Bring 'Em Back Alive

Jan 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Rusty Cutchin

           
 

Get Set

The person in charge of recording also has plenty to do before the Record light goes on. Whenever possible, the engineer should check out the band beforehand to get a sense of what will be needed in the studio or at the band's next performance. Common tools to control sound in a studio, such as acoustic panels, baffles, and pop screens, may not be available or desirable for live performance (see Fig. 2). Mics used onstage are likely to be different from those used in the studio, especially if the band plays loudly.

FIG. 2: Acoustic panels and pop screens are essential tools in studios that record bands live. A recordist capturing a live band onstage may have little control over the acoustic environment, but he or she can use windscreens to control plosives on vocal mics.

Onstage, “Black 47 uses a combination of drum machine, rocking guitars, uilleann pipes, and a horn section,” says Lerman. “There are a lot of open mics around, so I might use a [cardioid dynamic] mic like a [Shure] Beta 57 or hypercardioid-pattern mics to cut down on bleed. But in the studio, I use ribbons and condensers set to figure-8.”

The band's makeup will dictate the arrangement of players in the studio. If you're recording a band with two amplified guitar players, for example, those players will require more isolation than if you're recording a band with one guitarist and a keyboard player. You can usually plug keyboards direct into the recording system (most often through a mixer) and route them back to the players' headphones, avoiding the signal bleed that must be controlled with multiple guitar amps. Electric bass is often recorded direct as well, without miking the player's amp.

The more musicians whose instruments require mics, the more care must be taken to position the players in the studio. However, eliminating all bleed into nearby microphones is an unattainable goal. “In a project studio, unless you put a wall up between people, you'll never get rid of spillover,” says Lerman. “For me it's a performance issue, not a technical issue. The best thing is to rehearse the band fully, so you don't have to worry about bleed.”

Go Solo

Common sense suggests that the complications of recording a live band are significantly reduced if the artist is a soloist, such as a singer-songwriter. In the studio, that may be true on a technical level, but the more intimate nature of most solo performers' music means the recording will be more vulnerable to quieter noises from a squeaky chair, a bumped mic stand, or fingers on guitar frets, as well as other extraneous sounds that might otherwise be masked by a band's volume. Darlington recommends walking all around the room and listening for subtle, unwanted sounds while the artist runs through the material to be recorded. “That allows me to check that the overall room sound is as good as it can be, even before selecting the mics I'm going to use. It also lets the singer get properly warmed up, so that the first take is likely to be usable, instead of wasting recording time when the vocalist isn't really ready to sing.”

FIG. 3: Portable isolation panels known as gobos can help control reflections on stages and in rooms that don’t have isolation booths. When drums threaten to overpower other players, acrylic plastic panels can help solve problems with spillover.

An inexperienced solo performer will be in much better shape to begin recording after this warm-up period. The performer must be comfortable with the positioning of mics, and they shouldn't be placed in a way that will interfere with the performance. Although it's easiest for the recordist if a guitar stays in a fixed position relative to its microphone, a singer-guitarist may deliver the best performance while standing and moving unpredictably. It's the engineer's job to capture a good performance, not to make the performer conform to what's best from an engineering standpoint.

When a soloist performs onstage, the challenges of a live venue can become more problematical than the ones facing a larger ensemble. With quieter music, the room sound and the audience's behavior may become more critical to the recording. In a club, stereo or wide-pattern mics can pick up sounds coming from the bar or kitchen. You might have to dampen a squeaky or boomy stage floor with carpet. Feedback from acoustic guitars is harder to control onstage, yet many engineers prefer a miked acoustic to even the best sound-hole pickups or piezo transducers. Occasionally, the artist's own instrument is not up to par, and someone might need to round up a substitute for the recording. As with a larger band, the key to handling such challenges is preparation. There's no substitute for a thorough familiarity with the artist, the instruments, the material, and the recording space.

Los Gobos

When recording an ensemble, although you can completely isolate the instruments by using overdubs or sampled sounds to build an arrangement, “the goal with a live band is to capture the performance as it sounds in the room,” says Skye. “A certain amount of bleed — for example, a little hi-hat on the snare drum track — is normal.” Only when a major mistake or series of mistakes by one player causes continual retakes by the entire band does bleed become a major problem, and then only if the engineer hasn't separated the instruments properly. An overdub can often mask the bleed from the original take.

FIG. 4: A circular setup is an effective way for groups to perform and record live in ?relatively small studios. With the musicians facing one another and all the mics pointing outward, band members can communicate easily and the likelihood of significant bleed will be minimized.

Often the most difficult instrument to control in a small studio is a drum set, because of the volume and the number of exposed mics needed to capture the kit's full sound. Carefully placed baffles and gobos (mobile acoustic panels) can help control bleed to mics on the kick, snare, and hi-hat (see Fig. 3). In a tight space, drum overheads can double as room mics to capture the overall ambience as well as the sizzle of the set's upper frequencies.

Another way to control bleed (and enhance communication between musicians) is to set up the band in a circular arrangement (see Fig. 4). Most mics will be directed toward the circle's perimeter, reducing their sensitivity to all but their assigned sound sources. If mics such as drum overheads are exposed, or if they have broad pickup patterns, a high-quality noise gate can help to minimize spillage. As a last resort, for recorded passages when the main instrument isn't playing, you can digitally edit out audible sounds from other instruments.

Of course, if you're recording the band at a club, you'll be at the mercy of the environment. You probably won't be able to use absorbing panels around the drums, but as Darlington points out, the popular Plexiglas or acrylic shields that drummers use are a big help in isolating other instruments from drum mics and drums from other instruments' mics. “The shields are more reflective than an acoustic panel in a studio,” he says, “but they mostly surround the kick, snare, and hi-hat, which are close-miked anyway. It's not usually a problem if overhead mics pick up stage sounds. Sometimes it adds to the excitement of the recorded performance.”