Recording a band, need room and micing advice

[mark]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Hi,
I'm doing a recording soon in a single room. It is not designed for
recording to so I need to improvise and make the best I can out of it.
Its a fairly large rectangular carpeted living room, and wallpaper on
the walls and ceiling. Not sure of the dimensions off the top of my
head to be honest, maybe about 16'x34', perhaps bigger. Its certainly
not square by a long shot.

The instruments that I'm recording that will be effected by the room
sound are drums, vocals, and electric guitar. The vocals and electric
guitar will be overdubbed so there is not the problem of the drums
bleeding into other instrument mics, and the electric guitar is running
DI via an amp simulator (!) initially (it will be overdubbed proper
later via a guitar amp) so again no problem of bleeding into drum mics.

The only possible problems are the vocals and the guitar strumming sound
bleeding into the drum overheads, but hopefully that'll be very minimal,
they'll be at the other end of the room for a start, maybe facing away
from the drums to help.

So far for the drums I've figured I'll need some plywood to put
underneath them (read that somewhere) and I may need to dampen parallel
walls to eliminate standing waves, sound about right ?

I'll have 2 overheads on the drums (C-42's), not sure of the stereo
configuration for them, I'm not sure coincident pair will give a big
enough spread. Usually on drums I see a spaced pair. Any suggestions
would be appreciated Also is there a good place I could complement
the kit sound using a U195 ? Perhaps on the hihat or front of kit ? I
will experiment obviously but suggestions are good. Each drum will also
be SM57'd close up, and Beta 52 on kick.

Then there is the vocals. To prevent nasty reflections, my idea is for
them to sing towards curtains or at least some draped material. Again,
does this sound about right ? I'm using a U195 for the vocal, so it
will pick up any room nasties fairly easily.

Finally, there is the electric guitar. I'll be close micing with an
SM57, then a couple of feet further away, I'll probably use the U195
again. I'm not sure where best to have this in the room, and if I again
need to use some material to stop reflections.

Fortunately I have about 2 days to set this up so I can experiment, and
find bed matresses and such like if need be !

Any advice on all this would be much appreciated, thanks !

PS: I do not have any outboard compressors at the moment, I normally do
all that later. Is there anything inparticular though that may benefit
from compression while recording ? I had thoughts on getting an RNC if
need be.

Cheers !

Mark.
--

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

<< I'll have 2 overheads on the drums (C-42's), not sure of the stereo
configuration for them, I'm not sure coincident pair will give a big
enough spread. Usually on drums I see a spaced pair. >>

Coincident = mono compatible, phase coherent. Spaced = mono incompatible, comb
phasing. Coincident stereo can be very wide, determined by the angle of the
mics & distance from the kit.

<< Also is there a good place I could complement
the kit sound using a U195 ? Perhaps on the hihat or front of kit ? >>

Hihat would be somewhat a waste of a mic that has much better uses. I'd put it
out about 4 feet in front of the kit, about drummer's ear level.


Scott Fraser