Live Recording Advice

Kevinrice

New Member
Not sure if this is a redundant theme, but a search turned up very little.

To set context, I play Irish Traditional Music. The instrument I teach and play is called the Bodhran. My father runs an Irish Music Academy here in Chicago.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-clearing/id287375739 (My Band)

We have been playing around with doing some live recording (an early test here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9p_pLr0F-4 ) and I am looking to get some best practices or resources for advice.

We have quite a lot of live sound gear (16 channel board, amps, subs, mics, you name it) and we created a whip for simplifying the direct out from the board.

At this point we have been using what I would categorize as a pretty straight forward setup to do live recording.
Equipment:
- MacBook Pro 15", 4GB RAM, 250GB HD.
- Presonus Firestudio Project
- Allen & Heath GL2400-16 live mixer
- Logic Pro 9


I created an 8 channel input template within Logic and then turned off the count in. I start with this and "Save As" for the gig.

I have not really tried to change the input channels to add compressors, and that is an area that I think would be helpful. We have predominantly acoustic instruments. Drums, violins, flutes, tin whistles, guitars, keyboards, even cellos and violas. the makeup and textures of these instruments vary greatly.

Also, I did the recordings as one long session and have done both post gig track splitting and stop/play a bar/record (w/in logic: space>space>r) to create some separation. I think this is the area which I can benefit most around. There has to be a better way of capturing the gig.

Anyhow, looking for some general guidance.

Thanks in advance
 
Not sure if this is a redundant theme, but a search turned up very little.

To set context, I play Irish Traditional Music. The instrument I teach and play is called the Bodhran. My father runs an Irish Music Academy here in Chicago.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-clearing/id287375739 (My Band)

We have been playing around with doing some live recording (an early test here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9p_pLr0F-4 ) and I am looking to get some best practices or resources for advice.

We have quite a lot of live sound gear (16 channel board, amps, subs, mics, you name it) and we created a whip for simplifying the direct out from the board.

At this point we have been using what I would categorize as a pretty straight forward setup to do live recording.
Equipment:
- MacBook Pro 15", 4GB RAM, 250GB HD.
- Presonus Firestudio Project
- Allen & Heath GL2400-16 live mixer
- Logic Pro 9


I created an 8 channel input template within Logic and then turned off the count in. I start with this and "Save As" for the gig.

I have not really tried to change the input channels to add compressors, and that is an area that I think would be helpful. We have predominantly acoustic instruments. Drums, violins, flutes, tin whistles, guitars, keyboards, even cellos and violas. the makeup and textures of these instruments vary greatly.

Also, I did the recordings as one long session and have done both post gig track splitting and stop/play a bar/record (w/in logic: space>space>r) to create some separation. I think this is the area which I can benefit most around. There has to be a better way of capturing the gig.

Anyhow, looking for some general guidance.

Thanks in advance

Hi Kevin

There may be lots of advice coming your way shortly but there's nothing wrong with your technique if I understand your post correctly. Keep it as simple as possible with no inserts and cut/split/fix everything after the show.

Maybe I am missing what you are really asking here.

Tony
 
I have not really tried to change the input channels to add compressors, and that is an area that I think would be helpful.
You mean in Logic? No, makes no sense here. The input channels are after the audio interface, there is only the digital signal and you can work on that later on.

If you want to enhance your sound you got to add a compressor before the audio interface, where it works on the analog sound. This makes sense if you have hardware you like very much. Otherwise just record dry and do any sound work afterwards.

We have predominantly acoustic instruments. Drums, violins, flutes, tin whistles, guitars, keyboards, even cellos and violas. the makeup and textures of these instruments vary greatly.
You can use individual mics to have better access to critical instruments in post processing. But as you know it is not easy to record single instruments in a live band like yours. The stage would look like a recording studio and you would irritate the musicians if they aren't used to it. I think some acoustic treatment of the room, if possible, and a good overall sound is the way to go.

I did the recordings as one long session and have done both post gig track splitting and stop/play a bar/record (w/in logic: space>space>r) to create some separation. I think this is the area which I can benefit most around.
As Tony said, there is nothing wrong with your approach. Just use Logic as a recording machine and split afterwards. However, it is a good idea to make a backup copy once in a while.
 
Back
Top