MALIK ARSHAQ
Live tracking a band
IN one room
In a lot of scenarios, it so happens that the band may want to track live, either
because multi-tracking is a more time-consuming process or because longer
studio time may turn out to be too expensive for the band or simply because the
band wants to record that way. In any case, it’s a lot more challenging to achieve
a recording where the tracks sound isolated and clean as opposed to when they’re
multi-tracked. This is because, since all the musicians are being simultaneously
recorded in the same room, it is inevitable to avoid the mics from bleeding into
one another.
‘Bleed’ is basically what happens when a mic assigned to a particular instrument
picks up sound from another instrument in the room. This results in the
recording of that instrument having a lot of unwanted information, making it
difficult to process. The key is to not try to eliminate the bleed entirely but to
restrict it just enough to achieve a good recording.
• One of the first things that you will have to consider is the placement of the
instruments or amplifiers with respect to each other and their mics. Usually,
the vocals are recorded in a different room or an isolated vocal booth but in a
scenario where you do have to place the vocalist in the same room as the rest
of the band, you’ll have positioned him facing the loudest instrument, which
in most cases are the drums. This is done so that vocal mic will not be able to
pick up much information from the drums. To achieve this you’ll need to use a
dynamic microphone with a cardioid polar pattern to stop limit the drums from
bleeding into the vocals. This cymbal bleed is caused by sound bouncing off the
wall behind the vocalist. You can dampen the wall behind the vocalist with a
thick fabric layer or anything that absorbs high frequency.
• If you have two guitar amps, then level matching the sound of the amplifiers
ensures that the drum bleed into both amps is nearly the same. Try to a find a
spot around each of the amplifiers where you can hear minimal sound from the
amp (the ‘dead spot’ is typically on the side) and position this side of the amp
towards the overheads, the most sensitive mics in the room. This way you get a
minimal bleed from the amps.
• For a live tracking scenario, it is essential for the monitoring to be done through
headphones and not through speakers as these would again bleed into the
mics. Especially, if there’s any latency, monitoring through speakers would be
disastrous as it would result in a strange double effect being recorded due to the
monitor bleed into the more sensitive mics.
• Using DI boxes to record will enable you to record the direct signal from the
instrument which gives you the option to reamp the signal later, in order record
to the guitar amp and the room sound without the drums and other instruments.
• It is very important to make sure that the bass amp does not bleed too heavily
into the kick mic since it would be harder to clean up the signal as they fall into
the same frequency range.
• Ensure that mics picking up sound from the same source are not out of phase.
Additionally, basic acoustic treatment – the placement of sound diffusers and
bass traps in the room will help in achieving a better result, especially if room
mics are used.
While live tracking can be tricky, approached correctly, you will be able to
translate the essence and energy that the musicians bring to a live performance,
into a recording.
28
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com