Live Recording

[Soundie]

A good compromise with only a stereo recording device is to separate the left and right channels of the recording to be different thing. What you decide need to be separate depends on what it is that you are recording.

 

For example, quite often I record gigs, only simple ones, with vocal on one channel and then everything else on the other. This gives the chance to change the vocal level at a later stage, of course at a sacrifice of a mono end result. I usually use a pair of auxes to create the mixes for each channel that I'm recording. This also depends on a low amount of crosstalk between the two channels that are recorded.

[Ste69]

A good compromise with only a stereo recording device is to separate the left and right channels of the recording to be different thing. What you decide need to be separate depends on what it is that you are recording.

 

I had thought of that but didn't know how well it would work. I would need an insert lead with the 2 ends in 2 aux outs and the one end in my sound card I'm presuming?

[Shez]

I had thought of that but didn't know how well it would work. I would need an insert lead with the 2 ends in 2 aux outs and the one end in my sound card I'm presuming?

If your sound card has an unbalanced, stereo jack socket in, yes.

[ferrisio]

Firstly, you haven't said what your laptop external soundcard is, or at least how many inputs it has. If it's only two, can the internal card be pressed into service to provide more inputs? Test in advance obviously, and leave it running for a while to check!

 

But I think what I'll do, to save time and effort and because I'm not the sound engineer on that day I'm just doing a recording, is ask the band to turn their back line down a bit so more volume is coming from the PA. Mainly because I don't have an XLR splitter and there wouldn't be any space for my 32 channel mixer behind the sound desk. I shall explain this to the band and see what they think.

Expect them to be a bit pi--ed off I reckon, if they have decent gear. Especially with guitar amps, getting the volume up is very important to getting a good sound (for the player). Having said that, now I'm the one making assumptions - you haven't said what kind of music it is.

[Jivemaster]

If you have a multitrack recorder then an option is to record separate channels or small groups then remix later.

 

If you have only two ( ie stereo) then a simple mix on the fly is all you can do.

 

There is some benefit to having a single stereo mic recording the gig inc the audience, even if it only gives you a reminder of the real gig sound.

[MarkPAman]

Five ways to do it really.

1. Record stereo out the desk
   
2. Set up an recording mix on auxes on the desk
   
3. multitrack off the desk
   
4. Split before the desk and multitrack / mix live
   
5. Stereo ambient mics in the room
   

 

 

If you have 4 inputs available then a combination of Shez's methods 1 and 5 can work remarkably well. I've even managed to successfully use 2 separate recorders for this - a minidisc recording the FOH sound and a camcorder picking up the ambient sound. It took a little time to sync things up afterwards though.

 

Do look at these posts again. With no multitrack James's combination method can be very good, and it really is not too hard to sync up two different (digital) recordings afterwards with today's software.