Guitar Gear Forum

Hello
Me and my bandmates play some sort of improvised psychedelic space rock. What we play is all most impossible to record in one instrument at a time fashion.
So we want to record everything together.
The drummer lives in outskirts of city in a farmhouse. So we are gathering recording equipment and setting up things at his place.

Has anyone done this before ? I need some inputs regarding recording equipment and some isolation techniques such that sound of one instrument doesn't bleeds too much into another.

I had an analog studio for 14 years. It had one room for the band and one control room/lounge so, leakage was always a problem when recording multiple instruments.

Carpet covered plywood doesn't look pretty but, it helps block direct leakage.
Stand them around the drums and around the amps.

Assuming that you are giving each instrument its own mic, put the mic as close to each instrument as possible.
Use DI Boxes when possible.

Facing the amps away from each other and away from the drums helps reduce leakage.

Try to record at the lowest levels that you can without compromising tone.

Hope this helps!

Zoom H6

Boom.

Sounds interesting... to say the least. Good luck and post clips!!!

duncan wrote:Zoom H6

Boom.

That Zoom H6 looks great! I wish they were selling the H6 when I bought my H4N

Right now we have planned to mic each instrument separately, on guitars ( me ) I am going to use Jet City JCA100HDM a Framus 2x12 cab with celestion V30, and will mic it up with Shure SM57.

Drummer plans to use 3 mics for drums, one for snare, one for kick, and one condenser mic for overhead.

Thanks for tips guys, we have planned the recording session end of Christmas holidays, I will convey these inputs to my band members.

I use a Tascam DR-1 with the external Tascam condensor mic to do this. Work really well!

I have a ZOOM H2N, which has delivered surprisingly good quality in rehearsal space, for guitars and bass at least not so well in case of drums.
I do plan to use it in this recording session too, to capture the overall atmosphere.

If you are needing to play together, but want the best isolation per track, why not just do iso boxes for the mic'd amps and wall off the drums with carpeted sub walls like someone was talking about, then use in ear monitors or headphones. There should be enough ambient stage sound plus your monitor headphones and still be able to keep the recording tracks fairly clean and isolated.

I don't know how well that method would match up to your existing equipment, or the hardware you are planning to buy/use.

^ Good suggestion but I think they want a solid studio-live sound. Besides... their whole mojo is based on off the cuff improv stuff. I imagine that wouldn't be easy to accomplish with everyone in their own world with ear monitors etc.

Oh, I though his primary concern was track isolation when recording, as opposed to recording one instrument at a time.

Mike LX-R wrote:^ Good suggestion but I think they want a solid studio-live sound. Besides... their whole mojo is based on off the cuff improv stuff. I imagine that wouldn't be easy to accomplish with everyone in their own world with ear monitors etc.

Exactly !

It looks like I'll be asking Santa for some Hooked-On-Phonics tapes.

Hahah

Close mic everything and let it bleed. People have been recording live for a long time. Nothing wrong with it and I personally dig the way it sounds.

Cool, while googling a bit on this subject, I came across some pictures of recording setup of one of my favorite bands Russian Circles, and they didn't had much isolation between various instruments either, and they sound amazing.

yeah seriously, a little bleed in a studio live type of setting won't kill the project. Especially because there will be very little post production... i imagine...

If post production and wav editing was crucial then yeah, you'd need solid isolation.

Recording live separates the men from the boys.

^I actually agree 100%. Van Morrison (don't laugh fuckers Van is the shit) recorded Moondance studio-live like on the second take. Not just for him, but for the whole band... that says a lot.

I wish I had more examples, and I wish more young cats would kick it old school. For a 30 year old I'm really really really out of touch with how most guys are doing the whole music thing these days. I'm glad guys like randumb.tune are willing to capture teh live mojo in a bottle like a crocodile hunter. There's life in live recordings.

Mike LX-R wrote:^I actually agree 100%. Van Morrison (don't laugh fuckers Van is the shit) recorded Moondance studio-live like on the second take. Not just for him, but for the whole band... that says a lot.

I wish I had more examples, and I wish more young cats would kick it old school. For a 30 year old I'm really really really out of touch with how most guys are doing the whole music thing these days. I'm glad guys like randumb.tune are willing to capture teh live mojo in a bottle like a crocodile hunter. There's life in live recordings.

Who the fuck is gonna front on Van Morrison?!? Sure as hell won't be me.

And I completely agree with everything you've said here.

Thanks guys, there are many bands that I derive inspirations from do recording this way. Some examples are:
My Brother The Wind, Öresund Space Collective, Yuri Gagarin.

If you are looking for a tasty dose of psychedelia these bands will provide it.

randumb.tune wrote:Thanks guys, there are many bands that I derive inspirations from do recording this way. Some examples are:
My Brother The Wind, Öresund Space Collective, Yuri Gagarin.

If you are looking for a tasty dose of psychedelia these bands will provide it.

My whole solo album was recorded live but my amp was isolated in another room. But the B3 and Leslie were in the same room as the drums and it sounds really good IMO. YIf you're interested, you can download the album here (for free):

http://sonoffire.bandcamp.com/

^I checked out that link. Still listening. Cool shit!!!

^still listening... loving this album Shea!!!

Mike LX-R wrote:^still listening... loving this album Shea!!!

Thanks Brother!!!

Fun fact about that record, the leads were cut live. For the few tracks that have rhythm guitar behind the leads I actually went back and overdubbed the rhythms. Its totally assbackwards but it worked OK I think.

Now if I could only find a gat damn bass player...