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09-25-2023, 01:07 AM
Hi Guys
Just to address a question from post-2 with respect to the use of Symmetric Stage setups and recording:
The symmetric Stage cabinet layout is used to optimise the on-stage sound for the players AND to optimise the off-stage sound for the audience. As TUTs 1&2 and SPKR detail, the cabinet positions for each instrument effect what a player hears AND what the audience hears.
For example, suppose there is drum center-stage, bass to the left and guitar to the right. The bass player is standing next to his cabinet and hears his own instrument very loudly, hears the drums pretty well, and may hear the guitar a bit lower in his own acoustic mix of the band for where he is positioned. The drummer hears the bass and guitar both with treble attenuation, as he is likely to the side of both cabinets. The guitar player hears his own sound loud and clear, the drums pretty well and the bass slightly lower in his acoustic mix. The Symmetric Stage evens out the acoustic mix across the stage so everyone hears everyone else pretty well.
For the audience, a person sitting in front of the guitar cabinet will be blasted bu guitar and may not hear the rest of the band too well. Similarly, someone sitting in front of the bass cabinet will be blasted by bass and may not hear the rest of the band too well. Someone sitting center-stage may hear everything reasonably well, possibly with an emphasis on the drums. The Symmetric Stage evens out the mix for those audience members sitting off-center, which is pretty much everyone in the room.
As far as recording a performance where the Symmetric Stage is employed, there is much more freedom of where to place the two microphones as the mix is almost monophonic. Still, positioning the mikes on the center-line will capture any left-right orientation of drum elements and contribute to some stereo feeling.
I always prefer live concert recordings as historically these show off the players and the band at their best - interacting with an audience with the cycle of energy feedback between them. The first live album I encountered that had overdubs was one from Def Leopard, who wrote "There are a few overdubs, but it's only rock'n'roll". Well, if it is "only" rock'n'roll, leave it how you played it live !! I found it to be an insult to the people buying the album (which I had not, it was my neighbour's).
Any performances or jams I recorded were always done as a room mix. This always provides a very natural and listenable feel.
Generally, recording the band playing the song together will be a first step when recording an album, and represents the "bed tracks". These began as room mixes and as more recording tracks became economical AND as recording engineers began thinking of themselves as "the fifth member of the band", bed tracks may be single-instrument tracks but recorded all at one time. Laying down further tracks to "improve upon" the original tracks is either beneficial or not. In general, it tends to ruin the overall performance inasmuch as it is extremely difficult to go back to the first performance once you have added every cool enhancement you can dream up.
An example I cite in TUTs regarding this was with respect to the Rush "Slings and Arrows" album. A true fan was chosen as the engineer / producer, who claimed he wanted to get the band back to its essence of being guitar-based. With that, every track had multiple electric guitar tracks as well as acoustic, and drums and bass. Further to this, no song was consistent throughout, meaning it may start off as a blues song, say, but then morph once or twice into quite different styles, which tended to blur all the songs together, leaving none of them distinct nor memorable.
Other albums from various bands may be optimised for radio-play and then sound terrible through a home stereo. A case in point was Ozzy's first album with Zakk Wylde. The selected track for the single sounded pretty nice through a typical radio speaker, but the mid-sucking over-emphsised bass tones were very annoying through a proper stereo playback system.
Just to address a question from post-2 with respect to the use of Symmetric Stage setups and recording:
The symmetric Stage cabinet layout is used to optimise the on-stage sound for the players AND to optimise the off-stage sound for the audience. As TUTs 1&2 and SPKR detail, the cabinet positions for each instrument effect what a player hears AND what the audience hears.
For example, suppose there is drum center-stage, bass to the left and guitar to the right. The bass player is standing next to his cabinet and hears his own instrument very loudly, hears the drums pretty well, and may hear the guitar a bit lower in his own acoustic mix of the band for where he is positioned. The drummer hears the bass and guitar both with treble attenuation, as he is likely to the side of both cabinets. The guitar player hears his own sound loud and clear, the drums pretty well and the bass slightly lower in his acoustic mix. The Symmetric Stage evens out the acoustic mix across the stage so everyone hears everyone else pretty well.
For the audience, a person sitting in front of the guitar cabinet will be blasted bu guitar and may not hear the rest of the band too well. Similarly, someone sitting in front of the bass cabinet will be blasted by bass and may not hear the rest of the band too well. Someone sitting center-stage may hear everything reasonably well, possibly with an emphasis on the drums. The Symmetric Stage evens out the mix for those audience members sitting off-center, which is pretty much everyone in the room.
As far as recording a performance where the Symmetric Stage is employed, there is much more freedom of where to place the two microphones as the mix is almost monophonic. Still, positioning the mikes on the center-line will capture any left-right orientation of drum elements and contribute to some stereo feeling.
I always prefer live concert recordings as historically these show off the players and the band at their best - interacting with an audience with the cycle of energy feedback between them. The first live album I encountered that had overdubs was one from Def Leopard, who wrote "There are a few overdubs, but it's only rock'n'roll". Well, if it is "only" rock'n'roll, leave it how you played it live !! I found it to be an insult to the people buying the album (which I had not, it was my neighbour's).
Any performances or jams I recorded were always done as a room mix. This always provides a very natural and listenable feel.
Generally, recording the band playing the song together will be a first step when recording an album, and represents the "bed tracks". These began as room mixes and as more recording tracks became economical AND as recording engineers began thinking of themselves as "the fifth member of the band", bed tracks may be single-instrument tracks but recorded all at one time. Laying down further tracks to "improve upon" the original tracks is either beneficial or not. In general, it tends to ruin the overall performance inasmuch as it is extremely difficult to go back to the first performance once you have added every cool enhancement you can dream up.
An example I cite in TUTs regarding this was with respect to the Rush "Slings and Arrows" album. A true fan was chosen as the engineer / producer, who claimed he wanted to get the band back to its essence of being guitar-based. With that, every track had multiple electric guitar tracks as well as acoustic, and drums and bass. Further to this, no song was consistent throughout, meaning it may start off as a blues song, say, but then morph once or twice into quite different styles, which tended to blur all the songs together, leaving none of them distinct nor memorable.
Other albums from various bands may be optimised for radio-play and then sound terrible through a home stereo. A case in point was Ozzy's first album with Zakk Wylde. The selected track for the single sounded pretty nice through a typical radio speaker, but the mid-sucking over-emphsised bass tones were very annoying through a proper stereo playback system.
