by Stephen Fortner
 |
Anyone else see two stun guns and a
police radio? All can make arresting
live recordings of your next gig. |
SO YOUR BAND IS DOING SOME GIGS, AND YOU RECKON THE BEST WAY TO
GET MORE OF THEM is to cut a good demo. Booking studio time isn’t in the budget, your
home studios are all small, and you want to capture the magic that happens when you
play for a crowd. Plus, if you’re a working cover band, chances are a live (read: paying)
gig is the only way to get all you ringers in the same room at the same time.
Existing Approaches
So, just record a gig, right? Anyone who has tried
it is probably familiar with these approaches,
each with its own pitfalls.
Standalone stereo. Today’s handheld stereo
field recorders (or for that matter, iPhone mic
attachments) have great sound quality and effective
auto-level control so volume peaks won’t
blow out your recording. Still, you get what you
get, crowd noise is a factor, and the mix will
sound different from what you heard live. They’re great for solo piano, a singer/songwriter performance,
or a jazz combo, but less ideal for a large
rock or dance band.
Stereo board tape. You take a stereo feed from
the front-of-house mixer into your recorder. In
smaller bars and clubs, though, often not everything
goes through the mixer—the guitar amp or
snare might be plenty loud on its own, for example—
so except for bleed through the vocal mics,
those won’t get recorded. Mike them up anyway
and just not turn them up in the house? Nope.
On most compact mixers you’ll find in clubs,
you’ll get your stereo feed from the RCA-jack
“tape out” or a duplicate of the main outs. Those
tend to be post-fader—what’s low in the house is
low on the recording. Pre-fader aux sends will be
in use for monitor mixes, so don’t ask.
Splitsville. Th e traditional pro way to do live
recordings is to split every signal upstream of the
house mixer. One split goes to the house and the
other goes to an independent recording system.
Let’s assume that the level of cabling, setup, and
potential distraction from the main job of rocking
the gig (not to mention the expense of good
splitters) makes this a non-starter.
Digital mixer heaven. Compact digital mixers
such as the PreSonus StudioLive series and
Yamaha’s new O1V96i (we’re working on full reviews of both) can send a pre-fader multitrack
stream over FireWire or USB (respectively) so
you can capture now and mix later. If the club
has one of these, bring your laptop-based DAW
and be nice to the sound engineer. Otherwise,
keep reading.
Field Is the New Four-Track
Handheld fi eld recorders have multiplied like
Zerg from Starcraft over the past few years, and
three—the TASCAM DR-40, Zoom H4n, and
Roland R-26—got our attention for recording
not just in stereo, but on four channels at once
(or six for the Roland). All three let you get a
solid live recording without superimposing a
full-on multitrack project onto your gig night.
They can record one stereo track from their builtin
mics and another from the XLR combo inputs
each one has. So, the idea is to “split the diff erence,”
capturing room sound from the integrated
mics while direct-recording the best stereo feed
you can get from the house mixer.
The result is dual stereo files: one for the
built-in mics and one for the external inputs,
which you can dump into your DAW and mix
after the fact. While this won’t let you address
every problem that full multitracking
would (like a keyboard solo that was just too
darned low), you can get a lot of mileage out of
blending the line mix with the room mix and riding their levels relative to each other. Since
you’re working with just a couple of stereo
files, they’re also a great sandbox for trying
Craig Anderton’s desktop mastering tips from
page 40 of this issue. And who doesn’t like being
able to fade up the applause and chants of
“One. More. Song!” sure to happen at the end
of your set?
Cool Features
These days, almost all handheld recorders do
the fundamentals well: auto-limiting, low-cut
filtering for wind noise and rumble, letting
you set markers while recording (say, for the
beginning of a song or solo), and so on. Each
one in our trio also has its own useful tricks up
its sleeve.
