Recording a band live in the rehearsal room/studio

ALR · June 2023

Due to having to replace a couple of Firewire interfaces withe a USB one (thanks Apple), I've not got 2 x Saffire Pro 40 interfaces and a 2011 Macbook Pro surplus to requirements. Obselete now, but still useful (it was a decent rig back then), I'm thinking about putting it all together to record my band in a rehearsal room. With 8 channels I reckon I can happily do a drumkit Glynn Johns style, bass, 2x guitar and singers.

The band I'm in is a recording project but moves along at glacial pace as everyone records their bits weeks apart and the recordings sound that way. Has anyone does as I'm planning, and did it spice up your band at all?

Stratavarious · June 2023

We used Bandlab online when we cannot meet.. there is a browser view and apps. Lifesaver in the pandemic.

You can pop the live session stems on there after recording and people can add, punch in or replace parts remotely.

But you can mix and master all in browser… for free

ALR · June 2023

It’s more capturing everyone playing together in a room at the same time and recording a performance I am trying to do, with eight or maybe more inputs (could theoretically go to 16)

Cirrus · June 2023

I've done it before, it's a lot of fun but it's a lot of extra work in rehearsal because as well as doing your musician/ bandmate job you've also got to have an engineer mindset and manage the mic placement, signal routing etc - so it's a lot of extra admin tasks for your brain. The bit I most enjoy about the process, to be honest, is the art of placing the various drums, amps and singers around the room so that they can be miked in ways that compliment the sound while also minimising spill from and into the other sources/ mics. Get that right, and the only hurdle left to overcome is actually playing tightly since recording really highlights any sloppiness.

Stratavarious · June 2023

ALR said:

It’s more capturing everyone playing together in a room at the same time and recording a performance I am trying to do, with eight or maybe more inputs (could theoretically go to 16)

Yep.. regularly do that, all our desks are interfaces to a laptop or record to USB directly. So we mic kit (OH, Kick & Snare or OH and kick), mic guitars, DI feed from bass and the 3x vox.

Then we have all the stems separate to mix/edit at leisure.

We do it at gigs or rehearsals. Bandlab is just a way to share the mixes/tracks after with each other. So if we have solid drum and bass tracks, we can fix rest.

Macca_25387 · June 2023

This is exactly how we started and how i got into recording really. An absolute must read is Moses Schneiders ebook - The Alternative Workbook. Invaluable for this very scenario.

TheBigDipper · June 2023

We didn't plan it, but my band has ended up practising at the keyboard players house. Electronic drums, everyone going direct into a Presonus digital desk which lets us record the stereo mix we're sending to the small PA in the room to Logic, and also send each individual channel as raw audio. So we can record the mix in the room (which is low on vocals coz they're live in the room, too) but also r3cord a multitrack for playing around with later. It's an impressive thing.

ALR · June 2023

TheBigDipper said:

We didn't plan it, but my band has ended up practising at the keyboard players house. Electronic drums, everyone going direct into a Presonus digital desk which lets us record the stereo mix we're sending to the small PA in the room to Logic, and also send each individual channel as raw audio. So we can record the mix in the room (which is low on vocals coz they're live in the room, too) but also r3cord a multitrack for playing around with later. It's an impressive thing.

Ahh great, this is pretty much what I’d like to do. As you say, with everything recorded separately then things can be overdubbed later if necessary. It’s good to hear it’s working for you.

Stuckfast · June 2023

I've done this lots of times, with other people's bands. A few tips:

Guitar amp spill onto drum mics often sounds great. The other way round, not so much. So don't be conservative with the level of the amps.

The main source of bad sounding spill is usually the vocal mics, so it often pays to replace the vocals afterwards. I'll often nudge bands towards miming the vocals while they track, in the knowledge that they're going to be replaced.

Don't try to get all the instruments as far away from each other as possible. It won't significantly reduce the spill but it will make you play worse and will make everything sound ambient and washy. You're better off putting the amps quite near the drum kit.

Many rehearsal rooms sound like shit. Find one that doesn't.

Take a DI of the bass if you can.

ALR · June 2023

^that sounds great, and I had thought about DI ing the bass (I’m the bass player in this band). Well I hope the guys will go for it when I suggest it. There seems to be a lot of gaffing around and trying to satisfy the requirements of DAW workflow instead of playing as a band. My plan is to have the songwriters have a song ready at the start of the day and a demo recorded in the manner above by the end of it.

AntonHunter · June 2023

Stuckfast said:

...

Don't try to get all the instruments as far away from each other as possible. It won't significantly reduce the spill but it will make you play worse and will make everything sound ambient and washy. You're better off putting the amps quite near the drum kit.

This is great advice. Took me a long time to understand that

Stratavarious · June 2023

My DI boxes have pass through so they are into the amp for the band and I get an XLR balanced input direct from the bass to the desk/multitrack.

There are a good few live desks that can record like the Tascam Model 12, Zoom L12 or L20 or wireless mixers like the Soundcraft UI24r.

If you want as much of the live band feel in a take as possible, these are the easiest and you can record gigs, Things miced do not need to go out front to be recorded.

PolarityMan · July 2023

We do this in our band sometimes. Personally I think its only really any good for capturing the drum performance as everything will need re-tracked once the drums have been edited anyways but it can be good for a kind of "where are we at, are we tight enough?" recording.

The other useful thing is to capture a multitrack so if one of your members is away / ill etc you can run them virtually and still have their part going on.

We have been in the ridiculous position once playing some new stuff for the 2nd time where virtual alex was the only one who got the structure right

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Recording a band live in the rehearsal room/studio

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