我的結他雜記: Recording jazz guitar trio

Like any musician/bands, we recorded ourselves during rehearsals all the time, usually with a cellphone or better yet, a camera/camcorder with a decent mic. As we are preparing a demo of pieces we would like to perform, we decided to go slightly higher-end this time: recording with an amp sim/interface (KORG Pandora), a condenser mic (Samson Go mic) and a notebook PC (ASUS X200CA) I also brought a few USB cables, long extension cords for USB and headphone and a HK electrical outlet adapter for my US computer power supply.

The recording session took place at 310 Studio in the "legendary" Mong Kok 先施大厦. We were given the first room which was the best option for us since only one side is adjacent to another room so we kinda limited the amount of unwanted sound picked up by our mic. There was a mixer in the room connected to studio monitors. We ended up recorded our tunes like this:

1) Load the Audacity file on which a click track was generated and I pre-recorded the guitar part at home already.

For the bass, lower the volume of the click track. We plugged the bass into the Pandora and chose the 'B JAZZ' preset. Then connected the output of Pandora to the in-room mixer. Our bassist listened to the studio monitor and played his part. Set Audacity to use the Pandora as the input. 

For the drums, lower the volume of the guitar track. We used the USB extension cable and clipped the Samson Go mic up on one of the mic stand extended all the way up. Set Audacity to use it as the input and the computer as the output. Finally, plug the headphone with extension cable to the computer. Our drummer listened to the headphone and played. He could not take advantage of the studio monitor because the mic would have picked that audio up.

Using this approach, i.e., each instrument on its own track, we were able to easily balance the volume of each instrument (basically cutting the drums and pumping up the guitar) and made them all sound clearly. We even cheated a little bit by lining up the notes perfectly :P

2) Open a blank Audacity file. Place the Samson Go mic roughly equal distance to the drums, the guitar amp and the bass amp. I relied on the 'Midtown Jazz' preset of the Pandora so I connected the output of Pandora to the Line 6 amp. Chose the Clean channel. Adjusted bass, mid, treble to "neutral" and recorded all 3 of us playing together on one track. 

Using this approach, we lost the ability to balance the instruments. I wish the guitar sounded louder >:) On the other hand, the playing sounded much more cohesive since we were playing and listening to each other at the same time.

[Update] Found this article comparing the pros and cons written by a pro. The observations are similar.