EQ Magazine - February 2008 - (Page 40) STALKING THE WILD STEREO IMAGE or mic stand), and record the sound of the monitor speakers plus the band. Some bluegrass or old-time bands sing into one microphone, so mount the recorder and mics next to that mic. To record a small folk group or an acoustic jazz group without a P .A., place the mics about three to six feet from the ensemble (Figure 2). If the group plays in a circle (as in an outdoor jam or rehearsal), try placing omnidirectional mics in the center. Or just walk around with the mics while monitoring the mics over headphones. Find a spot where you hear a good balance, and put the mics there. If you’re not working with your own band, ask the musicians’ permission to record them during a break in the music, and here’s a word to the wise: Get that permission in writing. While the band is rehearsing a loud song, make a trial recording. Set the recording level 818-847-0222 Fig. 2. One method of stereo miking a jazz group. “The MA-200 instantly became an integral part of my drum sounds. From the moment I first put a pair up, they have continued to impress me with a wide open and balanced sound. I've tracked great sounding vocals, drums, guitars and bass through these mics, and my clients are consistently blown away by the results.” so the meter reads about –6dB maximum. This allows some headroom for surprises. Peak levels above 0dB result in distortion. Some portable recorders include a limiter that prevents recording levels above 0dB, and others have a clip or peak LED that flashes when the recording level is too high. Pay attention to these levels, because while you can always bring up levels if they’re too low, fixing a clipped signal is extremely difficult. Think this is a picture of a camcorder? Actually, it’s a DAT in disguise, and you can use it to record your band. Tips For Savvy Live-Recording Engineers Bring a Limiter. If you’re going to be recording from the mixer outputs, bring a limiter. Yes, most portable recorders have internal limiters, and if that’s all you have, it may be better than nothing—if you use it only to trap significant peaks, rather than compress the overall signal. However, a quality limiter will give quality results. Consider a FireWire Mixer. Got laptop? Then a FireWire mixer can do double-duty for mixing your band, and providing a recording feed to your laptop. For live use, this saves a lot of gear lugging. Avoid distortion. If you have enough tracks, it’s worth splitting crucial tracks (such as lead vocals) into two tracks—one trimmed down about –6dB to –10dB compared to the other. If the main track hits an “over” by exceeding 0, you can use the –10dB track to cover for you, and bring up the gain to match that of the main track. Move Up. Several companies make portable multitrack hard-disk recorders with varying capabilities (mic preamps, expansion ports for external hard drives, etc.).These will let you add some audience mics, have a separate track for the lead parts, and the like. However, as you check out various units, make sure they’re fast on their feet. Some units make you wait for a while when saving to disk—which is not very helpful for live gigs. Also make sure there’s a sufficiently big hard drive to record entire sets, or, if not, the ability to expand via FireWire or USB 2.0 drives. Multitask Your Camcorder. A typical miniDV handheld camera’s audio is basically a DAT, and most have line inputs so you can bypass the mics with either a feed from a P .A., or the output of a couple of preamps fed with quality mics (although the mics in camcorders can sometimes give surprisingly good results). However, before you do any recording, check the menus for audio, as there may be an option for 12- or 16-bit recording. Of course, you want the 16-bit version. Also, check whether “wind cut” is enabled. This is a lowpass filter that you don’t need if you don’t have to worry about wind in your recording environment. If you do use the internal mic, remember that they are mostly stereo, with two mics in the same capsule. As a result, keep side-to-side motion to a minimum, or you’ll hear phasing/flanging effects owing to the right and left channels being so close together. Where’s the Audience? In a typical 2-track recording scenario, you won’t have audience mics, so you won’t capture applause very well. No problem: Invest in a sound effects record and throw some audience noises in the background. I won’t tell. Promise. Read EQ. There was a really great article in the April 2007 issue about how to set up your mixer to do double-duty for P work and live recording. Check it out for some great .A. tips. —Craig Anderton Ryan Hewitt (Engineer/Mixer: Red Hot Chili Peppers, blink-182, Alkaline Trio) 40 EQ FEBRUARY 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.mojaveaudio.com http://www.mojaveaudio.com http://www.eqmag.com
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