Newbie needs help recording band

[msol607]

Tried unsuccessfully to do a live recording of my band's practice last nite with my Sony JE520 deck and a 4 channel Behringer UB802 mixer. It's the first time live recording for me. The practice studio had a vocal mic plugged into a cassette deck. I unplugged that and plugged it into the mixer and pointed it at the ceiling (assuming that's the best thing to do with a directional mic used to record an entire room). The mixer line out went to the deck line in. It turned out like garbage There was horrible distortion especially when the bass kicked in. I had tried the same recording set up with another (directional) mike a couple nites ago with just me playing drums. At that time I kept the meter around 12 or below & it seemed to work fine. Last nite I set the meter to stay below generally below 12 again (using the gain knob on the mixer), though I really didn't stop & try to play it back. I should have. When I got home & played it back the meter was reading way above 12 for significantly greater periods than it did when recording. I did notice that on the "input level" screen it had been dialed up to +9.4 db. I guess that should have been at 0. But still why did the meter read differently during record & playback. Also even during quiet songs there were loud pops and crackles. I attached an MP3 snippet of one songsnippetMP.mp3. At one point in a louder tune the left channel was dropping out as the sound distorted. Maybe the mic had something to do with it. I'll try to bring a another mic. Any suggestions on how to try it again for my next practice? Any and all help would be appreciated. I know this should work.

[A440]

When you wrote bass distortion, I though you might have accidentally plugged into mic-in (red) rather than line-in (white), and that the bass was overloading the mic-in preamplifier, which is sensitive.

But that snippet doesn't sound like the unit is overloading. Because the static just erupts at random places in the song, it sounds to me like a bad connection somewhere.

You'll need to figure out where in the chain the bad connection is happening: in the mic, in the mixer, in a connector cord. It sounds like you're trying the right first step, which is a different mic. Have you used the mixer before? Are you sure it's OK?

[msol607]

When you wrote bass distortion, I though you might have accidentally plugged into mic-in (red) rather than line-in (white), and that the bass was overloading the mic-in preamplifier, which is sensitive.

But that snippet doesn't sound like the unit is overloading. Because the static just erupts at random places in the song, it sounds to me like a bad connection somewhere.

You'll need to figure out where in the chain the bad connection is happening: in the mic, in the mixer, in a connector cord. It sounds like you're trying the right first step, which is a different mic. Have you used the mixer before? Are you sure it's OK?

I've used the mixer with my electronic drums but never for mic input. I think you're right about the connection issue. I'll give the mixer a good testing with another mic. The equipment in these practice studios often is beat up so I'll have to avoid using their mic/cord just to rule that out. I was thinking maybe of investing in a Sony ECM-MS907, a stereo condensor mic that that has a wide angle option and uses 1 AA battery. But I'm not sure how to use this with the mixer: Could I use an adapter to split the output and put it into two mixer mic channels?

[msol607]

I've used the mixer with my electronic drums but never for mic input. I think you're right about the connection issue. I'll give the mixer a good testing with another mic. The equipment in these practice studios often is beat up so I'll have to avoid using their mic/cord just to rule that out. I was thinking maybe of investing in a Sony ECM-MS907, a stereo condensor mic that that has a wide angle option and uses 1 AA battery. But I'm not sure how to use this with the mixer: Could I use an adapter to split the output and put it into two mixer mic channels?

It was a blown mic. Recording with another mic sounded great. Sartre was right: Hell is other people['s gear]