Recording A Band Live In Your Living Room

I love seeing bands record in living rooms and get great results. Maybe it’s because I’ve done a lot of that in my life, and maybe it’s because there’s something so chill about seeing 5 dudes making music near a sofa. Today’s video is technically a promo for one of Focusrite’s audio interfaces, the Saffire Pro 24 DSP, but it’s a great example of getting a lot done with a little.

Portable Recording Done Right

Their Pro Tools engineer shows the setup: a portable firewire audio interface, with 8 more mic pres hooked up via ADAT lightpipe. They set up the whole band live and recorded it. You’ll notice some common sense mic placement and even some smart decisions between condenser and dynamic mics. Take a look and enjoy!

Creating A Vibe

Part of the “sound” these guys got on this recording is an intimate, musical, vibe. You just feel engaged in the melo nature of the tune. That isn’t do to crazy production technique, or big studio quality drums. Instead you have a talented band, with a beautiful song, playing together in one room. There is something to be said about that vibe that comes from actually recording “together”.

Here’s my point. Using a simple and affordable studio setup, these guys got a great recording without a lot of fuss. Maybe we should all go back to the music side of things and focus less on the “studio magic” side of things in order to get a great recording.