Recording the Band LIVE!

Let me be up-front on this. You aren't going to like this article.  I'm not going to give you the key to making an album you can sell from some random concert or Sunday that is going to sound awesome. This is not an article for audiophiles. In fact, it's going to tell you how to do this in a way that will alienate you from audiophiles.

If you want to record something that sounds like you recorded in a studio, record in a studio.

If you want to have something that you can listen to you band and say, "That sounded pretty good," and you're not going to care that it doesn't sound the same as it did in the room, keep reading.

First, I'm going to tell you what you're up against:

• Without a significant investment, you won't capture what you hear in the room. You just don't have the mics. So much of what you listen to depends on the room.
• There is no such thing as a really good live rock band sound.  It's just hard to get right in the room. To take that same equipment to make a signal that sounds good anywhere is just nearly impossible.
• Monitor speakers interfere with isolation.
• And you won't have any real isolation.

Since the FOH (Front of House) mixer's job is to provide sound to the room, the secondary task of recording will almost always take a backseat. 

That said, here's some advice I can give about recording a live band into something that will be tollerable.

• You need to have a person dedicated to recording during set-up and sound check.  You can't use someone in the band, and you can't use the FOH engineer - they're too busy.  I've tried it.
• Using just the FOH mix will not give you what you want.  It will likely be overly vocal heavy, not in stereo, and mixed for the room.
• Record each channel individually if you can. I used my MOTU Traveler and a Berhinger AD/DA box, though there are better options out there.  This gave me 16 channels at 48khz. This takes a LOT of time to set-up.  You need inserts on the main mixer that are not taken up by things like compressors and ample cabling to make it happen. Other options include newer firewire mixers like the Mackie ONYX or... almost anything else on the market. The hard thing is going to be setting your levels to something nominal since the FOH mixer will be set for something.
• Other options: M-Audio and other companies make small stereo, portable recorders that can record the room and give you a good idea of your sound in the room without the need for going to the lengths I describe above.