Advice for recording live instrument

[jmak]

I'm trying to help someone record themselves playing saxophone. I'm using a Marantz MPM 1000u mic and Audacity. I've played around moving the performer and the mic and the levels and got something I was reasonably happy with, but when I add in a backing track (playing through speakers behind the performer) the sound is "compressed", as though there's a noise gate and all the detail from the saxophone disappears.

 

When you play it back, the backing track sounds fine, then when the saxophone comes in, the backing track sounds like it's turned down and when there's a break in the saxophone part, the backing track volume is brought back up. It also loses the detail of the saxophone playing - the tone sounds the same as though it's filtered.

 

Any ideas on whether there's a setting I can change in Audacity or a better way to set up the room, or different software (it's a one off, so I can take a free trial in most things)?

[Domino]

you'd be better off having the sax player play along with headphones on, so you can get a clean record of just the sax.

 

then add the backing track as a separate track in audacity and you can mix the levels between them.

[3s-gtech]

Agreed - if you were live mixing this you’d have the backing track piped into the mixer and out to headphones for the performer - a microphone won’t pick both up well at all.

[jmak]

Should have mentioned it's for an audition, so it has to be videoed as well and needs to be a "live" recording.

 

Live auditions have been cancelled for obvious reasons and no accompanists are available.

[3s-gtech]

You should be able to pipe the mix from the mixer into the video recording device (unless it’s just a phone), otherwise you will have to do it in post production. Worth a try if you have a video camera with mic input.

[mdrabble]

Have a look at acapella, most musicians I’ve seen on Facebook have been using that.

[Andrew_C]

I don't know the mic, but sax is REALLY loud up close. You might be overloading it.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I would definitely get the sax player listening to the music on headphones.

 

You're already recording video and audio separately, so there's no hard in adding the music over the top of the sax recording when you edit the video.

 

If you really want to capture the audio live I reckon you'll need a second mic. The Sax is so loud and the Mic you're using isn't really good enough to take everything in when there's a sax blasting out.

With a second mic you can mic up the speaker and the sax, but this is over complicating things imo.

[jmak]

Thanks for all the suggestions - I'll try moving things around and also have a go playing the backing track through headphones.

 

The mic does capture what I'm after when it's the only sound, but is overwhelmed with the additional source.

[mavhc]

Is the microphone level set to auto or fixed?

[jmak]

Is the microphone level set to auto or fixed?

Nothing on the microphone and no software from the manufacturer. Audacity lets you adjust the level.

 

Currently getting moderate success by having the microphone at the same end of the room as the speakers and sax at the far end.

 

I suspect there's more I could do in the settings in Audacity, but I don't have time to learn before the submission deadline.

[SamanthaD]

This is dead easy. Open your backing track in Audacity. In Preferences (Edit>Preferences) under the Recording option click "Record on a new track", then OK. Make sure your mic is selected as the input source, connect your headphones. Hit record - the sax player will hear the backing track, sax is recorded in it's own track in Audacity. Once the song is recorded, mix down the volumes to suit and export. Don't think anyone would complain about this approach being taken, especially for an audition.

[jmak]

It's the human/non-technical bit that's a potential issue.

 

The guidance is to dress and perform as though you were going to a live audition - wearing headphones while playing doesn't really fit with that.

 

Also, the student has never done studio work, so wearing headphones while playing won't be particularly natural.

[Andrew_C]

wearing headphones while playing doesn't really fit with that.

Yes, I think that they would accept that for technical reasons a muso wears headphones. If you really feel it is a problem, try some earbuds wit the wire down his back?