Recording a band in live situation: any tips?

[soulboogaloo]

Hey fellas,

I’d like to record a few demo songs with my band, and we plan to play a small gig in 3 weeks.
We’re a funk/soul band of 8 people: drums, bass, guitar, keys, tenor sax, trumpet, and 2 female singers.
Here’s the gear I’m planning to use:
Drums:
- 1 kick mic (Samson Q kick)
- 1 SM57 for the snare
- 1 stereo ORTF static mic for overhead

- 1 SM58 for sax
- 1 SM58 for the trumpet
- 2 SM58 for the singers

Guitar : amp has an XLR OUTPUT with cab sim (Fender Twin Tone Master)
Bass : direct to mixer

Mixer/digital recorder: Tascam Model 24

Plus a PA system

Would you guys have any tips I can use to record us?
And especially should I try to avoid bleeding? And how?
Of course the sound won’t be as neat as we could get in a studio, however how can I get the best possible sound, that I can use to mix into Logic Pro afterwards?

Thanks a lot for all your recommendations!

[Sam Spoons]

Apart from the DI guitar* that's more or less exactly how I would do it. Don't worry about spill too much, it can add cohesion to the band sound (but forget any thoughts of auto-tuning anything, however hard you try spill will make it impossible).

Record at 24 bit and give yourself plenty of headroom, a bit of noise is preferable to overload distortion, at 24 bit that shouldn't be an issue but err on the side of too quiet.

I've made excellent live recordings using similar miking techniques and much prefer this way of recording.

* I prefer to mic the amp but if the guitarist is DI'ing anyway ignore this comment.

[soulboogaloo]

Thanks so much for the detailed reply!
Actually I am the guitarist, I will consider miking my amp as well, that’s pretty easy to do! (I could actually do both and see afterwards what’s best!)

[James Perrett]

What is the PA system? If it is something reasonably modern with a digital desk then you could save yourself a fair bit of hassle by using the desk's recording facilities.

One vital thing missing - you haven't mentioned anything about recording the room. I like to put a mic over or next to each PA speaker pointing outwards to capture the ambience and the audience. It will make a big difference to the final recording.

[soulboogaloo]

PA system is an old one, active Yamaha mixer with passive JBL speakers.
But I’m quite confident in my Tascam Model 24 , which combines analog mixer and digital recorder!
About the room ambiance it’s actually a good idea, I have a small Audio Technica stereo mic that might do the job!

[paul tha other]

hi...I record bands live a lot and here is a wee tip
..
i don't try to fight the spill...its gonna be there and theres nothing you can do about it...the only place (for me)I find it problematic is on the vocals...I have logic and it has a function called stem splitter.. it basically separates mixes into component parts ie drums bass vocals and everything else..I often use it to clean up vocal tracks that have been recorded live with the band.i doesn't deal with everything but its had a 95 % success rate for me..