thinking of investing in some stuff for recording (mostly live stuff)

[philbracy]

well, im just kinda wondering exactly what id need to make a halfway decent sounding live recording. (im kinda new to this whole deal) ive got plans for a mixer with enough inputs to mic everything real good. lotsa microphones, an equalizer, into this tascam cassette deck.

pretty much just planned on going:

microphones on pretty much everything>>mixer>>eq>>cassette recorder

is there anything else i really need? my setup is going to be mostly for live/demo purposes. do i need anything else? compressors? effects? im not planning on doing anything huge with it, more just something to have that doesnt sound completly terrible, you know?

anyone have any ideas/reccomendations/anything else i would need or should change?

thanks, i know this is probably pretty dumb, but im real new to this and really would appreciate the help.

[JeffBarnett]

I really hate to make posts like this, but before diving into this, you really ought to have a one-on-one chat with a Sweetwater sales engineer. This is something I have had a great deal of personal experience with, and I used to do it for a living. There are just too many "what-if"s to effectively discuss in a forum environment such as this. I'd like to be able to sit down and trade questions and answers with you so we can find the best solution for your situation.

Please feel free to call me, or email me off-line, and I will call you.

[philbracy]

hey--thanks a bunch, sorry for wasting board space with the post, ill email you as soon as i get a minute.
-phil

[cmchamp]

Phil:
I'll put forth my 2¢ worth anyway.
You running live sound for the group you're recording? You can just get a stereo tap from the board, but I don't think you'll be happy with the results. When you're doing live sound, you're attempting to blend the house sound with the stage volume. Your recording will be heavy on the vocals and weak on the drums and guitars.

The only way to get a decent recording is to convince the guitar players that their amps need to be just loud enough for them to hear them. They need to trust you to do your job and mix them in, folding back some of their guitars to the stage monitors, and convince them that they'll sound better overall if they let you do your job.

When I record live, I multi-track. It's the best way to go, though not the least expensive.