Recording a Band Live

In an era when technology has allowed musicians at opposite ends of the Earth to collaborate by sending data through the information superhighway, it's no surprise that there are some seasoned veterans in the music industry that complain about today's music losing that classic "vibe and energy," the kind that can only be created by a group of musicians playing and making great music in one room all at the same time. Truly, the advent of the multi-track tape recorder in the middle of the 20th century has increased the recording fidelity of music and expanded the recording engineer's palette in the studio, but it has also inadvertently isolated the musician more and more from his colleagues, muting the feel and experience of playing together with them as one group. The irony is that while technology has allowed us to come up with more pristine and accurately uncolored recordings, some purists claim that it has also created for a colder, sterile sound and a seemingly clinical recording experience.

With computers and recording software getting more powerful as each day passes, it will one day become possible for virtually anyone to record an infinite number of instrument layers in an infinite number of tracks (limited by the processing power of your computer, of course) in basically any environment one can think of, and this may well be the standard of recording music in the very distant future. But what of the trained recording engineer knowledgeable in the true fine art of capturing the essence and energy of a live performance from an entire group playing simultaneously? Is he/she doomed to merely fulfilling a demand in a highly specialized niche in the industry with his/her "arcane" knowledge of tried and tested mic positions and engineering technique? While some new school and young engineers who grew up mixing, processing and recording through Pro Tools would agree, I would decidedly beg to differ.

As computers become capable of handling many situations that would otherwise require a sum of people at hand, there has never been a more important time in the history of the music industry to learn, practice and experiment with engineering techniques concerning recording a band playing live. The exacting, cold-steel precision of computers and automation must give way to the human touch, and not vice versa. In recording a band live at the studio or at another venue, the disciplined engineer must recognize the benefits of sound bleeding through microphones and use them to his advantage, but must also at the same time know when bleed simply becomes noise, thus affecting his decision as regards mic choice and placement. In matters such as these, experience becomes the greatest teacher.

Volumes can be written about how to record live music, but there are some recording principles that are basic and common throughout. First and foremost, check for phase between microphones that are picking up the same source, such as overheads. One way to check is to listen to the sources in mono as you search for sounds that seem to drop out . Second, listen to each mic by soloing them through your mixing console to check that you're getting the sound that you want for each instrument with a mic. There isn't a general rule for micing an instrument, but if you're getting too much bleed going into one of your mics, position it to angle away from the source of the bleed (e.g. if recording a guitar amp near the drummer with an SM57 and you're hearing too much snare bleeding into it, move the amp further away from the snare and angle the mic so that the tail end of the SM57 points to the snare. The cardioid pickup pattern of an SM57 minimizes the sound it picks up at approximately 180-degrees of the front grill. You may also opt to place a gobo between the drums and the rest of the instruments.). Lastly, properly set your recording levels so that they average in at around 0dBV (or a point between -12 to -20 dBFS in your DAW, depending on your convertors) to maximize headroom and prevent clipping. 0dBV isn't a hard and fast rule, especially in recording other types of music, but it's a suggested starting point to consider.

Indeed, technology has made some things more convenient and practical in the music industry and in the recording studio, but we also have to carefully discern situations where it hampers creativity, excellence in music and the accurate capture and representation of the human spirit. As was once said, music and sound technology should be an aid, not a crutch.