Hello. Does anyone have any good recommendations for live recordings? We're planning on having 2 live tracks on our ep which will be out in the very distant future and I haven't got a clue how we would go about finding anyone to do it.

I sure that there are a few people around Brighton that offer live recording, I've got a feeling that Empora in Burgess Hill offer off site recording, if not they may well be able to point you in the right direction.

Failing that I could probably sort something out for you. I've got a 24 track portable recorder, if you get stuck I could possibly help you out. Live recording can be a royal pain in the arse, do you want me to explain a bit more?

I've been thinking about recording some of the TBB nights (with the bands permission obviously) and doing a compilation or DVD, it's a thought.

Are you still thinking about doing this?

Indeed we are. Just as long as it doesn't run us back too much!

This is how to do it.

http://thenumberoftheblog.com/2010/03/0 ... fter-show/

I believe Kiss did it first. They are huge, Clutch somewhat less so.

How does a band like Clutch turn around 2000 CD's within minutes of the gig...and for that matter, how does Kiss?

It's actually not that tricky to do if you have the right gear/people. There is a company down here (I think there called Location Recording or something like that, I'll see if I can track them down) who offer a similar service, I'll have to find out their rates.

The mix will have be done in sound check, bands like Kiss will often spend all day sound checking (or at least their roadies will) so the guys sitting in the van out back with all the gear will have had a fair bit of time to prepare, plus the mix won't change that much from one enormo-dome to the next so after the first couple of nights the sound crew will have it completely nailed.

Then I guess it's a matter of having a load of replication machines synched up and ready to go, the artwork and track listing won't change from one night to the next (probably just the name of the venue and the date, and I would imagine the sleeves are all sorted before they even hit the road) so as soon as the lights go up they start churning them out. I would guess that the maths is worked out on the grounds that only a certain amount of people can get to a merch stall at any given time, we've all been stuck at massive merch stall queues. Once the machines are up and running they can press at a pretty decent rate. A lot of pressing plants offer a 24 to 48 hour turn around, that's with your run being one of however many they are pressing and that time includes the time it takes the postman to carry the CDs from their door to yours. So that should give some idea of how fast these machines work!!

Would love to know how much that costs.

A slightly cheaper variation on this strategy would be to take said live recording home and chop it up into MP3's and make it available over the web the next day. You could give out flyers with the web address for the file. If you have the technology (or you're using fanbridge or something) you could use this as an incentive to get people to sign up to your mailing list. Include a digital flyer in the file with a discount voucher to your next gig. Some porn to, with your songs as the soundtrack. Well, maybe not that last bit.

Does one have to do any work mixing live recordings, or do you just get what comes out of the desk?

You have to do a mix for live recordings. What you hear out front and what would be recorded a very different, the vocals are normally WAAAAY up in the mix as is, quite often, the kick drum.

I'll get spoddy for a minute . . .

The way that I would have to do a live recording is to take a pre-mix direct line out of each channel (providing that is that the live desk at the venue has them) into my VS2480 portable recording desk. That means that each track from the desk will record to it's own track which I can mix and piss about with later on. It's important to have a pre-mix direct out as I want the most untreated sound I can get, no FX, no EQ and most importantly for vocals no jacked up gain, I'll be looking to do all that sort of thing later. One of the biggest issues that I have come across doing live recordings in a small venue is that the vocal tracks will often be really distorted, that's why I really need to avoid any gain being put on before it hits my recording desk.

A mixing a live recording is pretty straight forward so it will normally take a few hours work (although it's better to spend a bit longer on things if you can). I would send the tracks off to be mastered as I loath mastering and it's always worth getting a pro mastering job, it can make or break a recording. After that it would be ready to go.

So, to answer your question I don't think that I would be able to get a recording of a show out the next day as I don't have the time, skill or equipment to turn a recording around that quickly.

That said, I like your idea and there's no reason why I couldn't offer people a live recording a week or so after the event or maybe even at the end of a tour. It's something worth bearing in mind.