Recording our live worship band: HELP!

[DADGAD]

We have a couple lady singers at church who want to audition for a major women's organization. So, the WL at our church decided to record the worship music this weekend. He wants to put together a CD as sort of an audition or demo for them.

I'm a tad nervous. I think that knowing that we are recording will not allow me to be in my normal playing "mood". Does that make sense? I am considering turning around, with my back to the congregation, so that I can watch the other musicians and lock in better.

Is there something I need to know to prepare? I have done studio recording but nothing like this.

Thanks!

Gary

[still_fiddlin]

Mostly, don't worry about what you're doing, unless someone tells you to change. And, that should happen in a dry run.

Also, just audio recording? Really, just forget about it. Cameras are stickier, but just get the cameras focused on those ladies. (You don't want to be standing there with your back to the audience the entire time, I don't think.)

Has the WL done this before? I'm still trying to get a live recording to sound right. You need good mics, with good placement, which may not even be possible in a live worship setting, and you'll want multi-track capability off the board, at least with vocals isolated, to be able to tweak a bit.

At least give it a shot in a rehearsal beforehand to get a feel for the balance you'll hear on the recording. Can be an eye (ear) opener. Your ear can compensate amazingly when listening to something in a live setting, e.g., to hear the vocals that will sound buried in the recording, or tune out/down the drums that are "everywhere" when you listen later.

[Jeff_K]

Sticky widget for sure. We multi-track our recordings and even with that great ability, it still takes a real talented recording engineer to mix it right so there isn't too much of any particular instrument. This is not something you'll probably pull off well the first time with great results.

While it seems like a good idea, isn't worship the point of worship? If you all try to dial into making a demo tape rather than concentrating on worship, you'll probably not have the best result either. I hope it works out for you but it sounds like an oncoming train to me. We have struggled with our recordings for many years and had good results ONLY with a very experienced ear working the recording mix. And--at least in our case--the recording and the soundboard are not the same thing. They mix the house for the ambient sound whereas the recording mix is direct to recording (not through the house) so it takes a talented hand to take those direct tracks and make them sound good together. It's quite a challenge.

[DADGAD]

Fortunately, this will only be an audio recording. Good point about the quality of the guy doing the mixing.

Everything is recorded with quality mics. I will be bringing my own condenser for my tube combo amp. (My SM57 picks up some hum from the power transformer.) The mixer is a ~64 channel digital board. 8 mics on the drums alone. The only direct feeds to the mixer are from the GK bass amp line out and the SWR acoustic amp line out. Sample rate is 96K and 32 bit (float).

Sounds like the downer will be that the preset EQ will be tailored for our house sound. Oh, well. I'll just focus on the "groove" and see how it turns out.

[tomringg]

Very different mix for the house vs. recording. You have quite an impressive sound board. Hope it comes out OK. Good Luck!

[still_fiddlin]

Not sure a mic change is going to affect hum from your amp, but if it's 60Hz, they should be able to trim that out on the board.

A dynamic, low impedance mic with balanced cable run shouldn't be getting anything from the AC line, and a better mic is only going to do a better job of picking it up if it's audible noise from the speaker.

If you've got something coming through the board, I'd look at ground loops between AC powered effects, DI boxes, preamps, etc., and your amp.

Stick with the mic you play with all the time, is my suggestion. Not the time to change any piece of equipment.

[sax4blues]

Originally Posted by DADGAD

So, the WL at our church decided to record the worship music this weekend. He wants to put together a CD as sort of an audition or demo for them.

Why does the recording session have to be during live worship? There are 167 other hours during the week that don't have the added pressure of "live" essentially one take playing.

Originally Posted by DADGAD

I'm a tad nervous. I think that knowing that we are recording will not allow me to be in my normal playing "mood". Does that make sense? I am considering turning around, with my back to the congregation, so that I can watch the other musicians and lock in better.

Being nervous makes sense to me. What also makes sense to me is keeping things as normal as possible so you don't inject more variables. If you don't rehearse/play with your back to the congregation I wouldn't start at the moment of performance. Also there was another post regarding worship time being worship time. If I'm in the congregation I'm wondering why you're standing with your back to me this week while leading worship.

[DADGAD]

Originally Posted by still_fiddlin

Not sure a mic change is going to affect hum from your amp, but if it's 60Hz, they should be able to trim that out on the board.

A dynamic, low impedance mic with balanced cable run shouldn't be getting anything from the AC line, and a better mic is only going to do a better job of picking it up if it's audible noise from the speaker.

If you've got something coming through the board, I'd look at ground loops between AC powered effects, DI boxes, preamps, etc., and your amp.

Stick with the mic you play with all the time, is my suggestion. Not the time to change any piece of equipment.

An SM57, or SM58, is a single coil of wire wrapped around a magnet. Ergo "dynamic mic". In an electromagnetic field, it is just like a single coil guitar pickup. The CMMR of a balanced line does not help the voice coil, even though it is low impedance. Wave an SM57 near the HV power transformer of a tube amp and you will hear it. Usually, I hang the mic on the front of my grill cloth. A condenser, though brighter, does not pickup EMF hum.

[still_fiddlin]

Don't want to derail, but if it's possible, but why doesn't everyone have a hum problem from stuffing an SM57 into a speaker then? They get used in studios, and if it was a noise generator, seems like it would have been eliminated from that use a long time ago.

Maybe it's the axis of the coil, from draping the the mic & cable? I've got a Beta 57 nosed into my PRRI, and the only noise I hear is from some pedals (when on), and maybe a tiny bit of amp hiss, depending on the volume level. My pickups can generate a bit of hum (very well shielded), if I stand right in front of the amp, but that's it.

[still_fiddlin]

So, how'd it go?

[jb12string]

I would try to do the recording at some other time other than the worship service. If that wasn't an option, I definately track everything seperately. We do this with our band at times. We use a Firestudio with 2 ADAT's that we use specifically for the imput/output (no tape, just plugged into the firestudio) into a MacBookPro with a external firewire hard drive

[DADGAD]

That's how it was done, jb12string. Everything had it's own separate track. When the mixing and mastering are done, I'll ask for a CD and post a link to the audio. I'll see if I can get something this weekend.

The Saturday evening rehearsal went great. I wish they would have recorded it. The Saturday service ended up with lots of errors by the band. Different band on Sunday and the performance was much better. I used a Les Paul Studio with Burstbucker Pros for both services and wan the only musician that played both days.

Gary