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Bally Rehearsal Studios.
Tottenham Hale, N17. London.
What kind of recording sessions are possible?
These are the kinds of sessions that can be recorded. Click on each option, or scroll down.
1) Live band recording to 8 track.
2) Live Session 8-track video and audio recording. **Most popular**
3) Live band recording to 8 track with additional overdubs made.
4) Band recording with instruments recorded seperately.
5) Drum 8-track recording.
1) Live Session 8-track audio recording.
This is the options that is by far the more straightforward. The band sets up their equipment in nearly the same way as they would for a rehearsal, with the only difference being that instead of the vocals coming out of the PA system, the band will monitor them via headphones. Apart from that, everything else is the same. The band all plays live, just like you normally would in your session, and each individual instrument is recorded to the following channels on the 8-track recorder.
Live recording example: 2 guitars, bass, drums.
1: Bass drum.
2: Snare drum
3: Drums Overhead Left
4: Drums Overhead Right
5: Bass Guitar
6: Lead Guitar
7: Rhythm Guitar
8: Vocals
1 Live Session
In this set up there are no overdubs at all, everything is recorded live, and raw. You can then either mix the recorded music at home, or we can mix it for you. At this point you can put these recordings on all of the distribution platforms out there, including Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal, etc for a one-off £30 fee, and start connecting your music with people. We find that most bands are able to record one song per hour with this set-up, with 6-7 takes per song.
Why choose this option?
The biggest benefit to recording to this set-up is that it's the option that as most simular to your usual rehearsal sessions, and it's also the easiest to edit aftewards. With only 8 microphones to mix together, it's usually possible to do a good mix within a couple of hours at most if you already have good knowledge on how to mix. If not, then it will act as a great introduction to mixing.
2) Live Session 8-track video and audio recording. **Most popular.**
2 live session with video
This is by far and away the most popular option. You set up the recording equipment exactly as described above, in 1), but you also attach each band member's mobile phone to tripods that are provided to you, with each band member having their phone set to record their individual performance We can then provide you with an additional mobile phone that records the whole band in a wide shot. You'll need to clear enough space on your phone to record the whole performance, (most band members buy a mini-SD card, with a 128GB one costing as little as £12), and then set your phone to airplane mode so that the recording doesn't get disturbed. Set it to the maximum recording resolution, and then you leave it recording throughout the whole session. Then at the end of the session you combine the mixed audio recording of the audio, with the video footage of the video cameras, to create your very own live session, just like this.
Here is what it will look like. You can either edit it to switch between the different camera angles, like so:
or you can have each band member in a quarter of the screen for the duration of the song, like so:
For reference, these videos were mixed in less than 3.5 hours by a Bally Studios staff member who had had no previous experience in editing beforehand, using a software that cost £45 per year to subscribe to.
Why choose this option?
- It's extremely simple to turn your recording session into a live session, with it barely adding 15 minutes to the overall process. All you need to do is set up the shot on your phone so that it captures the angle that you want, and then leave it in place for the duration of the recording session. If you later on decide that you don't want to use the video recording, you are under no obligation to do so, you're free to delete the footage, but if you're happy with the audio that you've recorded, then you can combine the video footage to it. It won't add to the cost of the session, and will only add a minimal amount of time to it.
- If you're looking to get live gigs, this will be a great option to send to promoters to show how well you can play as a live band. Stage persona is so important for some bands, and recording the bands performance on video will allow the band to convey how a band plays live in a way that is impossible to capture with just the audio recorded. Bands like Joy Division and Kiss were on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their stage prescence, yet in both cases that aesthetic was vital to how the band connected with their audience, which shows the value of including the video recording of your performance.
- Recording a live sessions is completely different to recording an album. Many bands record numerous live sessions in different studios, whereas albums are only recorded once. Whilst bands will (rightfully) refuse to compromise on their first album, needing to find the exact set-up that suits their band best, the same doesn't apply to live sessions. You can record these songs at Bally, use them to build up anticipation amongst your fanbase, and still keep the option open of re-recording them to their full potential at a later date, either when recording your album, or in a different live session.
- If the release of Get Back has taught us anything, it's that there is an insatiable appetite to seeing a band in a moment of time that can never be replicated later. Ultimately, the band has two possabilities - either it will reach it's potential, or it won't. If it reaches it's potential, then it would be hard to put a value on such a recording that is made before a point that the band became successful. On the other hand, if the band never reaches it's potential, then this recording will be a record of what will have still been a really important part of your life.
3) Live band recording to 8 track with additional overdubs made.
You also have the option to use the full 16 tracks of our recorder and record live to 8 tracks, and then overdub another 8 tracks on top of this. In this case you would record the band as follows:
3 live session with overdubs
Live recording: 2 guitars, bass, drums.
First 8 tracks.
1: Bass drum.
2: Snare drum
3: Drums Overhead Left
4: Drums Overhead Right
5: Bass Guitar
6: Lead Guitar
7: Rhythm Guitar
8: Vocals
At this point you now have the basis for your recording. However, if you then wanted to overdub your live recording, you can then overdub keyboards, backing vocals, extra guitars or percussion over it on the other 8 tracks, like so.
