A buddy of mine is in a band, and they paid for almost half of my MOTU Traveler audio interface ($850 USD MSRP) in exchange for me helping them record a demo CD.

They are a rock band, and I have (essentially) no experience recording live instruments. I know there are other forums out there suited to this, but, it's always nice to see it from the perspective of those who also produce trance/house/techno as we tend to think alike.

I plan on using Audacity... simple and effective.

I need to record the typical rock instruments (electric guitar, bass, drums, vocals, occasional keyboards/pads/etc.) I think the thing I'm most concerned about is the electric guitar, and getting it to sound good. It seems like that would take up so much overhead and I fear that I am going to have trouble getting it to sit well in the mix and not drown everything out. (EQ advice appreciated...) Should I use some of the same tactics I use in EDM production, such as sidechain-compressing the kick with the bass and/or electric guitar to make sure that the kick really stands out?

I'm going to be recording in my home studio, which is essentially a small bedroom with no real acoustic treatment. We realize this isn't going to be studio quality, but we'd like it to be better than your typical "record everything through a single mic in a garage" demo. I plan on mic-ing each drum separately so that I can adjust their levels independently. I also suggested that we set the drums up on a piece of plywood for its reflective properties.

Any advice is appreciated!

Don't worry about overhead. Mix with plenty of headroom and worry about headroom during mastering. You can sidechain the kick to the bass if you need to, if the kick and bass are going to occupy the same frequency space. Guitar sound is mostly in the preamp but a little EQ is also required. Take it real easy on reverb, or else youll get that noob who can't use a reverb decently sound.

First of all, when you don't have experience mixing any bands, I think it's strange if you charge money, but that's up to you.

For a clean recording of the guitar, you can record the guitar solo over the total recording, as many times as you want. For rock, I'd recommend getting 2 good recordings of the same guitar track, to pan them hard left and hard right. This gives a cool wide sound with relatively little effort.

Btw: check this software, it's free, and allows you to do easy dubbings over and over, plus multitracking.
http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

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All rhythm evolves around a kick...

it's only a demo right?
Mic Drums: Kick, snare, and o'heads,
use a 57 on guitar cabs,
and DI the bass.
58 for vocals,
no overdubs,

and bob's ya uncle.

Mind they may want more for what they paid.

quote:

Originally posted by Pjotr G First of all, when you don't have experience mixing any bands, I think it's strange if you charge money, but that's up to you.

I didn't really "charge" them exactly. My buddy (the lead singer) knows I produce, so he goes "could you record a demo for our band?" and I said "probably, but I don't really have the equipment for it." He then asked what I would need and I told him I was working on getting an audio interface (Firebox at the time). He said if money wasn't an object, what would I get, and I told him the Traveler. He then offered for the band to pay for almost half of it in exchange for me being their bitch for a while and recording the demo. I couldn't exactly pass that up.

quote:

Btw: check this software, it's free, and allows you to do easy dubbings over and over, plus multitracking. http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

Thanks! I'll check it out.


Thanks for the advice so far, guys.

Personal opinion.. having gone down this road before...

Have them record the drums at a local studio... that has all of the appropriate mics / studio space / experience and then get the session from them. Do all the guitar / bass / vocals at home.

If you've never done this before, your drums are going to eat ass. there's no way around this. recording drums the right way is an art form. let a pro do it. you can noodle through the rest of the process at home with your traveler.

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BEATPORT

more analog, more sidechain

quote:

Originally posted by Pjotr G Btw: check this software, it's free, and allows you to do easy dubbings over and over, plus multitracking. http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

That software looks great! But, whenever I record something, and play it back, it's playing like 4 times too fast... what gives?

I don't know but it sounds like a conflict between the program's sample rate and your soundcard's sample rate.

___________________
All rhythm evolves around a kick...

quote:

Originally posted by Pjotr G I don't know but it sounds like a conflict between the program's sample rate and your soundcard's sample rate.

Oooh good point, I'll check that.

mixing is always the same.. it doesn't depend on the genre. it's just the frequency balance which is different between genres.

obviously you can use all the tricks from edm. actually edm is always pushing the technology forward and other genres are following the same rules some years later.

but don't forget about the recording part. Shit in, shit out. It's not a walk in the park.

___________________
All rhythm evolves around a kick...

quote:

Originally posted by CReddick Personal opinion.. having gone down this road before... Have them record the drums at a local studio... that has all of the appropriate mics / studio space / experience and then get the session from them. Do all the guitar / bass / vocals at home. If you've never done this before, your drums are going to eat ass. there's no way around this. recording drums the right way is an art form. let a pro do it. you can noodle through the rest of the process at home with your traveler.

This is probably a good idea... Hate to say it because I know this band will be pissed, but drums are a real pain to make work...

Anyway, for vocals you should use either a condenser up front or a 58 up front and a condenser a little further away (probably would go for a single condenser up front unless your acoustics are good)

For guitar you could (now you have a flashy interface)
1/ do a similar thing to the vocals and mic a guitar cab, then suffer infinite retakes as the guitar tone won't sit properly in the mix.
2/ DI in (with the guitarist monitoring the tone he thinks he wants, out of one of your outputs or using a y cable/ signal splitter) then re amp using guitar rig/amplitube/ some sort of DI box (eg line 6 pod)
3/ ask the guy how he wants to do it! it really depends on what gear your guitarist has...

For the bass you should probably DI as mentioned earlier.

You should have enough inputs in any event