Hello fellow friends of the recording & production world,
We have all been challenged with recording or mixing a live
show. Mixing a live performance is nothing like doing work in the studio. I
have done numerous of live recording sessions and let me say that there just as
much work or can sometimes be more than one could bargain for. It is true that
your live recording will only be one take with the songs but we must keep in
mind that we have to make due with the tracks we have. Understanding when
recording in the studio we may have many different takes and of course if
something doesn’t work out then we can always re-record. Right?
Still, lets keep in mind that it’s a tuff world for all
engineers when recording a live show. We often run into the following:
Which way do we face the amps, where do we position the
microphones, which microphones do we use?
No doubt about it, knowledge is key when running into
phasing issues or extra pink noise during these recordings but it’s important
to understand the difference between live versus studio recording. One issue I
run into a lot is trying to keep the amps at a volume that is easy to record
and keep the audience satisfied with sound. For this I always aim the amps
backwards from the audience to give me optimal sound. I use dynamic microphones
and position between the cone and edge of speaker. I try to keep the drums with
two overhead microphones and put a microphone on the kick and snares. I would use the SM27 for drum overheads. I like to use very simple microphones for live recording. The reason for this is because I had way too many of my expensive microphones destroyed during live shows. I really
like the idea of using the SM7B microphone on live vocals when recording live
inside a building or if outside I would prefer the SM58.
The main reason for using the above microphone placement is
for the later use of editing within my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). I
notice that the sonic sound is a little more mature, clear, and allows me much
more possibility to warp or time shift as needed to line up the tracks to the
grid. If this is your first time recording a live performance I would recommend
finding a good book on live recording or sit in to observe a group or
production company. Most of the time assisting another company will be no issue
along as you seem interested and your ambition shines through.
Here is another solution to a very simple live recording technique. Of course you would need to be very creative to pull this off but here is a youtube video of me actually using only one microphone from the Q2 ZOOM camera. I had to do some quick edits within Final Cut Pro X and I needed to master the audio a little bit but here is the idea:
So rock on and
let me know if you have any further questions!
Thank you all very much, Joshua Knight
