Recording Jam Sessions.

[thinkintriplets]

Hello All,

I'm a total newbie. I honestly do not know the slightest thing about recording. So while trying to search for recording tips on this site, I became overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge and felt as though I needed to start a new thread.

All I want to do is record the jam sessions of my band. We have a mixer, and a couple of vocal mics.

The room that we jam in is not the best. It's basically a concrete box with soft wooden board around the bottom third. The room is 300 square feet, with 20 foot ceilings.

We're a progressive rock band w/ a guitar, bassist, drums and vocalist. So we have a lot of distortion, but many non-distortion guitar parts as well.


All we're really interested in is getting something on tape so we can see how all the parts of the band mesh together, and to see how tight we really are. We're not looking for something of superior, or maybe even good quality; just a recording that will allow us to distinguish all the parts of the band.

If anyone could help us out, it would be much appreciated.

Marc.

[PRSWILL]

It really depends on what your recording set-up is like as well as the board your going through- How many subs and Aux sends do yo have on the board? what are you recording with ? Provide some detail on your gear and I am sure you'll get a lot of help.

[tech1]

I'm worried about that room. Concrete can a nightmare to record in, as everything may wash together and become incoherent due to its highly reflective nature. The best bet is to close-mic the drums, and run direct outs from the amps to the recording device if at all possible. If not, close mic the amps to avoid bleed and maintain separation.

[jpleong]

???

This may seem silly but isn't the point of his whole question to just make sure they sound "tight" for practice purposes? I would imagine something simple, like a four-track (Tascam 424, Fostex MR8, etc...) taking the stereo out of the mixer and combined with a stereo room mic pair. If it doesn't have to be decent quality, you could get by with a cheap stereo mic pair like certain brands who's name-I-will-never-mention. In a pinch, you could just throw up a DV camcorder and use the audio from that. I'd even suggest, if they have enough ins on their mixer, just using a cassette tape deck and recording the stereo outs if they have enough mics to cover all the instruments.

JP

[thinkintriplets]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the replies. I'll get some pictures of the room and a better description of the equipment we have this coming Friday.

Marc.