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How to Record a Live Band CD

Making a live recording of your band is a fairly easy thing to do, but the quality of the recording (the ability to hear all the instruments and voices clearly) is determined by the equipment and the methods used to get the sounds down to your recording medium. Just a little bit of preparation can make a huge difference in whether or not your live band CD will be something that your fans and others will want to listen to long after the performance.

Things You'll Need

  • Microphones
  • Microphone cables
  • Microphone stands
  • Small mixing board
  • Patch cables
  • Earbuds
  • Earmuffs
  • Audio interface
  • Computer (laptop is preferred)
  • Recording software
  • Stereo amplifier
  • Speakers
  • CD-burning software
  • Recordable discs
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Instructions

  1. Setting Up Your Microphones

    • 1
      With just a handful of microphones, wires, a small mixing board and a computer, you can make good quality recordings you can share with friends and fans.

      Place two room microphones in front of the stage.

    • 2
      Live recordings will sound much more full and have a pulse or groove if some reinforcement is given to the bass guitar and bass drum.

      Place the bass drum microphone just inside the bass drum shell, and the bass amp microphone just off the axis of one of the speakers.

    • 3
      The lead and harmony vocals will also benefit greatly from a little reinforcement in your live recording.

      Place your vocal microphone off-axis of one of the main PA speakers.

    Setting Up Your Mixing Board

    • 4
      A mixing board is essential for getting the sound from multiple sources down to a stereo mix for your computer.

      Place your mixing board out of the way, and plug in your microphone cables.

    • 5
      Setting all the faders and pots on your board to zero is necessary to starting with an "uncolored" sound.

      Zero out your channels and set your main faders to 0.

    • 6
      The sound check will give you an opportunity to fine-tune your levels.

      Tell the band to start playing.

    • 7
      Sound isolation in whatever form is necessary to mix the levels for a live preformance.

      Plug your earbuds into the board, and put on the earmuffs so you can hear only the sound from the mixing board.

    • 8

      Set the gain for the lead vocal where it is just activating the LED indicator, then roll off the gain enough so it isn't clipping (distorting).

    • 9

      Set the gain for the room microphones, then roll it off a little bit. Pan one of these left and the other right to get stereo separation.

    • 10

      Set the gain levels for the bass drum and the bass guitar, then roll them back slightly.

    • 11

      Raise the channel faders to near 0 and mix until you achieve the desired levels.

    Connecting the Mixing Board to the Recording Gear

    • 12

      Set up your recording interface and your computer, then start the recording program.

    • 13

      Run lines from your mixing board to the inputs of your recording interface.

    • 14

      Set the levels on your recording interface and computer so they aren't clipping.

    • 15

      Run test recordings to tune the mix going into your computer.

    • 16

      Record the performance.

    Editing Your Audio Files

    • 17

      Set up your computer and run the audio feed to an amplifier and speakers.

    • 18

      Edit out any "dead air" between songs, and save the individual songs as audio files in your hard drive.

    • 19

      Apply any audio effects to the song files.

    • 20
      Burning your own music to a disc is not much different from burning other music files to a disc.

      Convert your individual song files to a format that can be read by a CD player, and use your CD-burning software to burn the songs onto disc.

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