Hi, Dewight here,
For Best Home Recording Studio. Traina Studios Wichita Kansas.
I have worked with some engineers that take most of day 1 to get prepared for a band to record. I prefer to have templates made, microphones ready and let the band take control of the room when they arrive. I show them the restrooms, the fridge, go over all that necessary stuff. I make sure we have photo releases signed for pictures. A complete understanding of the hard work getting done the first of the week.
I like to get the drums completed on day 1 or early day 2. You have to get the dance and feel of the song right off or you are going to have a cold recording. I have a special set up just for this to be right. I still may find it necessary later to record parts of the drums again but it is one great click track at the least.
I run a snake out to the live room from the control room. (See Diagram 1). I use an Apple iMac G5 with 4GB of memory. Logic Pro 9, Firewire to a Mackie 1640. Out of the 1640 we will go into detail later. There is a pre-amp I use personus tube amp the the Bottle Blue mic that makes it sound sweet. You can literally hear a person swallow in the control room.
Today however is about capturing drums. I use 10 microphones alone for a standard kit with two floor toms. The snake is mounted right behind the drum set on the wall, it makes it easy for all the chords that you have to string for drum mics. Kick, snare, M1, M2, Floor1, Floor2, Hat, Ride, OH Hat, OH Ride. Phantom powered mics for the OHs and the hat. I have a headphone hanging right behind the drummer.
There are three other Headphone power stations in the room and a couple of couches for wives and a bean bag that gets lost of sleep time for some reason. There is also 5,000watts of speakers in the live room also if we need it. For live practice it works great, you don't have to overdrive the system.
I have a headphone amp in the control room that runs from the snake ABCD inputs. I run Each Guitar mono in 11 and 12, vocals in 13, 14, 15, Bass in 16. If I need more than that, I have a Personos 8 Channel Mixer I can fire wire in also but usually is not necessary. I use it for live performance, with an Apple MacBook.
The guitars, and bass I run direct. There are enough amps in logic to make any guitar player mess with you for hours. Remind him we are capturing drums today. I take the singer in the Control room with me for 2 reasons. He can hear what is being played and straighten out any issues he hears and he can sing also which is sometimes needed to keep the groove in some songs.
If I have their stuff in advance, I have the metronome set, the channels all preloaded and the mice all set up.
Now just let them jam like at practice the first time through. You will have to test the drummer to see if he is used to metronome speeds or not. Some things Logic can help with and you won't have to kill the drummer early. Try to get through at least 3 or 4 of the 13 songs, while they are fresh and waking up.
If this is a full length release, you need to be sure you have the drums captured right. Your volume levels and placement on the drums are very important. I run the main drums in an old Pevey noise gate but it still does its' job just fine. I learned a long time ago not to risk the software gates. You will miss beats and then the money is on you not the band.
Send them to lunch. You are on your way through day 1.
See you tomorrow.
Dewight Traina
Professional Home Recording Studio Engineer at Traina Studios
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