Paracosmic, Recording the band…live!
One of my favorite parts of the music making process is when a band wants to record all together at the same time. Live off the floor. Not only is the energy from the band great but it’s also a challenge from the recording aspect.
Especially when their are 6 band member including drums, bass, 2 guitar players, saxaphone, harmonica, keys, sitar, tabla…and a second bass? Yep!
That is Paracosmic. They are funk, they are rock, they are blues, they are psychedelic and they are heavy on improv. That last part is why recording live is so important for a band like Paracosmic. They feed off each other every second of every song and it’s a lot of fun.
So how did we go about recording this band live here at Ultimate Studios, Inc? Very carefully!
We had Brandon Cooke (drums) setup in the live room with 16 mics. To open up some space in the room we decided to record the drums in the corner. Not only do the drums sound great there but it opens up room for the other musicians in the room.
Joining Brandon in the live room was Ashton Slater (guitar), Travis Soto (guitar/bass2) and Leo ‘Toad’ Meginley (bass).
For Toad we had a DI as well as a Mark Bass rig setup in the back room. That allowed Toad to have his tone in his ears as well as options for mixing. Both guitar amps were setup in the ISO booth separated by to 4” thick panels. The ISO is very dead and works well with multiple amps.
So far it’s pretty straight forward but it’s about to get interesting!
In the Control Room
With need for isolation for the keys, sax and flute Evan Hatfield (sax/keys/sitar) and Adrian Johnson (harmonica/flute) joined me in the control where we tracked them live with the rest of the band. To help get a little extra isolation between the sax and flute we setup a clear sonic shield between them. It worked really well too!
On one of the songs we tracked live sitar and table in the control room too. It was crowded for sure but it allowed the band to play together like they were used to. It sounded great!
Check the band out at Paracosmicfunk.com – and on the Paracosmic Facebook page.
Learn more about recording at Ultimate Studios, Inc.
