Record live band practice with Garage Band

Question

Any tips on how to best record a band practice with a single mic and Garage Band? It doesnt have to be amazing quality, just something we can post online to give an idea of sound. We have a sno-ball mic and a macbook. Thoughts are appreciated. The band is 8-pieces (yeah horn section) so thats why we just want to do the quick and dirty for this. Thanks!

Answer 1

Phillyberg125 wrote:
Last question:
How is it that the flash recorders will work and not comp sound but the mic i'd buy for the same price and usb into the mac does?
Reasonable question -
Both will work, both can sound great, both can sound terrible.
Recording into a computer is more complex because the computer does other things. Flash recorders only do one thing, so they're optimized for that. A million things can go wrong with a computer, but the flash recorders are dedicated (albeit limited) devices. They're small and reliable, and won't try to connect to a wireless network or write to a Spotlight database in the middle of a recording and crash.
But they don't necessarily sound better than a computer.
My Sony flash recorder will sound better than recording into a computer with a so-so interface and so-so mic because it has better audio components. The mic pres, mics, and digital converters in it are well made, so it sounds great.
However, if I use a better interface, mic pres, and mic and record into my computer, that will sound better than my Sony recorder, but will also be harder to manage. If I just want to set up and record to a single (stereo) mic source, the Sony is way more convenient and sounds great. If I want the best sounding recording I can make, I'll use my computer, interface, and a bunch of outboard pres and mics.
I think there may be some USB mics that are OK sounding. I know some people who use them and get good results. But generally, USB mics are not that great sounding. They combine a mic, a digital converter, and an interface into one inexpensive package. The snowball sells for around $100. I'm not sure how that divides among the components, but that's very little money that's gone into making the mic, converter, and interface. It lets you get up and running for cheaps, but it's so cheap that it's never going to sound all that great.
If you spent a hundred dollars on just the interface, and a couple of hundred dollars on mics going into your computer, it will sound better than the snowball because the components are better.
The flash recorder won't sound better because it's a flash recorder. It's just that if you spend around (picking random number) $300 on a flash recorder, it's dedicating maybe $150 towards the mic and pres, and $150 towards the recorder, optimized to work together in a dedicated device. That will outperform the $50 mic in the snowball.
Your setup sounds like it can take you in two very different directions - one simple (one mic to record the room), the other complex (at least 8 inputs of interface/mixer to record the entire band). Since setting up the complex solution would be a big jump in price to get decent sounding equipment, it sounds like the simple solution might be a better way to start, for now.
You could buy a small interface and a couple of mics and that would rival (or be better than some) flash recorders. But you'd still be looking to upgrade to a more flexible interface for the whole band. And you'd still be paying a couple of hundred bucks. Still - you shouldn't rule that out. Maybe buying a small interface and a couple of mics would be a good way to start. A gateway drug to a bigger, more flexible interface.
Or, for the same money that you'd pay for the small interface and mics, if you're still thinking of just plopping a mic down in one place and making a simple stereo recording (not multitrack), you could get a flash recorder which will not only work for now, but will continue to be useful to you even after you get a larger interface and expand.
Flash recorders are always good to have around. Just being able to take something out of your pocket and record, fast and easy - that's always useful. And since you're talking about recording from one spot, why deal with a computer, wires, setup, hard drives, mic stands, a chair to put the computer on, a power cable from the computer to the outlet, someone walking into the cable, the computer falling off of the chair, the hinge on the screen breaking, everyone getting mad at the person who knocked the computer off the chair, that person feeling really bad, dropping out of the band, getting depressed, wandering around Lafayette Park in a chicken suit, getting in all sorts of trouble... it's just a slippery slope.
However, no one solution is intrinsically better than the other, or intrinsically better-sounding. Both will work, both can sound great, both can sound terrible.