Possible studio start up?!?

[Hook]

So a buddy of mine hosts an open mic and is friends with the owner if the bar which is actually part of a health food grocery store in Brandon,FL. They started floating the idea of using the space as a recording studio, my buddy has modest gear, br800, some mics, etc. The owner maybe will invest...something...maybe into the idea. I have been approached because I can actually record.

To start off ( poof of concept if you will) I am going to set up my friends BR 800 and my laptop at the open mic. I'm going to record the performance and then within 30 minutes after that I'm going to give them a CD for twenty bucks. My plan is to take a stereo track out of the back of the PA system and also set up a room mic to record the set. Then I'll turn off the BR 80, pop out the card and insert a new card, start recording the next ACT and go to my laptop the mix down the two tracks in audacity and burn a CD. I'm telling them I'll have it done by two acts after they perform so roughly 30 minutes.
Assuming we have some sort of response to this we might consider looking at other ways to utilize the space As a recording studio. Hopefully that will also lead to a little investment from the owner. I got to learn to use the BR 800 by Thursday so I can pull this off I'm going to try to mess around with it this afternoon and I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of questions. Do you have any opinions or thoughts please share them I'm all open to suggestions.
As always rock on my friends!

[Farrell Jackson]

Hook that sounds interesting, fun and challenging. You've certainly recorded and mixed in a variety of places that I'm certain you can pull this off. Here's some thoughts and/or suggestions: You'll need a good set of headphones that will block out the stage sounds of the next act. I'm assuming you'll be mixing in the same area at the same time as the next performance. Will everything on the stage be mic'ed that comes from the P.A. stereo feed? If so will someone else be in charge of mixing the house P.A.? If not and it's just the vocals you may have a problem getting the levels down at mix time to match the music. The room mic will help with that but then you might have double the vocals to contend with. Some of the best live, stage recordings my former band made was with a mic (2 SM57) placed in front of each speaker column, recorded to a mini disc. That way we captured it all. But we had everything on the stage mic'ed and had time to do a sound check to get the stage mix correct. After that we just let the mini disc run. I think you are on the right track by keeping it as simple as possible. Good luck with this and as I said, I'm sure you can pull it off with flying colors. 

Farrell

[WarpCanada]

I think that might just be a really fun afternoon or evening outing for folks in your town.   good luck!

[StephenM]

and heck.... all you got to lose is 20 bucks...give it a whirl...I'm betting on you!

[Hilary]

I think it's a great idea, we had open mics down my way that used to do much the same except we didn't get the CD on the night - you could charge them less, get them to pay upfront, take their email address and then email an MP3 (say within 7 days) - you wouldn't have the pressure on the night then.

[TPB]

Used to do something similar with a zoom recorder then went to a 12 ch mixer and mic the drums it has a in and out so everything went to the mains it the in Chanel's are routed to the computer so you could adjust no matter what was going  in the stage good headphones were a must. Would be great to hear your mix  good luck
Tim

[Oldrottenhead]

I'm thinking everything plugged into a mixing desk. Mics for vocals and audience ambience, and instruments plugged into desk. Then line out to BR800 to a stereo track.

[launched]

I'm extremely pleased to see you doing something like this! Doubt you need a lot of advice as I've personally seen you in action in two distinct occasions. You are a huge talent dealing with on the fly mayhem and I have no doubt whatever you decide to do will be effective.

I think the BR800 is not the best recording medium (eventually). It has incredible recording quality but won't suit you for "mastering" a listenable recording in quick time. If the musicians are very good and miked well it won't be a huge problem but the biggest issue will be garbage in/garbage out. Farrell Jackson's post is on the spot and you know all that stuff too so no need to elaborate.

In my opinion you want visual tools to get faster on the fly results. Laptop and mouse, board to two track, figure it out and move on.

You can do it, I love it!!

 

[StephenM]

a good old fashioned smart phone, placed in the correct location, at least as a possible feed source is also a good idea... I have heard phone recordings live that were quite good actually...

[bruno]

Its hard, cos I don't want to sound negative brother, but we tried this and didn't have a good experience. And we did it for free!

Many moons ago, we were doing this at the open mikes. Paul, the chap I was doing this with, had a Yamaha 16 track hard disk recorder. He used this as the main sound mixing desk - so everything ran through it. So all Paul had to do was press record. However, it took ages to mix afterwards, and Paul quite rarely got a thank you, even as a free service (yeah, you do people a favour ...). Plus it took most of his hard drive to record long open mike sessions. Its probably simpler to set up a couple of mikes to record the stereo image at the desk, rather than do it the way we did.

B