got a problem and wondering if anyone can offer some advice.
were a funky pop/soul band from the uk and live we are getting a great reaction. the problem is we are struggling to capture the sound on cd. we carry a lot of energy and give of a real party vibe on stage and recordings seem to stiffle that. i work in a music store so i am aware of the home recording options and have done various bits of session work in the past. we have tried doing live recordings which have been ok but can anyone offer any techniques or tips we could try to capture the essence of waht we do. as i say, on stage its really cooking and people are lovin it but we need to get this down on cd. we havent got a massive budget, about £2000-£2500 and we want all the instruments played live. were a bit pureist in that sense, overdubs yes but we dont want to be sequencing anything.
ideas? cos were struggling with this. is a producer really the answer or just a good sound engineer?

I'd say a producer would be the thing to go with - but pick one who's pulled off this sort of thing before. Go find a band similar to yours, who have a kicking CD and ask them about it.

Short of that, you could always just throw two mics up at your gig and run a direct line from the PA all into a 4-track and mix it down that way. That's what we did and that worked great, for what I was trying for (that killer live vibe that was missing in the studio).

Short of that, I think the hardest challenge in home recording is the drums. Once you figure out how to get a great sound on your drums, the rest of the energy will flow quite nicely. If you get weenie drums, the overall sound will suffer. (you could always use the drums to trigger samples which would allow you to focus less on the drum sounds and more on the actual recording process).

Lastly.

Go to this site. These guys can tell you anything you need to know about mid-range recording (meaning, not beginner level, and not Warner Brothers level).

www.studioforums.com

bman264 said:

i know nothing about this sort of thing
when i use to record my band
we use to just record seperately and i mix it together etc
of course i had a little mini studio in my garage which made it a whole lot easier

basically we just mic'ed all the amps and did sever jam takes and record it on the Puter
for a later mixdown on a mixboard


but if you want to do a live recording, i know nothing about that

for that i'd stick with otan's suggestions