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Although I may no longer be at the point where I'm looking for anyone's approval for anything, I had an idea that I wanted to run by you people just the same. I have an artist that I'm working with that I want to do a pretty stripped down duet with. Originally my plan would have been to record them all off the floor in the live room and that would be that. However I am not confident that I'll be able to get them both in the same room at the same time, nor am I sure that I can get a perfect performance out of both of them simultaneously.

I considered the option of having the performances played back in the live room after the fact and mic the room in an attempt to capture the ambiance of the room. I'm probably going to try it either way... but would love to hear any experiences you guys might have (good or bad) with this kind of process.

I don't really see the point with that. It's not going to sound like it was recorded live because there's no synergy between two musicians in the same room. And it's not going to have the benefits of iso recording either. Seems like the worst of both worlds to me.

Or are you just talking about recording the ambiance as a reverb? If so have at er, it works great in some situations.

macrae11 wrote:I don't really see the point with that. It's not going to sound like it was recorded live because there's no synergy between two musicians in the same room. And it's not going to have the benefits of iso recording either. Seems like the worst of both worlds to me.

Or are you just talking about recording the ambiance as a reverb? If so have at er, it works great in some situations.

Mathieu Benoit wrote:I considered the option of having the performances played back in the live room after the fact and mic the room in an attempt to capture the ambiance of the room.

So yeah... the second thing. I was just curious as to whether you've done it with any kind of success before. Ideally I'd love to be able to get them to do it together off the floor and that might still be an option. However in the event that we can't, I want to at least capture the room if not the "synergy." For further clarification in this scenario I'd be recording them in the iso booth then playing back in the live room. Just wanted to be clear that I'm not trying to paint myself into a corner.

So you're basically talking about dumping recorded tracks recorded separately back into the room and recording the ambiance?

Malcolm Boyce wrote:So you're basically talking about dumping recorded tracks recorded separately back into the room and recording the ambiance?

Yes... No idea how well it will work, but that was the general idea. It's like re-amping only I call it "re-rooming".

(Pat. pending)

Mathieu Benoit wrote:

Malcolm Boyce wrote:So you're basically talking about dumping recorded tracks recorded separately back into the room and recording the ambiance?

Yes... No idea how well it will work, but that was the general idea. It's like re-amping only I call it "re-rooming".

(Pat. pending)

We used to do this a lot when drum tracks were being pieced together with machines mixed with live drums. It was something that seemed to help things stick together better. With drums, we would PA stuff right next to a drum kit or drums in a room to get that "ring" happening, and then blended into the drum mix, it was something that worked. I got this from hearing about Pat Mastelotto doing it, and I always loved his sounds. It was a fix for things sounding so separate and disconnected sonically.

Can't speak for what you're going to try, but will be interested to hear what you find.

Yeah I've done it before, but not in a while. I actually got the idea from Bruce Swedian. (we go way back ) I certainly helps, but I haven't found the need since I got a really good room impulse response library. I use an IR of the old Signet Sound scoring stage. The only time I do it now is when I need to match the ambiance from a track in an iso booth to our live room. Your room would work much better as an "effect" room, so it would be cool to have a setup like that permanently to be used as a reverb send like a chamber. The only problem with that is the whole studio needs to be really quiet for it to work.

All that being said.....why not just record them both in the live room?

macrae11 wrote:I haven't found the need since I got a really good room impulse response library. I use an IR of the old Signet Sound scoring stage.

I've been wanting to make an IR of our live room for a long time. It's on the list.

macrae11 wrote:The only time I do it now is when I need to match the ambiance from a track in an iso booth to our live room. Your room would work much better as an "effect" room, so it would be cool to have a setup like that permanently to be used as a reverb send like a chamber.

We'll eventually there will be a permanent set of studio speakers like there is in "real" studios for basic playback purposes.

macrae11 wrote:The only problem with that is the whole studio needs to be really quiet for it to work.

Just like anytime I'm recording anything quiet. Not usually an issue.

macrae11 wrote:All that being said.....why not just record them both in the live room?

That's "plan A." I'm sure you can come up with a slew of reasons why that could go sideways... Haha.

Fair enough. No reason it shouldn't work then. But go with Plan A. You'll potentially save yourself several big headaches.

macrae11 wrote:But go with Plan A. You'll potentially save yourself several big headaches.

This is based on a collective performance that stands on its own. This could get messy...

I'm keeping Plan B in my pocket though.

Oh. Well why don't you make Plan B Plan C, and make Plan B recording them separately in the big room. I think that makes sense.

macrae11 wrote:Oh. Well why don't you make Plan B Plan C, and make Plan B recording them separately in the big room. I think that makes sense.

Well, so much for plan C. Haha.

I have always wanted to do this anyways. I first got the idea from a variation on this theme that Anthrax used on their Sound of White Noise album.
No shortage of PA around here these days, so I say let's do it.
I wanna try really exciting the room thoroughly.

A.

Alain Benoit wrote:I have always wanted to do this anyways. I first got the idea from a variation on this theme that Anthrax used on their Sound of White Noise album.
No shortage of PA around here these days, so I say let's do it.
I wanna try really exciting the room thoroughly.

A.

A) We have enough PA in here at this time to excite Harbour Station.
B) I was initially talking about an acoustic folk song, so the word "exciting" scares me a bit.
C) If you want to involve yourself in any of the projects I've got on the go at the moment, I will gladly accept the help.