Recording “2 people band” in home studio

Videos Philip Weinrobe Recording & Mixing Adrianne Lenker
1

Hi Philip,

First of all, thank you for this inspiring video — it’s about one of my favorite songs ever.

I have a question about mic spill and recording instruments simultaneously. In our small home studio we don’t have the possibility to record drums, and our “band” is just two people:

  • my friend plays electric & acoustic guitar and sings,

  • I play synths, drum machines, and percussion.
    Sometimes we invite a saxophone player and a violinist, but usually they overdub onto an almost finished instrumental.

What would be the best way to take advantage of mic spill and simultaneous recording in our case? Do you think it makes sense to record instruments in pairs (for example: me on a synth through a guitar amp while my friend sings and plays acoustic guitar; then record electric guitar together with some percussion, etc.) — or is there a smarter way to build that “live” energy?

Thank you!

2

for me — everything should me “moving air”

even DI sounds should move air in some way

i usually have a few studio monitors and a few amps set up for this reason.

so in this case i would have the synths coming out some speakers in the room so you can hear them — but i wouldn’t mic those, just let it be in the guitar/vocal mics. the DI on those sources would be my capture

this also allows you to work without headphones which is very good!!

does that answer the question??

3

and yes. do things in pairs in this case

but also — make some more friends and invite them over!

music making should be a community exercise. when folks are together its more impactful

this adrianne track was made like it was bc of the constraints of the pandemic. but for her next record almost the entire thing was live and simultaneous with other musicians

4

Thank you for your answer! It definitely opened up a lot of ideas.

As a follow-up: based on your experience, are there any microphones you’d recommend that you enjoy using and that sound good off-axis?
I currently have an SM57 and a Neumann TLM 107 — I’ve never really used the 107 in omni before, but now I definitely want to experiment with that pattern. I’m looking to expand my mic collection a bit, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Also, recording a band live in the room — with all the spill and interaction — feels like a bit of a lost art. Tracking live, with all the commitment that comes with it, takes some guts.

Would love to hear your thoughts on that.

5

off axis microphones i like:

sony c48
beyerdynamic m160

b+k 4003, 4004

sony c37a

sony c38b

neumann km53 (drool)

neumann km88 (really great!)

these are all a bit expensive, some far more than others.

i will say that i find that the more expensive the mic is, the better the off axis color. this may seem like a flippant or dumb thing to say, but it really has been my experience.

that being said, pickup pattern also is a good indicator and Omni > Fig 8 > Cardioid > Super Cardioid but this rule does not always hold up and there are some very very very sweet sounding cardioid mics off axis that sound better than a specific Omni off axis. a lot goes into mic design i think! hahaha.

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