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By Lonnie Bedell
Step #1 Live Recording
Your live concert is recorded by a mobile recording truck.
A mobile recording truck is a "recording studio on wheels" designed for recording live
concerts, broadcast & audio for video production. Sometimes lower budget
project carry-in equipment and set it up inside, but it is difficult finding
space sometimes, and the loud sound makes it difficult to hear what you're
actually recording until it's too late.
At the end of the concert you get the multitrack tracks, most likely recorded
as audio files on a hard disk or usb drive. The industry leader is Pro Tools(tm).
Being a proprietary format you must mix in a studio with Pro Tools(tm). A common
open format is a broadcast.wav file, which can be read by many different studio
programs.
While tape-based systems have become less popular, they still have the advantage
in that they don't crash like a computer! Hard drives also can, and do fail.
Recording many large audio files onto a single computer is a challenge at best,
and having a backup is always a good idea.
Step #2 Overdubs
With all the spontaneity of your live performance intact,
your project moves into a "traditional" recording studio for overdubs. Overdubbing is
where you get to fix playing mistakes or add instruments that were not present
for the original performance. Of course in correcting mistakes, you can go
TOO far and ruin the live flavor of the live performance in search of a "perfect" performance
that never existed (or could exist). Some of the beauty of a live show is in
the mistakes. How much you correct depends on your tastes & how much money
you are willing to spend.
For choir projects, It's common to have select members
of the choir overdub their parts to make them sound stronger, known as "stacking" or doubling" the
choir. This counter acts the excessive leakage into the choir mics (and their
corresponding tracks) that tends to happen when the sound system is loud, making
the choir sound clearer.
If you're thinking about re-recording lead vocals or
a loud instrument, keep in mind that the reverberation from the original
performance is still going to show up on other tracks, so the lead has to
be re-sung exactly as it was that night or you will hear a "phantom" voice
in the background.
Step #3 Mixing
Once you're satisfied with the individual parts, your next step in the studio
is mixing. Mixing is where all the different sounds (tracks) get combined just
the way you want into a stereo mix. Instruments are at different levels, panned
left to right, and equalized to fit together well.
Step #4 Editing
Editing is where you arrange the order of the songs in
preparation for pressing your CD. Gone are the days of physically cutting
tape. As with overdubs, mixing & editing,
everything is done on a computer these days.
Step #5 Mastering
Mastering is the final step before CD replication, and
a "last chance" to
make small changes in equalization or compression before pressing. It is frequently
done in another facility with another engineer to get some objectivity on the
project, and a mastering engineer specializes in knowing how to make it sound
like what you hear on the radio. Some project skip this to save cost.
With so many project being released online I'll leave it at that. Making CDs
is a whole different set of hoops to jump through, and the subject of another
article.
Checklist & Timeline for doing a live recording project
Once you've decided to do a live recording of your band or choir you need
to what specific steps to take and in what order to avoid mistakes.
- Choose where you want to do the recording - Where you do the recording
is an entirely personal thing, and you probably have your own reasons for recording
in a particular venue. The only aspects that are really are either a) a low
ceiling or a b) a hard surface behind the group. The low ceiling will make
it sound a bit like it's recorded in a closet. A hard surface such as a mirror
will reflect everything so loudly that it will sound like a bathroom.
- Choose your mobile truck - Common sense dictates that like any other
service you buy, you should feel comfortable with the people involved and
confident of their experience with your style of music.
- Choose a Live Sound (PA) Company - Make sure they have experience with
doing live sound for music, preferably your style of music, and not corporate
audio or audio visual. If you're in a rock club with an installed system then
you can skip this. If you're in a church I would not recommend going with the
house sound system for two reasons. Number one because frequently they are
designed more for speech only, and number two the person doing the mixing doesn't
have the proper experience or motivation. This person could could be a maintenance
main/soundman/everything else, and come Monday they will have a job regardless
how much they let you down on Saturday. An independent company is only as good
as their last job.
- Set a date - Now it's time for the critical decision of when to do the
recording. which you will work out with the venue. Don't put down any money
until the next step!
- Check Availability - After getting a tentative date
from the venue, you need to check with the recording & live sound companies
to make sure they're available.
- Book venue for recording - Confirm the date with the venue and put down
a deposit if necessary.
- Book the mobile truck - Most trucks require a deposit up front to hold
the day, with the balance due the day of the show. The only reason I say book
the truck first is because there are more PA companies than trucks, and you
could choose another if need be.
- Book the PA company (if needed) - Same with the PA company, a deposit
up front, with the balance due the day of the show. Ask WHEN on day of show,
because some companies won't even unlock the truck until they get the deposit.
- Make up set list & stage plot. Forward to mobile
truck. A stage plot is simply a diagram of what instruments are going where.
It's important to know this ahead of time and to stick to it to speed up
setup.
Here's how the day of the show should go assuming a 7pm show time
- 12 noon: Mobile recording truck & live sound company
(if used) show up and start loading in equipment. At a minimum, someone with
a key to the facility needs to be there to let us in and start our work.
The producer (that's you) should be there as well to facilitate any political
negotiating necessary in parking the truck, policies of the facility, etc.
Put on your best diplomat hat.
- 1pm: Musicians show up and start setting up their instruments
in the locations shown on the stage plot. You should stick to your plan and
your word must be law. After the instruments are set everyone should clear
away & let the
recording people do their job placing microphones. Moving instruments around
after the microphones are set will delay your start time.
- 4pm - 6pm: Musical group does a soundcheck, which involves playing the various
instruments separately, and then together. All technical issues should be resolved
at this point.
- 6pm - 7pm RELAX & EAT! Tech crew will resolve any
issues not solved so far. No rest for us techies.
- 7pm The music starts on time (hopefully)
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