. My .02

[Scream And Fly]

Nick, if this is a live performance, I would go with what David suggested (Mendo). If this is 'studio' project with your band, I would suggest using a 4-track (or better) mixer and go right into your PC or laptop. Live recordings can be very difficult, and you'll have to experiment with mic placement and other variables. It all depends on the sound you want, and how much time you're willing to put into it. For my recordings, I always use Cakealk Sonar XL, but has a hefty price. You can get something like Cakewalk Home Studio at a very good price, and it's very powerful.

If I can help in any particular way, just let me know.

Greg

[Propelled Marine]

My buddy's got all that expensive stuff. I was looking for something a little simpler, has anybody tried the new Sony minidisc recorders? Or somthing comparable

Thanks again

[AnthonySS]

We have done what Mendo mentioned and made CDs from the cassete.



All we used where some SM57s to record, stratigically located...it worked great:)

[Scream And Fly]

Nick, I would skip the MiniDisc. I never liked them, but I can get into that another time ;)

I think hard disk recording is the way to go, but that is not always practical. Those small hard disk recorders are great, and they are getting really inexpensive. Like Anthony said, use Shure SM57 mics - they are my personal favorite, and are especially good for acoustic guitars and vocals.

Greg

[Propelled Marine]

I'll look into it........thanks again

Greg, I wouldn't mind hearing your take on the minidisc. I mentioned it because I read this minidisc (http://www.epinions.com/content_158298050180)

[Scream And Fly]

Nick, the MiniDisc is much better than a cassette or reel to reel, but I like the much faster access times of a hard disk. I really don't know about those little recorders - I would not trust the inputs in them at all. It will probably work fine, but I set up my studio for hard disk recording ;)

Greg

[pyro]

The most important factor has been left out here: The microphone.

The mic's that are sold for use with the minidisc recorders are VERY good for recording entire room sounds, such as live music. Any good condenser mic will work well.

Musician's Friend?!?!? Jeesh, feed the corporate machine some more, why don't you?
That's the way to support local business, right?
God forbid you would actually buy something from a real store...

-Chad
(I work in a REAL music store, not a corporate monster...)

[mendo]

The most important factor has been left out here: The microphone.

The mic's that are sold for use with the minidisc recorders are VERY good for recording entire room sounds, such as live music. Any good condenser mic will work well.

Musician's Friend?!?!? Jeesh, feed the corporate machine some more, why don't you?
That's the way to support local business, right?
God forbid you would actually buy something from a real store...

-Chad
(I work in a REAL music store, not a corporate monster...)

You are right Chad, the Mic is the first link and one that is cheeped on often.

Hey Chad, I think you should plug your store more often. I would buy from you if you were near me. I fully appreciate the local store and the local knowledge that comes with it.

Jump in and help him with a solution, he will buy from you. He won't be able to get much help from them.

I don't even know where you work, only saw part of it once when you riced out someones car with cardboard wings and stuff!!

Let me know what the name is and if I can I will support it.

[pyro]

The store I work at is Music Go Round. It's an independently-owned and operated franchise. It's my father's shop. I work on band instruments and guitars, we buy them, fix them up and re-sell them. We deal mostly with used stuff, but we sell some new items as well. www.musicgoround.com has a search function that you can use to search for used gear at all stores nationwide, or browse an individual store's inventory.

The stereo MiniDisc recorder microphone is a "consumer" item, it's actually more common in Hi-Fi shops than music stores. Audio-Technica, for example, makes a mic for this purpose, but they consider it a "consumer" item, so stores that sell "pro audio" equipment (such as live & studio mics) are not usually allowed to sell them.

Most vocal and instrument microphones are designed for near-field pickup. Vocal mics, for example, are designed for the singer to have their lip in contact with the mic. At 4 inches away, it only picks up about 30% of its full signal strength, and the low end becomes very weak. These "dynamic" mics are terrible for recording entire room sound. Condenser mics have longer pickup range, they still sound good with the singer or instrument several inches away, and many of them are suitable for room miking. Large-diaphagm studio condenser mics are very sensitive and may be suitable for this purpose, but they require a "shock mount" to isolate vibrations that will produce annoying booming sounds in the recording. "PZM" type mics work good for room recording, but many of them have poor sound quality. These are a "plate" shaped mic that lays on the floor. They are available rather cheaply from Radio Shack.

The MiniDisc type mics are a stereo (separate left & right) condenser mic with a long pickup range.

Ideally, a four track recorder will allow you to take a line output from the PA mixer, and perhaps another three mics for drums and guitar, which will tend to pick up bass guitar from a distance because of the strength of the low-end frequencies. The two drum mics could be: one mic in front of the bass drum, ideally a "bass drum mic" made for high sound pressure, pointing it "up" will help it pick up cymbals and toms from overhead; and another mic placed near the snare and hi-hat, to pick up these crucial percussive tones.

The sky's the limit...

-Chad

[Propelled Marine]

"The MiniDisc type mics are a stereo (separate left & right) condenser mic with a long pickup range."


Chad, Are you talking about the ECM-MS907?
I'm thinking that I would need this long range pickup

[Maureen M]

I used to record band practices with a Sony minidisc recorder and a plain old Shure sm57. Not the best setup (especially w/ the adaptors b/w the mic and the recorders) but it had a good enough sound for what we needed. (Mainly getting song structures down)

Also, on those days when I really wanted to depress myself, I ran a line out from my amp into the recorder so I would know what parts I needed to work on. Nothing like a lone bassline on disc to remind you to stop fooling around and play more carefully :rolleyes:



hey Chad, do you have any slides w/ a really small internal diameter in stock? I always wanted to fool around w/ playing slide, but they all fall off my scrawny fingers!:mad:


Maureen