Need help with setup for band recording - MOTU 8Pre

DanielL · Post by **DanielL** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:13 am

I'm new to the forum and recording in general. Up until now I've been doing basic stereo recording with M-Audio Firewire Solo.

I just purchased an MOTU 8Pre. Here's the rest of my hardware config:

iMac 20" 2.16 GHz, 3 gigs of RAM, external 7200rpm, 160 gig Firewire HD. Garageband (Until I can afford Logic).

I know I'm limited to 8 analog tracks with the 8Pre. I'll need to record on separate tracks, guitar/tube amp (mic'd), keyboard, vocalist, bass and 4 piece drum kit. We are recording live-off-the floor and aren't concerned with bleeding at this point. What are my setup options with the 8Pre?

Thanks in advance your help.

ptrx · Post by **ptrx** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:29 am

depending on style , you have several options, a basic setup could be:

1 kick
2 snare
3 overhead L
4 overhead R
5 bass DI (straight into the 8 pre evt)
6 guitar mic
7 keys (straight in)
8 vocals

or: you could use just one overhead (mono drums) and have keys stereo,
or: have just one mic on the drums (try a 58 in the centre of the drumkit, at equal distance from snare, toms and bassdrm, sounds great, a bit mid-punchy), and have stereo guitar micing, bass mic and DI, etc..

try to figure out what the most important elements are in your music, and make shure you capture those right.

mind: the stuff that goes straight into your 8pre, you'll have to monitor using cuemix. just send an output to some speakers and push the faders of the bass and keys up.

hope this helps

DanielL · Post by **DanielL** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:49 pm

ptrx wrote:depending on style , you have several options, a basic setup could be:

1 kick
2 snare
3 overhead L
4 overhead R
5 bass DI (straight into the 8 pre evt)
6 guitar mic
7 keys (straight in)
8 vocals

or: you could use just one overhead (mono drums) and have keys stereo,
or: have just one mic on the drums (try a 58 in the centre of the drumkit, at equal distance from snare, toms and bassdrm, sounds great, a bit mid-punchy), and have stereo guitar micing, bass mic and DI, etc..

try to figure out what the most important elements are in your music, and make shure you capture those right.

mind: the stuff that goes straight into your 8pre, you'll have to monitor using cuemix. just send an output to some speakers and push the faders of the bass and keys up.

hope this helps

Yes, this is what I was looking for. Some sort of game plan. We record tomorrow. I should mention, we are a blues-funk band with female lead vocalist. I think we will use 4 mics on the drums and everyone else on separate track. I wonder if I should record a MIDI track as well with the keys?

kassonica · Post by **kassonica** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 1:08 am

I would record a MIDI track for sure.

Even if you don't use it at least you have another option and if you get a great take with a few bum notes you can just go in and fix them or what i did recently on a record is the sound may not work with the song so you assign another sound instead.

Do it.

misterhemi · Post by **misterhemi** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 2:59 am

DanielL wrote: I know I'm limited to 8 analog tracks with the 8Pre.

Thanks in advance your help.

Actually, you can record more than 8 tracks BUT it would require more than one pass.

I assume you'd rather just make one pass, in which case, the above post give you good advice.

I don't know how many tracks Garage Band allows as i've never used it but i'm assuming it will probably record many tracks (more than 8, at least) so you may want to consider that if there is too much bleed through from other instruments.

Phil O · Post by **Phil O** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:37 am

kassonica wrote:I would record a MIDI track for sure.

Even if you don't use it at least you have another option and if you get a great take with a few bum notes you can just go in and fix them or what i did recently on a record is the sound may not work with the song so you assign another sound instead.

Do it.

I haven't tried this yet. I've only recorded audio OR MIDI. Does the MIDI sync up properly with the audio when recorded together? Or are there latency mis-matches.

Phil

Dwetmaster · Post by **Dwetmaster** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:40 am

Doesn'T your 8Pre comes with audio desk?
That's way better than GB for recording. No MIDI though...

DanielL · Post by **DanielL** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:50 pm

Dwetmaster wrote:Doesn'T your 8Pre comes with audio desk?
That's way better than GB for recording. No MIDI though...

Yes, the 8Pre came with AudioDesk. I don't really need MIDI actually. Keyboard is going analog (stereo). I've just installed it. Looks like I'll have to read the manual ;-(

So what can you tell me about AudioDesk? Is this a watered down version of Digital Performer?

Dwetmaster · Post by **Dwetmaster** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:45 pm

It's DP without MIDI and a few other features, plugs, etc...
But to record, I would definitely go for that instead of GB...

The best option for you would be to raise the extra money for DP...

mikebw · Post by **mikebw** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 11:03 am

You can record up to 8 "real instruments" (analog) and 1 "software instrument" (MIDI) into Garageband at the same time.

For your setup, as long as you have decent isolation between the mics I think you should have no problem recording everything all at once into GarageBand. I have not used Audio Desk however, it might be easier, although GB is really quite easy. Make sure you set the GB preferences to record 24-bit audio.

I'm looking into buying an 8pre myself now that my band needs a new demo.

MOTUnation.com

Need help with setup for band recording - MOTU 8Pre

Need help with setup for band recording - MOTU 8Pre

Re: Need help with setup for band recording - MOTU 8Pre