Live recording of bands

[C. Hanson]

Hi, I assume this is a suitable place to post this.
See what y'all think of my idea (I know it's been done, but I actually cant find many places/people that do it--certainly not around my area):

I want to run a side-line enterprise in recording bands, live, at their gigs. What the crowd hears is what gets recorded, warts and all (possibly editing out gaps between songs, tuning, chatter, etc, but leaving it all in if they want to).

Basically, the idea is that I turn up at the gig, (they've okayed it with the venue beforehand), I set up with a hard-disc recorder and a couple of condenser mics up the back somewhere, out of the way, and record the gig. Later on, I burn it down to disc in CD or MP3 format.

I'd charge, say, $200 for an unedited show (straight mix-down and burn) and about $250 for an edited show, with songs omitted, gaps deleted, etc. And a bit extra for fuel and accommodation, if required.

Most bands I know have done a little or a lot of studio recording, but nothing live. I think not many mixing guys have the time to do a recording as well as the mix, or in a small setting, not many bands have the gear to do it, or they can't find anyone willing to turn up and do it all night.

Have any of you done this, or doing it at the moment? Any tips, dis/encouragement to offer? Should I stop thinking about such shit right now?

[paul999]

Your purposed method will likely come out pretty lo-fi and not very accurate. This maybe one step above a camcorder but probably a step under a board tape. To actually offer your clients something you would need the right kind of mics, placement and mastering. I would read about what techniques and gear people use for pirating concerts then listen to their results. You are basically working within the same technical limitations that they are. There is some pretty good stuff. You have to consider that the back of the club is not the sweet spot. You will need portable enough gear that you can protect it. There are some smokin' stereo mic's you could guard/hold in the sweet spot of the room and wirelessly transmit to you HD recorder. I believe this is how the "best piracy is done". I've never done it and I am in no way advocating piracy BTW. There is something to be learned from their ingenuity.

Cheers

[Bigduggieface]

I am skeptical whether you can obtain the quality to justify charging a local band $200 (or $50) for such a recording.

It's more of a hassle, but you'll get much more mixing flexibility if you can spot-mic the performers. I've recorded a few bands by hauling in a 24-track hard-disc recorder, a mixer and a split-snake. The mixer is used as mic pres, and the split-snake is used to split the signal of the mics on stage by sending the mic signals simultaneously to the house PA mixer and to my recording rig. This will essentially allow you to record a multitrack mix of the band that you could actually have tracking and mixing control. You can rent a split-snake for about $20. Your Yamaha recorder can double as the preamps and recording medium.

Of course, this scenario dramatically increases your effort and time, but it will likely sound orders of magnitude better in the end. As paul999 pointed out, you're talking about making a glorified camcorder recording without the video. Give them a DVD of the video, you might have better success.

Ironically, I think you'll have a better chance at making this idea profitable by recording the Karaoke folks. Hell, they're drunk, they think they kicked ass. You could get $25 bucks if you offer a 1 or 2 song CD. It's easy to stroll in with your laptop, take a line off the PA, and record the stereo mix and a third track of vocals. Whip up a quick mix, compress the vocals a bit, and burn a copy. (Don't forget the AutoTune plugin). 10 minutes, $25 bucks. The only hard part is having to sit in a Karakoke bar to make a few dollars.

[Old Rocker]

We just hired a young fellow to record our gig last Wednesday. He came in with a laptop and did a three track recording off the house mixer(Stage left, stage right and vocals). He gave us a CD with all 30 songs mixed to his taste. I brought him an 8Gig memory stick and he gave me the three wave files. I am slowly cleaning it up but it is still poor compared to our normal 11 or 12 track basement recordings. It was well worth the 50 bucks to hear the live audience response to our material but that's about it.
After this experience, I am considering making a case with rollers that will turn into a table at gigs with the mixer and 32 track recorder permanently hooked up and bolted to the case/table. You can do magic if you have a dozen undistorted tracks to work with.

[garageband]

Yeah, $200 for a bootleg recording is pretty fanciful. It buys you a full studio day here at my pleasure palace with great mics, fantabulous equipment and my cheerfulness running the machinery.

Still, though, there is an opportunity here to hustle up some bi'ness, as the Old Rocker mentioned. Just watch out for rough bouncer-dudes who are overprotective of their domain.

BDF made a good call on the Karaoke thing. Probably $20 would sell every time. Again, work out the details with management ahead of time.

[C. Hanson]

Oh, it may be a dumb idea anyway, and I haven't even gone past the initial thinking-about-it stage. The money figures are entirely dreamed up: who knows how much this could be worth? Maybe next to nothing.
And now that I think about it some more, there could be school or community groups who might benefit. The sound plus video idea is a good one, too. Get a good video, combined with the decent sound gear, and you might have a product.
I disagree that it's not much more than camcorder quality sound and low-fi. I've done it with two of my bands, with just an entry level Behringer condenser, and the sound quality was very good (surprisingly good, in fact). The problem was the mic placement. See, the mic records the sound where it is in the room, and on both occasions I couldn't get to the best sounding spot (there are all kinds of factors at work when you're in the band and trying to do this).

Anyway, I'm glad for the comments and ideas I've got back from you guys, so thanks for that.

[dangercityskyline]

and my cheerfulness running the machinery

you have to be kidding...garageband, cheery? haha. i'm kidding, of course.

With regards to the live recording, a lot of places I've been to will let you record, but only if you take a line mix from the board. This means you have to rely on the house sound guy to get the mix right, and if he doesn't, you're pretty much screwed. And at a lot of smaller venues, they don't mic anything but vocals, kick, toms, and snare, which means you're relying on the drum and vocal mics to get what little bit of the guitar you can. and you may as well forget bass.