Simple recording from the desk

[solo4652]

Hi folks,

On Saturday, my band's at a local festival where there is a hired-in PA, backline and Sound Technician. I'm wondering whether this is a good opportunity to get some decent recordings done.

Now, go easy on me please - I have NO experience whatsoever of recording or mixing, and I'm not brilliant with IT in general. So, is there a real easy way we could take some sort of output from the mixing desk and capture it?

Steve

[Monckyman]

Hi Steve, yes there are loads of simple solutions.
It does depend on the desk being used though, and you need to ask the engineer nicely because they don`t usually like the extra hassle.
First, if the desk has unused aux outs, then a stereo pair can be sent to your laptop/minidisk whatever recorder, or if the desk has a Matrix out section, it will be very easy to take a stereo line from that too.
Take lots of cables and adapters to suit your recorder. A decent desk will usually have 1/4" jack outs for matrix and xlr for auxes.The engineer will apreiciate you not making him look for cables!
If at all possible, try to contact him before the show, and discuss it, he`ll know what to expect then, but if thats not possible, get to him as soon as you can when you arrive, so he has time to prepare.
Be aware that a desk recording will not provide a balanced mix, but will favour things that are quiet onstage, and wont perhaps have so much guitars that are loud etc. reverbs and other FX are usually louder than preferred also.
MM

[solo4652]

[quote name='Monckyman' post='1323406' date='Aug 1 2011, 07:10 PM']Hi Steve, yes there are loads of simple solutions.
It does depend on the desk being used though, and you need to ask the engineer nicely because they don`t usually like the extra hassle.
First, if the desk has unused aux outs, then a stereo pair can be sent to your laptop/minidisk whatever recorder, or if the desk has a Matrix out section, it will be very easy to take a stereo line from that too.
Take lots of cables and adapters to suit your recorder. A decent desk will usually have 1/4" jack outs for matrix and xlr for auxes.The engineer will apreiciate you not making him look for cables!
If at all possible, try to contact him before the show, and discuss it, he`ll know what to expect then, but if thats not possible, get to him as soon as you can when you arrive, so he has time to prepare.
Be aware that a desk recording will not provide a balanced mix, but will favour things that are quiet onstage, and wont perhaps have so much guitars that are loud etc. reverbs and other FX are usually louder than preferred also.
MM[/quote]

Thanks for your help.

So, if I take my laptop, will the engineer plug into its microphone socket or a USB port?

[Monckyman]

Yes your laptop will have a line in/mic socket, but, you`ll need some recording software!

[solo4652]

[quote name='Monckyman' post='1323508' date='Aug 1 2011, 08:39 PM']Yes your laptop will have a line in/mic socket, but, you`ll need some recording software![/quote]

Audacity?

[flyfisher]

[quote name='Monckyman' post='1323406' date='Aug 1 2011, 07:10 PM']Be aware that a desk recording will not provide a balanced mix, but will favour things that are quiet onstage, and wont perhaps have so much guitars that are loud etc. reverbs and other FX are usually louder than preferred also.
MM[/quote]

I understand the point, but doesn't this make it fairly pointless to capture an unbalanced mix? It's not as if it's going to be possible to re-balance it later (unless I'm misundertanding something here).

I've often thought about doing something similar but have discounted it because of this.

[solo4652]

I have one of these: [url="http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/recording-studio/detail.asp?stock=08102916514428"]http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/recording-st...=08102916514428[/url]

Could I use an instrument lead to plug it straight into the desk?

Steve

[Slipperydick]

Done it twice at different venues and it worked quite well for us, but it didnt pick up any audience sound, or at least not much.
So if you want applause etc, to get a real live sound, it might be worth considering adding an extra mic thats not in the front of house mix if thats possible, and if the engineer doesnt think its just too much hassle.

Edited August 2, 2011 by Slipperydick

[Monckyman]

Steve, yes you can use your input device, but I think it`s a mono device no?
Might be nicer to have a stereo mix.
Audacity is fine, I use that myself along with Wavelab for stereo recording and editing.
The size of the venue will usually dictate what endes up in the mix, larger or open air venues suit this best.
I`m not suggesting it will be a useless mix, just pointing out that a loud guitar onstage means relatively less in the mix. Ditto bass.
Vocals, acoustic instruments and often keyboards,having no onstage amplification generally end up quite loud along with fx, which are hard to hear in the venue, but much clearer on the recording.
I`ve had some great mixes from simple desk chuck ups so it`s well worth doing, if only for a recording of the actual performance.
As to the use of ambient mics for audience reaction,that starts getting a little more complicated in that the FOH engineer won`t want a couple of condenser mics in the FOH mix, while pointed to the FOH...
So he would need to do a complete submix of inputs NOT going to FOH but only to the recorder.And be careful they aren`t so loud that you lose your mix and just get the audience shouting slurping and farting.(as they do). Takes more time, makes soundguy vexed and unco-operative, unless you take him sweets and chocolate.
I often use a Digidesign Mbox mini, which gives me two inputs on 1/4 jack with input controls and a headphone for monitoring, straight into Wavelab for excellent results.
I hope I haven`t made it seem less worth doing, because I`m only pointing out the possible negatives so you can get round them and get a good recording.
MM

[51m0n]

Not to put a downer on your efforts, but IME a desk mix is ususally so completely unbalanced in a smaller venue as to be useless, almost no drums, massive vocals, massive keys, almost no guitar ansalmost no bass being the usual outcome, all eq'ed to work through a PA in that room means it will only be of use as a notepad for the vocalist. IME.

You would be far better off getting a Zoom H2 and having someone look after it and record the sound in the room - that way you actually get a mix of the gig in entirety.

The only way to get a great mix off a desk is to multitrack the entire thing, which is way outside your budget I would think (unless you have a handy HD24 knocking about, or an RME UFX, in which case you wouldnt be asking these questions anyway).

[Monckyman]

Just to ask, Steve, is the fest you`re at part of the Islington Mill line up on Sat?