Hi all.

As JJ helped me big time before (suggesting a CMV563/M55K for recording piano), I thought this forum would be ideal for the following specific question.
I've got a rather experimental session coming up early January.
The band is an acoustic foursome: Cello, Violin, Accordeon, Clarinet.
I produced and recorded their previous album, most of it was them live in one room, which I multitracked & edited.
We didn't use any cans, which was great for maintaining their natural balance.
This time however we want to include upright bass & drums as well, and I'm thinking of recording it the same way as last time.

So the question is, has anybody experience with this?
The band has a rock attitude and although I'm comfortable with spill, I'm obviously worried about the drums.
It's a great room where we'll record, and they have some gobo's.

Any thoughts?

You can check out some tracks of the previous album at http://www.daau.com , then go to Audio/Album, choose 'Raw Like Milk'.

I am not a recording or producing guru, common sense tells me that separation and balance comes 90% from the players. Are the players going to practice with drums and bass just as they practiced with themselves in preparing for the last album? If not then that could be a problem. To just arbitrarily tack on such strong instruments as drums and bass after the fact could lead to obvious trouble, just as you are anticipating.

If that is the case then you are in for a fix it in the mix experience. I can't really help you there. But if the group is planning on adding these elements to their live shows then they better get working on balance and separation now.

It depends on the style of drumming. When I did June Carter Cash's record, it was all acoustic instruments, an upright and drums all in the same room in a log cabin. The drummer never really used a kick drum, and was mainly doing double stroke snare with sticks or brush stuff. If you are able to use gobos or make something by even hanging packing blankets to get some type of separation, you might be OK as long as you don't have rock drums happening.

You know, if you are using ribbons, you can also take advantage of almost complete 90 off axis rejection that their figure eight gives you, so if you could rent a handful or AEA R84s or Royers, that might be the answer. You just have to make sure you don't have drums reflecting off a surface that is within the figure eight pattern's field.

Sometimes, if you are using a cardioid mic in those situations placed close enough to the source, the leakage might be negligible anyway. Just be careful if you use compression, because that will accentuate the leakage. However, I really think using normal cardioids with some form of gobo for the drums will be the most practical solution.

Good luck!

My apologies for not responding sooner. I was in the middle of a rather stressful live production with an orchestra.
Anyway...

To give you some more info:

Yes, the players will practice with drums and bass prior to the recording session. In fact, I'd like to prepare everything including the gobo's/blankets, and I'll do some demo'ing at the same time. It's very much a live thing, so not much use going to the studio before we adressed all issues.

It's an interesting session anyway, so I'll keep you guys posted.