Live "Jam" Recording with 8 Tracks (and a Sub Mix of one of the tracks)

[dejablues76]

Hey Guys,

Newbie here with a live recording question for you all. I am trying to recrord an upcoming blues jam -- which can have a good number of musicians playing at once -- however, a normal "core" of musicians playing the entire time.

I am recording to a Korg D888 recorder -- so I can record the entire night, and edit back slowly after the fact.

Here's the musician set up:

1 Drummer

1 Bassist / Vocals

1 Lead Left Guitar / Vocals

1 Lead Right Guitar

1 Harp Player

3 secondary guitarists (could play a song here and there, but not for the whole night)

2 secondary vocalists (could sing a song here and htere, but not for the whole night)

2 secondary drummers (could sit in various songs)

Here's my layout on the Korg:

1. KICK

2. SNARE

3. ONE OVERHEAD (CENTER OF KIT)

4. PA SYSTEM PATCH - VOCALS

5. BASS

6. GUITAR LEFT

7. GUITAR RIGHT

8. SUB MIX OF OTHER GUITARS (Via a small 4 channel sub mixer)

This obviously leaves me no room for the harp player, unless I run him through the PA system as well -- but then I wont have control over his levels in the mix.

My only other options thus far are:

1. Not using an overhead (assuming the cymbals will bleed into the other mics in the room naturally).

2. Not plugging the bass direct (assuming there'd be some bleed into the drum / guitar mics).

3. Micing the drums & bass in channels 1 - 4, Direct vocals in 5 - 6, and then "room" left and "room" right for all of the guitars involved for tracks 7 - 8.

I was going to run the drums through the sub mixer -- but since every drummer plays differently, I'd then have NO control over the final mix -- and if the kick or snare is too loud, its "too bad" at that point. I am already out of luck on the vocals (if harmonies come in too loud, etc).

I am not sure what the "best of the evils is" -- since this is a once a year event, I am not going to go plunk down 1300 on a bigger mixer just yet -- esp since the only people that would REALLY want to hear a good copy of this, are the players and a few of the attendees.

I apologize for posting this huge first post, and I hope some of your ideas could come in use. I thank you all!

- B

[A440]

Don't know how you ended up here on the Minidisc forum, but you might put your question to the studio pros:

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com

A lot of good links on the site too.

There's also this one for stuff you might be able to actually afford.

http://homerecording.com/bbs/index.php