An alternative to four-channel mode on the
TASCAM DR-40 is dual recording, which makes
two files, one at six to 12dB below the other. If
you get distortion, you have the quieter fi le as
insurance and can boost and replace the off ending
bit in your DAW. In four-channel mode, the
DR-40 lets you set a delay for what gets recorded
through the inputs relative to the built-in mics.
Th is corrects for how far the DR-40 is placed
from the stage, and can reduce phase issues and
the need to nudge the “room” and “line” tracks
around in your DAW. Th e TASCAM is also the
price leader of the bunch.
Both the Zoom and the TASCAM feature
non-destructive overdubbing, onboard mixdown,
effects, and a mixer screen that evokes a little
desktop multitrack (engage MTR mode on the
Zoom or press the Mixer button on the TASCAM).
Th e Zoom goes a little further in that its eff ects
include modulations (chorus, phaser, etc.) and
amp simulators compared to the TASCAM’s
reverb-only roster. Th e Zoom also lets you plug a
guitar directly in, and includes Cubase LE software.
The Roland R-26 is a different beast, recording
on up to six channels at once through nearly any
combination of sources you specify: built-in X/Y
cardioid mics, built-in omnis, XLR combo jacks,
and/or an external plug-in powered stereo mic. Th e
touchscreen, dedicated “Sens” button for setting
gain, and large input trim dials make using it luxurious.
Those dials aren’t hardwired to left and right—
depending on your recording mode and selected
input sources, one might tweak the onboard mics
while the other adjusts the line inputs. Th e R-26
eschews onboard mixdown and effects, assuming
you’re going to do all this post-production—for
which it bundles a copy of Cakewalk Sonar LE.
A final word: This article is certainly not a full
roundup of handheld four-tracks—just a guide
to one cool thing you can do with them. In
the course of using them, though, we’ve become
intrigued enough that you can expect full reviews
soon at keyboardmag.com
TASCAM
DR-40
MAX. RECORD
CHANNELS AT ONCE
4.
FORMATS
MP3, WAV, Broadcast WAV.
MAX. AUDIO
RESOLUTION
24-bit/96kHz.
BUILT-IN MICS
Cardioid, switchable
coincident X/Y or A/B
position.
EXTERNAL
AUDIO INPUTS
XLR-1/4" TRS combo w/
48V phantom, mic/line.
PLUG-IN POWER 1/8"
STEREO MIC JACK?
None.
BATTERIES/AC
3 AA (included) or optional
AC supply.
WEB
tascam.com
PRICE (LIST | STREET)
$299.99 | $199.99
Zoom
H4n
MAX. RECORD
CHANNELS AT ONCE
4.
FORMATS
MP3, WAV.
MAX. AUDIO
RESOLUTION
24-bit/96kHz (48kHz in
4-channel mode).
BUILT-IN MICS
Cardioid, coincident X/Y
with switchable 90° or
120° spread.
EXTERNAL
AUDIO INPUTS
XLR-1/4" TRS combo
w/ 48V phantom, mic/
line/guitar.
PLUG-IN POWER 1/8"
STEREO MIC JACK?
Replaces built-in mics
when used.
BATTERIES/AC
2 AA or included AC supply,
USB (storage mode only).
WEB
samsontech.com
PRICE (LIST | STREET)
$549.99 | $299.99
Roland
R-26
MAX. RECORD
CHANNELS AT ONCE
6.
FORMATS
MP3, WAV, Broadcast WAV.
MAX. AUDIO
RESOLUTION
24-bit/96kHz.
BUILT-IN MICS.
2 omni plus 2 cardioid
conincident X/Y.
EXTERNAL
AUDIO INPUTS
XLR-1/4" TRS combo w/
48V phantom, mic/line.
PLUG-IN POWER 1/8"
STEREO MIC JACK?
Replaces omni mics when
selected as input source.
BATTERIES/AC
4 AA or included
AC supply.
WEB
rolandus.com
PRICE (LIST | STREET)
$599.99 | $499.99