Gearing up for recording project...

This (upcoming) weekend I've got plans to record a few demo tracks for the local cover band Ground Floor. So I've been spending a bit of time getting the gear and software set up. Thought it would be a good opportunity to talk a bit about the "typical" setup for recording here, since Ground Floor has a pretty typical rock line-up... drummer, bassist, and 2 guitarists who alternate singing lead & backup.

I usually start with the drums, since they take the most time to get set up & dialed-in. For mics I use a Shure PG52 for kick, Shure PG56's for toms, an Audix i5 for snare, and a Sennheiser MD421 for hi-hat. Overheads are a pair of Studio Projects C4's with omni capsules. All of the drum mics are fed into a Presonus Digimax FS preamp/converter; each channel's insert is fed through an ART MDM-8L compressor/limiter for overshoot protection.

For guitars, I use either a Shure SM57 or Sennheiser e609, typically mic'd on axis about mid-way between the rim & cone of the speaker. (For more complex projects, I may run multiple mics on the same cab or run a line from a cab simulator, but will probably not do this on Sunday.) For bass, I'll run direct from the bassist's preamp. Both guitars & bass feed into a Presonus Digimax LT preamp/converter, again with the ART MDM-8L in each channel's insert.

Finally, for scratch vocals I use a Shure SM58; for final vocals it's a Studio Projects T3 tube condenser; both run through the Digimax LT and MDM-8L.

So after getting out all the above mics (plus associated stands and cables), I created a template in Sonar 6 Producer. The first 8 tracks are for drums, followed by bass, guitar, and vocal tracks. The tracks are mixed down into a four buses (drums, bass, guitar, vocals) which are then mixed down to a master bus. I set up a few basic effects, including a low-frequency roll-off for the guitars, iZotope compression/EQ for drum/bass/vocal buses, and Sonitus multi-band compression on the master bus. Of course, all the levels & effects will get tweaked a lot on Sunday, but it's nice to have them loaded and ready to activate.

Now everything is ready to go for Sunday... I can get down to business with checking levels as soon as the drums and amps are ready to play. Looking forward to it!

--B