Recording "Living Room Gig"

[HeadCrusher]

Well, not "really" Metal I hope someone can help me anyway though...

The plan is to record a singer/songwriter concert in a small space that I don't anything about yet. There'll be about 30-50 attending (who know that it's being recorded - they'll mostly be the guys friends and their friends).

All instruments (guitars, maybe bass and an electric piano) will be DI'ed so I don't need mics for them. He'll obviously sing into a mic to record his voice. There will be no PA system (as I said: small room...).

The system that I have for that gig is a PC with Cubase and a FireFace 800 with stock Mic Pres only. So there will only be four (4) mic inputs.

Now there shouldn't be a problem as far as instruments go and the singers (and maybe background) voice shouldn't be too bad either (probably SM58s).

What I'm kind of worried about are the room mics... I don't know what the guys I'm helping out can come up with... What would be ideal for this task / what should I tell them to look out for? Where in the room should I put the mics in order to record some "live-feel"? I recon I have to keep in mind where I want the instruments in the mix when setting them up on stage already as their image will be in the room mics just like that.

Lots of things to ask... Any hints? Of course other suggestions regarding this whole thing are very welcome as well! Thanks all in advance.

 

[jezeke]

Hej,

I regularly record live gigs using my Rode Nt5 mics, but i have never had experience in recording a band without PA system. So i maybe totally wrong in the things i say. But if it would be me recording the gig i would make sure that i have the time to do an really extensive soundcheck, trying out different mic positions, making sure the sound is very wel balanced acoustically, making a few test recordings, maybe changing the stage positions, ...
I also think that the sound of the room itself is something to consider when choosing mic placement.

As far as mics go, i would recommend some kind of decent quality large condenser mics, like AKG C414 (gives you the opportunity to try different directional types).
As far as positioning them, i would try to start with positioning as if they were audience, and use them as a coincident pair.

The most important thing to in my opinion is time, make sure you have the time to make mistakes, to use your imagination, ...

Keep in mind that the only rule is that there are no rules; if it sound good for you is good!!

Btw, why not take a few pictures afterwards and post them here on the forum, together with an audio example... :Smokin::Smokin:

 

[HeadCrusher]

Hey dude, thanks for your reply!

Actually the gig is still some time in the future (probably won't happen till the end of May) but I wanted to make sure to start researching early in order to make it as good as possible. But I'll make sure to post pics of the room/setup and the original material (not sure if I'll be mixing this personally).

As this is a really quite thing (Singer/Songwriter acoustic show) I imagine it doesn't really make a difference wether there is a PA or not. The guy will be playing with his acoustic guitar (recorded via DI) and be singing into a mic that is just used for recording his vocals. There might be one or the other additional musician but that's not confirmed yet.

I might acutally be able to get my hands on a pair of C414s! :Smokin: I guess setting them up in XY-pattern about 2-3 meters in front of the singer wouldn't be a too bad idea! That way they should already be "in" the audience and therefore capture enough applause and stuff. What do you think about that?

Any additional mics you would set up (with only 4 preamps being available... )? What did you mean by recommending to use the mics as a "coincident pair"? (Probably a language barrier on my side here... )

What really worries me are the additional instruments... Can't really move them in the stereo field afterwards if I'll be using the Room-mics in the mix. Also they might be louder in the mic than they acutually are in the room... That should be a really tough one.

Have a nice sunday all!

 

[jezeke]

hej,

My best guess about setting up the room mics would be in the back of the living room, since you use them to record the ambiance (this depends on the volume of the gig of course). That way you can use the direct lines for defenition, and put the room on for the live feel/audience. The best way to figure out the best place is still to listen and try. A good way of figuring this out is by walking around the room and listening for the optimal positions soundwise, remember or mark the best places and then do test recordings to compare them.

If you mix the direct lines in the way they are on stage, and put the rooms on with them, i think the stereo image would be ok.

By a coincident pair i meant any stereo pair, you can experiment with xy, ab, ms, ...

 

[wishtheend]

Personally, I don't think the DI acoustic is going to sound all that great by itself, so I would try to mic it s if you were just tracking acoustic guitar. Of course the vocals will bleed into that mic - but it's going to sound much more natural and less dry.

Micing further back will give you a lot of depth/room sound but depending on the vocalists projection you might loose some of the acoustic under his voice. I think treating the mics as front row audience members is a good bet. If you can, spot mic the acoustic with a small diaphram condenser. You can always add verb to the SM58 track - but DI acoustic just sounds really weird to me. You should be fine with the piano and bass DI. If the electric piano is really nice, just getting there stereo signal should be plenty wide

 

[HeadCrusher]

Hey guys thanks again!
If i have one more spare mic chanell I'll definitely put up a mic for the guitar. And yeah, the electric piano that'll be used is really nice so that should be fine.
Although atm it's not sure wether this is going to take place or not... Ah, well, gigs come and go...