One of the most "fly by the seat of your pants" gigs a recording engineer can pick up is that of recording a live show. Even if you know the band, the venue, and the folks running the production there are always unexpected circumstances that can pop up. This can be both supremely frustrating and supremely satisfying to deal with. Either way it is always interesting. Whether you are looking to do live multitrack recording, or just trying to record your set at the open mic, if you stick to a few simple rules (check after the break) you'll end up with a decent product.

Recently I was lucky enough to score a job recording a live show at an old friend's house in Pilsen. The first act, Bomba Deer, was performing for the first time ever. Reasonably enough I had never heard of them so I took some time to talk a little about their sound before hand. They were a five piece of drums/percussion, electric and acoustic guitar, electrified cello, pedal steel guitar, and vocals. This was fairly exotic for a show in a small apartment with 20-30 people packed in. I'd also never recorded electrified cello or pedal steel. That being said, I put up microphones as best I could in the small space. One of the resultant tracks can be heard in the track above. Check it out and share what you think in the comments and/or keep reading for some of the details of this live session.

The most important thing in my mind was to not impose on the performers. I would probably sacrifice microphone placement over being in the way of a performer. It's important to remember that the live show is just as much of a production for the band as is a theater or dance performance. If the performance isn't as spot on as it could be because of the recording you may just have well not recorded it.

Believe it or not, the right microphone stands can make all the difference on this front. I usually bring as many short or low profile stands with boom arms as I can. One they can take up less floor space and two they won't be knocked over as easily. These little guys were my best friends on this job. Of course things like drum overheads need the height of a full sized boom stand. When using any tall tripod stands I weigh them down at the base with sand bags (aka shop bags) or, failing that, a heavy blanket. This is a trick I picked up working on film crews when dealing with top heavy lighting equipment.

So the set up for this group was close mics on small stands for all the amps and the kick drum, stereo overheads for the the drums/percussion, and a direct feed off of the vocal amplifier. This took seven channels and since I had eight I threw in an extra mic at the back of the room. I was pretty sure I wouldn't use it in the mix but it I feel it is quite important to give yourself as many options as you can manage. If for example the input of one of the close mics became crackly (aka intermittent) for a moment there is a chance that the room mic would pick up some of that instrument. In a case like that a room mic can save the recording. Luckily, I had no problems like that.

- More to come in Part 2