ZOOM MRS1608-CD live recording review.

[XNASA]

I finally took my new 16tr digital recorder out of my basement studio and used it in a live setting.

The 1608 will only record 8 tracks simultaneously so I split it up like this..

1 - rhythm guitar (miked with a 57)
2 - bass (direct)
3 - scratch lead vocal (took a split off of bands mixer)
4 - OH drums (a 57 near the drummers right shoulder, pointed at the snare)
5&6 - Stereo X about 18 inches away and 18 inches up from floor at front of drum kit (2 EV RE20's)
7&8 - Lead guitar stereo (direct)

What's great about the 1608 is that you can have a preset that has a some compression and EQ on all 8 inputs when you do 8 channel recording and each channel can be customized for it's specific application.

The band was recorded live in their warehouse/rehearsal space. Not at a club.

Everything sounds great, even the drums. I'm from the school of using as few mics on the drum kit as possible. Close miking is just so 80's sounding to me. I like the way that Bonham sounded in the studio. No close miking. The important thing to do is make sure that all the drum mikes are equidistant from the snare, regardless of which way the mic is pointed. That way, the snare sounds nice and crisp and you won't get any phase problems.

We tracked 5 songs, and on 4 of them we did a second take in about 3 hours. The 1608 is really handy for this kind of application.

[johnnie]

1. Interesting mic placement for the drums

It's funny you mention the close miking. I recorded a Beatles tribute band the other night and it's been a while since I had anyone in the studio. I automatically did snare/kick/tom1/tom2/flr tom/OH left and right. As they were recording I started wondering why I still close mic like that. Although I do like the control of the kick, and some snare. Miking toms are a waste of time. Oh, and I had to us a SM58 for the snare, my drummer had my 57.
18 inches up from the floor? How well does that pick up cymbals? Another question... You pointed the 57 across the drummer to the snare? Any reason for that? I'm just curious is all. It's interesting to me.

[XNASA]

2. The concept is to have all mics equally distant from the snare.

That way, no phase problems on snare hits.

The single OH 57 picks up cymbal and hits on the snare and toms.

The crossed pair in the front gets the kick and and an overall stereo mix.

Even though I want the OH to be the same distance from the snare as the pair in front are, I was also thinking about picking up some of the toms and the ride and crash with it, that's all.

Look up how Bonham was miked sometime. Really interesting stuff. Usually only 3 'near mikes' and an ambient pair even further from the kit. If you have a big room, it sounds great.