Drums - 2 DR-HX1 Condensers - Overhead - 1 SM57 beta - Snare - 1 DR-KX1 kick drum mic - 2 DR-STX1 - Floor Tom, between other two toms
Bass - SM58
Guitars - Audix I-5 - 1 DR-STX1
For this live session we used the Audix I-5 again for guitar, but with better placement it did not pick up much outside noise at all allowing the guitar to shine bright. I moved the SM58 out from the speaker about 3 inches or so and that seemed to grab more of the low end much clearer than having the mic pushed all the way against the speaker. Also, we replaced the condenser mic over the toms with another dynamic tom mic. So the two regular toms and the floor tom are all being miced with the Digital Reference tom mics. This made a huge improvement in the quality of the sound of the toms, they came out much more natural as opposed to very crisp and bright.
Zechs Marquise, along with 13 Day Mission, performed live at the O Zone Lair for a slew of Atlanta area fans. This was the first real show that O Zone Lair hosted and we definitely tracked it. Unfortunately the 13 Day Mission set audio did not turn out so great, and we did not get any video. We did however get some really great tracks for Zech Marquise.
Zechs Marquise were all really great guys and their music was jamming hard. For a review of the evening please visit O Team Press.
For a review of microphones and other ideas used, read on :)
Before the show I decided to hit up the music store and pick up a few more stands, wires, and a new mic that I had been eyeballing and hearing good things about. The Sterling ST51. It's nothing too fancy but received quite a bit of good press throughout the internet and was definitely in my budget. Come to find out it is not the greatest at recording toms like I had hoped it would be, based on my previous use of the M-Audio Nova that seems to be a bit warmer. The Sterling is very bright and somewhat crackly the way that I used it for this recording. I look forward to testing the Sterling out with some vocals, and I am positive it would do better as a room mic for the drums than pressed right up near the toms.
Guitars - Audix I-5 (picked up a lot of surrounding drum noise) - 1 DR-STX1 (hardly any surrounding drum noise)
I would like to pick up a few more 57's or 57 Beta's for live guitar recording. From past experience they pick up very little noise from the sides unlike the I-5. The DR-STX1 that I used for this show is actually a tom mic but turned out a decent recording.
The entire set will be online in the near future, but for now enjoy this video plus a pretty solid mix of the audio.
We have just confirmed a show for Sunday June 29th here at the O Zone Lair. Zechs Marquise is stopping by to celebrate their Atlanta area fans. We will also be cooking out so get here early. Doors at 2pm, music starts around 6pm.
I had been talking to Attila for some time about coming out and recording some jams...and they finally have.
Last night we managed to track drums, guitar, and bass for 2 songs to be used for an upcoming demo. Normally I do not like to do recording on weeknights, I like to leave enough time for everyone to be comfortable and not rushed doing their thing, it helps the creative process. I am glad we got this worked out though regardless of what night it happened on.
They showed up a little later than we had agreed but were prompt in setting up their gear, knocking out some rehearsals of the songs, and being ready to record. Within an hour of their arrival we were tracking drums. Sean was interested in working with a click track, so we tried that a few times, but we ended up doing the final takes without it. He blasted everyone in the studio for a while but laid down some really solid drums. I opted not to use a room mic and instead used a mic on the beater side of the kick in hopes of a more awesome kick on the final mix. Nate did the reference tracks so was already warmed up and ready to rock out his guitar parts, we busted through those and ended around 12:30 AM(when I saw my neighbor in the morning, I waved to her and she just gave me a stern look of disapproval.....uh oh). Last up was Paul on bass, he toughed it out till the bitter end and then recorded his bass tracks with the quickness, probably spent 25 minutes on the bass total.
Attila was great to work with, very easy going and open to suggestion to overcome some small hurdles which is very beneficial when trying to do so much work in so little time. I am stoked to get some vocals on these mixes and have them finished up and ready for the people and their tour.
Drums - 2 DR-HX1 condensers overhead - 1 SM57 beta snare - 1 DR-STX1 Floor Tom - 1 M-Audio condenser over toms - 1 DR-KX1 kick drum mic - 1 DR-STX1 beater side of kick
Please park on the O Zone Lair side of the street only! Do not park on peoples grass! There is plenty of room to park on the curb and still have a wide enough space for other cars to pass.
On the first Sunday in December the Fifth Sundays came to record at the O Zone Lair. They also responded to my ad looking for jazz groups. We did things a little different than normal due to some band scheduling(some members had gigs that day..hardcore!), by different I mean started later in the day and not bright and early.
A little after 1 pm Michael showed up with his drums, strategically placed to fit inside his mitsubishi 3000 GT, a very impressive packing job in deed. We had planned on him showing up early to set up and test out some mics he owned verse the mics that I own. This was great, I was able to set his mics as well as my mics all at once while he played the drums. We listened back and his Oktavas sounded outstanding as overheads. The mids were in your face bringing the toms out like I have not heard before. The condensers I typically use were more airy and bright. Both sounded good but I wanted to go with the Oktavas since I had the opprotunity. We also tested out kick drum mics, and his AKG112 sounded really good in comparison to mine so I also used that.
The rest of the group showed up a little after 3 and we were recording tracks by 4. All 4 members were very prepared and very easy to work with. They brought an acoustic bass, a guitar, and a lady on sax and flute. The guitar and sax also wanted to record some vocals so we decided to overdub them after we laid down the music and that worked out great.
I enjoyed recording jazz the past two days because, as far as sonic energy is concerned, jazz is much different than rock. Everyone played very low key, the drums were very quiet in the room, but I was unable to jack up the trim levels to get more drum sound due to the occasional hard snare pop or anything else loud that happens. Doing that would peak out the track. Thankfully the Firepods preamps are extremely quiet so boosting the gain on the drum tracks does not bring much extra noise.
Drum Mics - 2 Oktava condensers overhead - 1 DR-STX1 on snare - 1 AKG-112 kick drum mic
Bass - He played an Upright acoustic w/ a pickup and a mic attached going into a combo amp - Direct line from combo amp - DR-STX1 on amp
