We use a little ZOOM H1 device on a tripod. Set back by the sound board (if there is one) or in that general zone.

it has an 1/8th input and a usb connection that may be useable as an input.

We just turn it on and let it go.

http://www.reverbnation.com/thegreasemonkeyz

I've got a Zoom DR-05 that I've used sometimes but I either I'm never quite happy with the mix or I'll end up with spots where people have walked too close to the mic and it picks up their conversation.

ZOOM or Tascam or similar on a tripod in front is what I've seen in Denver. Outerwave use a ZOOM video camera and have posted some of the results. I've seen them used in Denver, but not the results.

You will generally get conversation no matter what you do, if it's a live show and you are not recording channels from any house feeds. The main thing is to avoid (too much) distortion and/or damping of some frequency bands.

You accumulate a lot of bytes quickly if you do this regularly and keep the results around.

I used to record some of our jobs, used a Korg digital recorder that could input 4 mics simultaneously. 1 mic on each of 2 guitars, 1 aimed at the drums, and 1 in the room for ambient sound. The drum mic would also pick up the bass. With some effort mixing this could produce a decent stereo recording, but may be more than you are looking to do.

Before digital, I used a Fostex X-28H 4-track cassetterecorder. It has eight inputs that can be mixed and recorded to 4-tracks simultaneous. My normal setup for recording our trio lineup would be:
1 mic in room for ambient sound
1 mic in front of twinreverb
1 mic or di for bass
5 channels direct out front of house desc for drums (or mic the drums separately, but it is hard to get a good mix that way).

If we didn't have time to get this setup right or were playing small rooms, we used two line outs of the desk in combinations with two room mics close to the stage to pic up the guitar & bass & room ambiance.

Nowadays I have a digital Korg 8-track that makes mixing and recording much easier. But I miss the old analog sound of the Fostex. It allowed for much louder recordings and a bit overdriven sound of the level peaks added to the atmosphere. Digital doesn't allow going in the red, it sounds awfull!

www.alohasluts.com
Aloha Sluts on BandCamp
www.arnyzona.com (my photography)
Aloha Fest on facebook

Dont know why I said Zoom when I meant Tascam Dr-05. They work pretty well. The gain adjustment is pretty good for something so cheap. The best place I found to put it is where you have a good balance in the room.

That being said I'm debating on getting a couple of DI boxes(keys and bass) and a cabinet simulator(for me) and then using my DR05 and my keys player DR05s line out (the condenser mics are pretty good) for drums all into a USB interface. I'd like to be able to mix it myself later. Does that sound reasonable?

My friend just bought a Zoom R24 at the weekend. Very impressive and inexpensive, they also make 8 and 16 track models which are pretty much the same specifications. I spotted a used R8 at auction for £90 a couple of weeks ago. That is a lot of functionality, it's tiny and weighs nothing.

So far I've found the back of the room to work well for getting a honest representation of the band, however, crowd noise can interfere with the recording. I use mine to record rehearsals in the WAV format. For shows (where I turn it on and don't turn it off til the set or show is complete) I use the 320kbps MP3 setting to save file size. Really here no difference in quality, I prefer to use WAV format for any sweetening I might do in Wavelab. In a small room, the drums can overpower the mix quite easily so you need to position the unit such that the drums aren't "hitting" the mics directly. I've mounted mine to a tripod and stood it up vertically (mics up) at about 4 to 5 feet off the ground and gotten decent results, I do lose a bit of brightness from the amps. For an example, I recorded Mr. Moto for the 2013 SG101 Compilation (track 26) this way, the drums were still pretty hot. Just need to get it out and use it, you'll find what works best for your band and venue pretty quick. If you want to get serious you can use multiple mics thru a mixer down to 2 track into the line in and get quite good results. Here's a link to a demo I did for a friend who wanted to hear my Warmoth Strat. I replaced the audio on the video with the track from the DR05. (no critiques please just a sample). You can see the DR05 aimed at the amp, near the floor in the video. http://youtu.be/9iZMkH_NUAY

Last edited: Jan 29, 2014 01:25:19

arny wrote:

Before digital, I used a Fostex X-28H 4-track cassetterecorder. It has eight inputs that can be mixed and recorded to 4-tracks simultaneous. My normal setup for recording our trio lineup would be:
1 mic in room for ambient sound
1 mic in front of twinreverb
1 mic or di for bass
5 channels direct out front of house desc for drums (or mic the drums separately, but it is hard to get a good mix that way).

If we didn't have time to get this setup right or were playing small rooms, we used two line outs of the desk in combinations with two room mics close to the stage to pic up the guitar & bass & room ambiance.

Nowadays I have a digital Korg 8-track that makes mixing and recording much easier. But I miss the old analog sound of the Fostex. It allowed for much louder recordings and a bit overdriven sound of the level peaks added to the atmosphere. Digital doesn't allow going in the red, it sounds awfull!
Really cool! we have fallen in love with cassettes. We recorded a lot of gigs with a good digital set up and it was fine, crystal clear and all that good stuff, but the funky compressed, slightly over saturated sound of cassette has us hooked. We place 2 condensers in front of band and try to point them at guitar amps. Sounds really good, everything is mixed and ready to go. Reduce a little bit of low mids and bam. We'll probably put an album out with the results.

TIME TO ROCK!!!

I have made dozens of recordings of live gigs. Used to bring an Alesis Masterlink and an ART tube pre amp and a couple of expensive studio condenser mics. It turned out ok, nice and clear but something was missing. I have been using this Marantz cassette deck and am just loving the sound. The results are very warm and cohesive, everything sits in the right place for the most part. Slightly mellowed out due to the qualities of tape.

TIME TO ROCK!!!