Good behind the scene article about audio recording a music concerts. It has answered so many of questions about the whole process. Hope you enjoy reading.
On the Bleeding Edge
There are some things in the music business that never change. For instance, record labels will always want to repackage a band's old material. History has shown that "Greatest Hits" packages are an easy (and cheap) way to do this. After all, the biggest expense of a new release -- studio time -- is minimal for a re-package. Ditto for the concept of a live recording. The band is performing anyway, and by the time they've played their 25th show, they're pretty well rehearsed, so the label decides it's time to record a concert for release on CD in stereo and on DVD in 5.1 -- and that's where life on the road gets complicated.
For starters, we'll assume (uh-oh) that the band you're working with is competent enough to actually play a show that's worthy of release. Eventually, some genius at their label will figure that -- since they're on tour and you're a capable engineer -- you can easily handle a multitrack recording while mixing the show in front of 10,000 people. In the rain. Since you're going to have a tough time getting the label to foot the bill for a remote truck (or even an assistant engineer), you'd better be prepared with some ideas for how to go about making a release-worthy recording while still attending to your other menial duties, such as mixing the show.
The good news is that a lot of engineers have made master-quality recordings of live shows using simple recording setups. The simplest setup is the "board tape," but the chances of a board tape being master quality are slim. There's just too much noise coming off the average stage to allow your board mix to be an accurate representation of what you hear in the room. In other words, the guitar player is usually so *^&% loud that you don't need a lot of him in your mix because you can hear the amp, even when it's not in the PA system very much. When you play back the board tape, there's no guitar because you didn't need to raise up his fader very much. (Foghat engineer Carl Davino is the master of the board tape. Maybe we can get him to share his technique some time.)
That brings us to live recording possibility number two: a live-to-two-track recording mixed by another person in a room isolated from the stage and PA, where they can actually mix the band during the show and make aesthetic judgments on level and EQ without interference from a crappy sounding room, a band that's 115 dB on stage and a PA that's 120 at FOH. How many angels can you fit on the head of a pin?
Here is how it really is going to happen: you are going to need some sort of assistant engineer, even if that person is just an extra pair of hands. You are also going to need a means of splitting signals from the stage, preferably right off the microphone (i.e. pre-FOH and -monitor consoles and processing). If you are using a console that has a direct out on each channel, you're ahead of the game: take the direct out from each channel into a channel on a multitrack tape machine or hard disk recorder. Make absolutely certain that the direct out is pre-fader. You don't want your fader moves during the show to be recorded (you'll remix at a later time). Pre-EQ is probably also a good idea, so that you can EQ the tracks ex post facto. With a FOH console that has direct outs on each channel, you could probably get something like an Alesis ADAT HD24 or Mackie HDR24/96 hard disk recorder, a wiring harness, a bunch of hard drives (with a cushy case to hold them), and be on your way.
Next up on the food chain is using a transformer-isolated, three-way split, which provides FOH, monitor and recording systems with their own feeds. Now you will need mic preamps along with your recorder, which means you can rack up some serious pre's and create a better product. If you're on a tight budget, you could get a couple of MOTU Travelers, a Mac iBook and some Glyph drives, and carry the whole system in a small rack. (Make sure that the drives are at least 7,200 RPM.) Or you could rack up three or four TRUE Precision8 mic pre's (eight channels each) along with an HDR. In any case, the idea is to get clean signal on disk and mix later. You're probably not going to be able to monitor with any sort of isolation anyway because the PA is in your face. What you are concerned with is setting a good record level and then pretty much babysitting the meters for the duration of the show. A simple sound check will give you all the information you need, though I'd suggest setting record levels conservatively since band members always take it up a notch come show time.
Those of you lucky enough to be mixing on a Digidesign VENUE every night have a special advantage when it comes to recording: Digidesign's TDM Record option links the VENUE's digital engine directly to a Pro Tools|HD system via DigiLink connectors on the FOH rack, no additional I/O necessary, thank you very much.
Whatever medium you decide to record, be sure to record at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz. Sixteen-bit is sufficient since CD audio is 44.1/16-bit anyway and the soundtrack on most DVD's is the same. Mastering engineer Roger Lian at Masterdisk NYC tells me that what you do NOT want is to force a sample rate conversion at a later date by recording at 48-, 88.2- or 96 kHz. Roger tells me that sample rate conversion is about the worst thing you can do to an audio file.
There's always a small percentage of the population that doesn't trust computers and will want hardware recorders on the road. I can understand that, having experienced problems with laptop recording on the road. Lucky for me these were only reference recordings. For those so inclined, I refer you to eBay, where you can get Tascam DA88s for a song. These machines have proven reliable, and at this point they are cheap enough that you can get a spare without breaking the bank. Thirty-two tracks for under a grand? I wouldn't be surprised, and you can transfer to Pro Tools when you get home. One important note about the remix: plan on separate sessions for the stereo mix and the 5.1 surround mix. Automatic "folddown" from 5.1 to stereo really doesn't work very well.
Steve La Cerra is the tour manager and Front of House engineer for Blue Oyster Cult. He can be reached via email at
Woody@fohonline.com.
