Engineering a live session is no easy feat. You need the gear, the know-how, and the elbow grease to get it done right. 

First off, you need enough input channels, microphones, stands, and cables to adequately capture all of the acoustic and/or electronic sound sources. Communication with the artists before the session is critical to being prepared to record everything properly. You need to know how many vocalists they’ll have, what instruments they’ll be bringing, what kind of outputs their electronic instruments have, and if their acoustic instruments have built-in pickups that you can connect to. I always write up an input list before each session so I know where each mic is going, what stand that mic will be attached to, and what channel it’s going into.

In order for the artist to perform their best, you’ll need to set up a monitor system so they can hear themselves well. You can use floor monitors for this task, but they do take up valuable floor space, and you’ll have to fight feedback and bleed from the monitors into the microphones. An alternative is to provide headphones for the artist, which eliminates the feedback and bleed issues, and may help singers hear themselves better over loud sources like drums and amplifiers. If you’re able to EQ the vocals to cut through the mix, that will help them hear themselves even better. 

The biggest challenge to recording a live session is mic “bleed” or “spill”. When there are several loud sound sources in a single room and a dozen or more live microphones, those microphones are going to pick up much more than their intended sound source, which can cause all sorts of problems. For example, when you EQ the signal from the vocal mic, you’re also applying that EQ to whatever the vocal mic picked up, which is usually drums and guitar amps. When you boost the upper midrange to help the vocals cut through the mix, that can make the cymbals that bled into the vocal mic sound harsh. That mic bleed can also make your drums and amps sound distant and roomy, reducing their intensity and punch. 

Fortunately there are a few things you can do to minimize bleed. Obviously, the closer the mic is to the sound source, the louder that source will be in comparison to everything else, so place the mics close. However, close-miking does result in a pronounced low end boost, so you may have to compensate for that in the mix by rolling off some of the low end. When setting up the band, try to position the microphones so they’re pointing directly at the sound sources you want them to pick up, and away from the sources you don’t want picked up. For example, if you can position the lead singer’s mic so the rear end of the mic is facing the drum kit, as long as you’re using a directional microphone, that will substantially reduce the amount of drum bleed in the vocal mic (although you’ll have to work with the camera department to make sure they can get clear shots of everyone, so you may have to compromise in the positioning of the band and their microphones). And lastly, the less microphones there are, the less mic bleed there will be! If you have to choose between miking a sound source or taking a direct output out of an instrument or an amplifier, choosing the direct output will eliminate any potential mic bleed for that sound source. But if you have an open channel and a spare microphone, it can’t hurt to record both and decide later which one works best in the mix. 

Mixing a live session comes with the same challenges of mixing a record, plus a few extra. Modern records are generally made piecemeal, with each part recorded one at a time, so there is no mic bleed at all. Even if some parts of the album are recorded simultaneously, you have much more control over placement of sound sources and microphones in an album recording session than you do in a live video session. You can position the musicians and instruments to minimize mic bleed without worrying about how they look on camera. You can set up baffles between the drum kit and guitar amps. You can take advantage of isolation booths. Everything you do to maximize separation and minimize bleed will give you more control over the mix. 

Since most live sessions are filmed with everyone performing simultaneously in close proximity, nearly every track affects everything else to some degree. You can’t just throw as much reverb on the vocal as you want, because it might make the drums sound a million miles away. You can’t EQ the drum overheads without paying attention to how it changes the guitar tone. Everything is intertwined, and careful attention must be paid to how each change affects the song as a whole and not just the individual element that you’re processing. That’s why it is so important to fight the urge to solo the channel that you’re working on, because that single channel drastically affects the mix as a whole.

Then there’s the question of how to mix the session stylistically. Should you try to match how the album sounds, or should you use your own judgement as to how the session should sound? In my opinion, the answer is both. Their previously recorded version of a song (if they have released any), can be a guideline for you to reference while mixing. However, it is both impossible and unwise to try to match the two recordings exactly. That may cause you to make some decisions that detract from the overall quality of the mix. For example, if you try to make the vocals sound as bright and crisp as they do on the album, you may have to boost the high end on the vocal tracks so much that the cymbal bleed in the vocal mic may become unbearably shrill. Trying to replicate the album recording can also tie your hands creatively. If you keep an open mind, you might come up with something cool that the artist ends up loving! 

Once you’re done mixing the session, then comes mastering. Two main things are important to keep in mind while mastering a live session: where will the session be uploaded to, and what will most people be using to listen to the session? Most live session videos are uploaded to a streaming service like YouTube, most of which will put the audio through a lossy compression codec to reduce the file size. It is best practice to leave some headroom (about 1 dBFS) before uploading, because otherwise the file compression process can add some audible distortion, which will negatively impact your mix far more than the loss of 1dB of volume. And how will most people be listening to the session? There may be a few audiophiles who cue up the session on their high-fi headphones or stereo systems, but the vast majority of people will most likely come across the session while scrolling through Facebook or perusing YouTube on their laptops or smart phones, and will listen to your carefully recorded and mixed sound with either the built in speakers on their devices or with consumer grade earbuds. This makes it extremely important to make sure your mix will play back well on low quality speakers. Check to make sure there are no major buildups in any frequency range that might cause distortion (too much low midrange is notorious for breaking up laptop speakers). Cheap speakers also tend to emphasize the upper midrange and/or high end, so make sure your mix isn’t too shrill or it might (figuratively) pierce someone’s eardrums. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little peak behind the curtain of all the considerations that go into recording the audio for our live sessions! For all the challenges that live sessions present, the end result is worth it. There is a certain energy and intimacy that live sessions capture, a distinct experience from that of listening to an album or attending a concert, and we are proud to bring that experience to you in the highest possible quality.