Question about live recordings

John

I'm not really au fait on the world of recording but my band will be playing a gig soon and the venue offers to do live recordings of gigs put on there.

from the venue wrote:

**A: This option is a Live Mix down to stereo .wav file on CD (16 bit/
44khz). This is achieved using audience microphone inputs and mixer
outputs and is constantly monitored throughout the gig. This option is
€60 per gig and is a great way to get a quality archive of your gig.

**B: The middle option is the same as the above but includes sub-group
and direct outputs and is a multi-track recording. This option is €100
per gig.

**C: The top option is a full multitrack recording package and offers
the best overall quality with instruments individually tracked, and
then the whole recording is mixed and mastered. Prices depend on
number of instruments and are available on request.

What do the terms in bold in option B refer to? Is it worth €40 more than option A? I'm guessing both A and B are unmixed and unmastered, that doesn't bother me too much but I'm just wondering what the difference between A and B is.

We're a four piece using drums, bass, guitars and a mandolin (all electric). Thanks!

Savman

A is equivelant to recording the gig on MD. You can't change any tracks afterwards, you just get a copy and off you go.
B is obviously with some level of separate tracks (ie drums) but I'd ask them to expand on that.
C is always best if you want to re-do parts but for the price you may as well hit a recording studio.

Most venues will have a Mixing Desk with, say, 16 channels in and 16 channels Direct Outs which means if you have a 16 track recording device you can record the 16 channels individually and play around with the whole thing later.

Incidentally what's the venue?

artvandulet

John,
A is just a stereo mix

B is a stereo mix plus group mixes-
The engineer will probably group a number of channels down to one fader,ie.- all vox on one, gtrs on another, some drums on another etc. - this is so he can eq each group as a whole.

This will mean you'll have some seperation of audio -you'll probably end up with 3 or four tracks of audio which you can tweek levels,eq etc yourself on any computer. If you don't have any software you can use a completey free program called Audacity to do this.

C is a full multitrack mix which will give you seperation of all channels allowing lots of flexibility to play around with after.


You should ask the engineer how many group outs he's using and what will be on each. But it does sound worth the extra few quid seeing as you have some adjustment. Option A is what it is - a live recording of your gig - any changes you make to that after, affects all the sound.

John

Thanks for that guys. All four of us have been thoroughly confused about all this (we play music, not record it ).

Savman, it's the Boom Boom Room.

Doctor J

Christ, I remember when venues would bouce down the mix onto a tape or md for free. €60 for pressing record :eek:

Savman

Doctor J wrote:

Christ, I remember when venues would bouce down the mix onto a tape or md for free. €60 for pressing record :eek:

My thoughts exactly. Scabby!

judas101

Doctor J wrote:

Christ, I remember when venues would bouce down the mix onto a tape or md for free. €60 for pressing record :eek:

Re-cord?

sounds complicated

John

Doctor J wrote:

Christ, I remember when venues would bouce down the mix onto a tape or md for free. €60 for pressing record :eek:

unclebill98

Personally i would not bother. Unless the engineer gets a complete fluke!! and manages to get it all right in the time your on stage.

Is there more than one band playing? If so there is no way with all the messing about changing of settings that he will pull it off. Unless theres another person doing it there aswell as the engineer.

If you really wanna go ahead with it option c is the best, it leave the best opertunity to mix later. But 60 for a and 100 for b.....god knows how much c is going to cost....

Did a gig last year and was offered the same thing. More than a 100 i think and he went off a mixed it and then gave you a cd of his mix...You get no choice to hear it, you can't mix it. 3 bands playing....Its not going to sound any way decent. told him no and I was meet with.. "Jesus, what! You think you can get a live recording for that cheap elsewhere".

Cheap was not my issue, it was the quality that he would get with that kind of set up...3 bands, never heard us before and recorded on the fly!!!

Mini disc into L/R out and press record.....Simple and it should be free.

I do remember a time when almost all of our gigs where done like that and they are great to listen back too...and never charged a penny...