Second 8 tracks.
9: Keyboards left
10: Keyboards right
11: Backing vocals 1
12: Backing vocals 2
13: Percussion
14: Acoustic Guitar
15: Additional Guitar solo
16: _____________
You can now overdub whatever instruments you want to use up the whole 16 tracks.
4 Recording seperately
4) Band recording with instruments recorded seperately.
All of the above options are "live recordings", with the different band members playing at the same time. It is possible though to record each band member seperately though, if you so wish. At this point, some bands will ask, "so what is the benefit of this then?" Our answer to this is that if you are not sure why you want to record the band members seperately, then this option is almost certainly not the best option for you. You should really only choose this option if you have a specific reason for choosing it, some of which are below. If you did decide to choose this option though, you can do so as follows:
Overdubbed recording: 2 guitars, bass, drums, keys.
First you record the drums.
1: Bass drum.
2: Snare drum
3: Drums Overhead Left
4: Drums Overhead Right
5: Left rack tom
6: Right rack tom/second mic on bass drum.
7: Floor Tom.
8: Hi-hats.
then once the drumkit is recorded, you can then record the other instruments to the other channels, like so.
9: Lead Guitar close mic
10: Lead Guitar distant mic
11: Rhythm Guitar close mic
12: Rhythm Guitar distant mic
13: Bass Guitar close mic
14: Bass Guitar DI box
15: Extra guitars
16: Guitar solo
However, even though you have now used up all of the tracks on the 16 track recorder, you still have options to record more tracks. At this stage you can take these 16 tracks and mix them together into a rough overdub mix. You can the put this stereo mix onto channels 1 & 2 of the 8-track recorder, and then record to tracks 3-16 as above, adding a further 14 tracks. So long as you don't edit the recordings and change the length of the tracks, you can then add the extra 14 tracks to the original 16 tracks, and you can keep on doing this continuously. The "overdub" mix it just for you to be able to record over, you won't use this mix in the finished recording, it's just to act as a guide for you when recording more overdubs.
Why choose this option?
- This is a difficult option, but that is the exact reason why some bands choose it. They want it to be difficult, as that's the best way that they can learn how to produce/mix music. The more instruments you mix togther, the more you can refine the recordings, but at the same time the trickier the process is, and there's no better way to learn how to mix than to expand the project and add as many different instruments as possible.
- Some bands have many members, and so they have no other option other than to use the whole 16 tracks of the recorder so that every band member is included in the recording.
- If you want your recordings to have a "wall of sound", the best way to achieve this is to use multiple microphones at the same time.
- Extra options when processing/mixing. If you want to use a production style that was common in the 1980s, with dramatic signal processing ( insense gating/reverb/compression), then recording each instrument seperately will give you more flexibility with treating each signal differently.
- More options when mixing later. If you want to record the electric guitar but you aren't sure what microphones to use, this option means that you can record with multiple microphones in multiple positions, simultaenously, and then pick out which microphone is best at the mixing stage. In this scenario you can record the drums to channels 1-8, and then record a single guitar amplifier with the following microphones to the following channels, simultaenously. With this set up you would effectivly have the guitar recorded in x7 differnt ways at once, giving you the most flexability when deciding which signal to use at the mixing stage. We have the microphones available to record a single guitar in all of the following ways, simultaenously, giving you a huge amount of flexability at the mixing stage.
9: Sennheiser E 602 II - positioned close to the amplifier.
10: Shure Sm57 - positioned close to the amplifier.
11: Shure Sm58 - backed off from the amplifier.
12: Shure Beta 52A - a bass microphone, to capture increased low end frequencies.
13 & 14: Lewitt LCT 040 Sterero microphones - positioned 5m+ back and 2m+ apart, to capture the sound in stereo.
15: DI taken directly from the amplifier.
16: Clean guitar - Some tuners have x2 outputs, so you can plug the second output directly into the 8-track recorder, to record the sound of the guitar before it enters any of the pedals/amplifiers, giving you the option to add different effects/different amp simulators later.
5 drum recording
You can now save those 8 channels of recording, then keep one of them to listen to while overdubbing the next instrument, keep channels 1-8 for the drumss, keep one of these microphones recording on channel 9 as a guide, and then record the rhythm guitar on channels 10-16, giving you a further 7 channels to record the rhythm guitar on.
5) Drum 8-track recording.
Sometimes you only need to record the drums and nothing else. You may want to record the drums for your band recording at Bally Studios, and then record everything else at home by plugging directly into your recording soundcard, a process that does not require a soundproofed studio. Or you might be a drummer who wants to record a video like the one below, to show off your drumming skills. Doing so will make the process of finding a band much easier, since you can then use this recording to showcase your drumming ability and you can skip the stage of proving to the band that you are auditioning for that you are competant on your instrument, and instead work out of your styles of playing and personalities go well togther. If you want to record a video as well we can also provide you with x4 mobile phone tripods, free of charge. You can borrow the studio's mobile phone, and along with your personal one, all you need to do is to borrow x2 old mobile phones from somewhere else and you can record something like this, to an x8 microphone, x4 camera set up.
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