To all mobile producers or amateur engineers

[BloodyMurderKaraoke]

Someone on this forum said that it is not totally necessary to have any gear at all to track a demo for a band. I take it to mean gear as in a bunch of guitar amps. However, if I was going to maybe try a mobile recording gig, do I need to ask the band to provide things like microphones and stuff for drumkits?

I'm going to buy a Presonus Firepod pretty soon, but I only have 3 dynamic mics and a condenser at the moment and I am thinking I need at least 6 to really mic up a kit. However, I don't have a kick drum mic or specialized overhead mics. Is this something a band should have?

I would plan on just replacing the kick anyway with triggering, and maybe even the snare if I couldn't get a beefy enough sound. How difficult is it to use one mic for like 3 toms and use triggering to replace each?

Thanks for the input!

 

[Sloan]

Don't count on a band to have mics.

 

[AudioPhile777]

Someone on this forum said that it is not totally necessary to have any gear at all to track a demo for a band. I take it to mean gear as in a bunch of guitar amps. However, if I was going to maybe try a mobile recording gig, do I need to ask the band to provide things like microphones and stuff for drumkits?

I'm going to buy a Presonus Firepod pretty soon, but I only have 3 dynamic mics and a condenser at the moment and I am thinking I need at least 6 to really mic up a kit. However, I don't have a kick drum mic or specialized overhead mics. Is this something a band should have?

I would plan on just replacing the kick anyway with triggering, and maybe even the snare if I couldn't get a beefy enough sound. How difficult is it to use one mic for like 3 toms and use triggering to replace each?

Thanks for the input!

If you've made it this far... you should know the answers to these questions.

Dont expect the band to have anything to capture live sound... or they'd probably do it themselves.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Yeah I do the moble thing and pretty much don't exspect the bands to ever have gear worth a shit.

The assumption has been right 100% of the time so far.

 

[dreamcatcher]

Don't count on a band to have mics.

...or a decent drumset that is at all in tune

Seriously, ask them for their working inventory and if they have any "favorite mics" that have been blessed by the Dalai Lama or some shit.

That, and engrave your name into all your shit. Even the cables.

 

[doc_backmask]

don't exspect the bands to ever have gear worth a shit.

The assumption has been right 100% of the time so far.

+1

If they did, they'd be here already.

 

[dontletmedrown]

It is not necessary to own gear at all. You can book time at a studio, but you will need to be familiar with their gear, or pay for an assistant. It will cost some cash up front, but then you just charge that to the client on top of your own fees. For instance, you can take the money that you will use on a Firepod and book a day at the studio and record with primo gear, but if you don't know what you are doing, you will waste time and $$$.

 

[Student]

If your lucky the vocalist will have a mic, that means that you have 1 mic left over after the gtr cabs...unless you go line out and impulse them.

Bass usually goes direct, so go inst. in, or use a good DI.

Drums are where you really need some mics.

If you go direct and impulse guitars from FX loop, and the vocalist has a mic, then you have 3 mics...kick, snare...and...one overhead....those drums will suck...

Rent/buy some mics and charge extra...if you have to go to their garage...charge a day rate...borrow some mics, so you can at least trigger all the drums or something.

This is a tough one man....I did a 3piece in the early stages of my learning curve and went direct on the bass (sounded better than miking his amp), miked the gtr. and miked the drums poorly...luckily I took a DI of the gtr and reamped and tom hits were rare...but man...

Borrow some mics.

 

[nwright]

Also, one mic will not work for all 3 toms, IMO. I could see ways you could make it work, but the time and effort wouldn't be worth it, and the chance of it sounding like ass would be really high.

If you are totally squashed for money, you could buy/use some cheap mics to get you by these early projects to build up capital to invest in better stuff.

I bought a CAD 4 piece drum mic set with mounts for 150 bucks, in a case. The bass drum mic is actually very usable. the tom mics are OK. Using the miked tones from these and blending with samples (using these mics as triggers) has been great for me. For 100% replacement, though, they have a little bleed and require some cleanup.

for my first few projects, I had some ddrum pro triggers that we use for our band that I used...No mics at all, except on the snare. They were great for replacement, as the signal was clean and required pretty much no effort on replacement with drumagog. YMMV, of course.

 

[BloodyMurderKaraoke]

hey cool suggestion for the 4 piece drum mic set! i had the feeling I was going to have to buy more mics at 100 each!

 

[ryanojohn]

Yea I'd say go with a mediocre mic kit if you're going to replace sounds, and buy two nice overheads... get a pair of 57s, a few 58s, and at least 2 DI boxes... then you should be all set... you can find those used to maybe $40-50 each

 

[greyskull]

dont count on anything