Band wants to record all at once! How to set up monitoring?

[Recgek]

Hey guys,

I need a little help with monitoring:

Usually I record just drums and scratch tracks of the guitars at once, but the next band insists on playing all together and recording it at once.
I currently use Cubase SX3 with 2x echo layla and 2x RME octamic D. I do have a small outboard 10 ch. mixer and a Behringer 4ch. headphone amp. How would you guys set this up? I mean how can I create an individual monitor mix for every person?

I hope someone could give me some advice cause I only have a few days to modify my setup and maybe buy additional stuff that is needed to make it work!

Thanks for any help!!

 

[MetalWorks]

I would probably just make sure there is a good mix of all instruments audible and send that to the headphone amp where the inividual people can have their volume turned up or down.

They play live hearing eachother in a balanced mix, so they should be able to record the same.

I would mainly worry about the drummer so that he can definately hear himself and other important elements to keep timing.

And if the 4 channel headphone amp isnt enough outputs, use a stereo y adaptor/connector to split the signal to 2 headphones off 1 output. That should work fine for 2 guitarists or guitars and bass.

Whenever I record its basically whatever the drummer needs is most important and the rest seems to fall into place.

If you have enough aux sends in your mixer to create special mixes, then try routing the tracks individually from Cubase back to the mixer inputs for monitoring. Send the mixer input to an Aux Send and you can give Aux 1 a special mix for the drummer by dialing in how much of each track is sent to Aux 1 and the rest go to Aux 2.

If you have 3 or 4 Aux sends then you can continue to create more special mixes.

I think the Behringer Headphone Amp should have a main input and each channel should also have its own Aux input so you could route mixer aux sends to that and control the volume accordingly as well.

Maybe im talking out my ass.

Hope something helps.

You should be able to conjure something with your existing setup.

 

[Recgek]

Thanks man!
All sounds logic but I just never had to deal with it before.
Very helpful!

Anyone else who want to share some monitoring tips/tricks?

Thx!

 

[RKelly]

If they're in the same room, don't worry abotu too much cymbals in the mix. A little bit to where the drummer's happy but usually they hear a lot of that anyway.

Pick the important parts and focus there adding other stuff as channels permit. Kick, Sn, Gtr 1, Gtr 2, Bass, Vox?, should give you a decent starting point. Bring the toms all up on a mono or stereo fader of your console adjusting the volume inside your daw to level them all out.

If at all possible set it up so you can listen to their monitor mix too, a lot easier than just guessing when things are loud enough!

 

[PhilR]

Don't worry about it. They're used to playing in rehearsals so make sure everyone can hear everyone else then let them get on with it. I've recorded loads of bands this way and we don't give them any monitor feedback at all as there really isn't any point. We usually set up a speaker for talkback but thats it.