what may be a pretty basic live recording question...

[cg113]

i'm not so good with the whole brevity thing ... i apologize in advance.

i want to record a live set for 2 of my friends that do acoustic duo style gigs. my 2 main concerns are A: i want to record this multi track so i can mix it later and B: i'd like to do this in a way that doesn't interfere with the way they normally set their equipment up. i don't want this to be any more of a pain in the @ss for them than setting up for a show already is.

they have a samson XM610 powered mixer they plug 2 guitars and 2 mics into. i have a firepod and a laptop with cubase that i want to use to record each guitar and vocal, the stereo mix from the mixer and hopefully a pair of room mics onto 8 tracks.

i'm trying to avoid running everything through the firepod and monitoring from there. i don't want to run the risk of my system crashing and killing a paying gig. i don't need two angry female musicians coming after me. that would, in no way, turn out as awesome as it may sound.

i was considering just using a patchbay as a splitter and splitting the signal from the guitars/vocals so one set goes to my firepod and the other goes into their mixer so they can adjust their levels as they normally do. i'm concerned about possible signal loss with this setup. so, now i'm wondering if i need to go pick up 4 powered splitter boxes if i'm doing it this way or, if there's some other glaringly obvious solution to this which, are the ones i generally overlook?

[Danny1969]

If the Samson powered mixer has direct outs then you just take the signals individually from those to keep everything on it's own track. If it doesn't (very likely) then you need to use mic splitters ... which are about £10 each for passive units or you could buy an 8 way unit for £100 ish, maybe cheaper.

You deffo need a couple of room mics for the ambiance .... i recorded this acoustic gig a few weeks ago with no room mics and really wished I had em when I mixed it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD9smf5Tugg

[cg113]

yeah, that's pretty much what i'm gunnin' for. that's a good performance too. nice stuff.

thanks for the reply. i'll track down some mic splitters and have at it.

the next place they're playing is kind of small so, as soon as i figure out where to set the room mics up, i'll make it a point to get those in there as well.

thanks again.

[stringsthings]

Originally Posted by cg113

i don't wani don't need two angry female musicians coming after me. that would, in no way, turn out as awesome as it may sound.

yeah .... but it might really be entertaining

and i'd opt for the 4 splitters as suggested unless the board will do this for you .... and also, i'd 2nd the vote for a room mic or two .... get some of that room sound .... if you've got the budget, you could set up two nice condensors side by side with their vocal mics .... but that would interfere with their usual setup ....

.... oh yeah, just by having recording gear around can make musicians act differently .... you may need to apply some psychology to the situation .... ( hey, just pretend i'm not here )