Edit: removed Gobbler link
http://stabilitynetwork.blob.core.windows.net/g-tunes/20131110_Vineyard_SJGDavid_28_Willing.mp3
  
So... Do you think it's too sterile for a live recording? I'm thinking that I needed to mix in audience mics with the direct channels to get more of that live vibe.
 
It was a windy day and I was running out to the mains for the concert.
 
I'm kinda curious how to get a mix that doesn't sound quite so sterile. Maybe just more reverb? I used a PerfectSpace Outdoors Canyon impulse for the verb.
  
Best,

Geoff
 

Yeah.... I don't download files like that. Apparently its  zipped because my zipper was listed as the option for opening it. Downloading zipped stuff is not something I do.
 
A better option would be to take the better examples and post them as MP3 files on a site like Soundcloud  so people can stream the music.
 
I'd be more than willing to listen like that.

+1 to what Herb said.  No offense, but I don't do downloads.

http://stabilitynetwork.blob.core.windows.net/g-tunes/20131110_Vineyard_SJGDavid_28_Willing.mp3
 
Better?

Personally, I think the biggest problem is the sound sources themselves.  All the vocal mics are highly compressed (appropriately) for live performance.  The acoustic guitars sound like they are using those insertable pickups in the hole of the guitar, or possibly there's a mic built into the body of the guitar.  These kinds of "live" acoustic jacks don't typically give a very good guitar sound in my experience, since they are mostly used for feedback rejection and not for pristine sound quality.  Bottom line is that your live sources are not in a recording environment, and live style mics are going to dampen ambient noise and feedback, chop off the highs and lows, and give you a lot of compressed mids.  You could get a great sound out of an acoustic guitar in a studio using a decent condenser mic, but that won't work live because of all the ambient noise, and you really don't want a condenser exposed to the wind.  Same with the vocals.  If you're looking for more fidelity to brighten the sound a bit, maybe consider having the musicians come into the studio and lay down some overdubs to mix in with the live parts.
 
As for making it sound more "live", I'd definitely suggest using the audience mics you mentioned.  Hopefully they were positioned above the crowd's heads, and were using a decent pair of shotgun mics, with dead cats on them. ;)  Otherwise you might not have much that's usable from a windy day.  Wind rumble/gusts can be pretty difficult to clean up.
 
As far as the reverb goes, I think typically I'd expect a live recording to have much heavier reverb setting than I'm hearing on your track.

Thanks, Walt. I was over-light with the reverb.
 
This is an image of the gig.
http://stabilitynetwork.blob.core.windows.net/g-tunes/GigPhoto01.jpg
 
I had direct lines on every mic. I can back off the compression on the tracks if you think the vocals are over compressed. I used the CA2A on every track, including guitars, trying to keep it light, but it came in a little heavier during some of the parts.
 
The mics were mostly dynamics. 1 cheap condenser on the acoustic guitar on the right in the picture.
 
 

Here's the same track with compression and limiting completely removed. I made 2 minor volume automation changes to keep the levels in the reasonable zone. The average loudness has dropped 5 dB according to my EBU meter.
 
http://stabilitynetwork.blob.core.windows.net/g-tunes/20131110_Vineyard_SJGDavid_28_Willing_Nocompression.mp3
 

Yeah, those acoustic guitar jacks always sound terrible, IMO.  But everyone uses them for live gigs.  That's what they're made for.  I'd never use one of those jacks in the studio, though.  Much better sound if you ignore the plugin jack and instead do one of these techniques:  http://www.cakewalk.com/S...reader.aspx/2007013311
.  But this is moot if you're not going to add overdubs in the studio.
 
As for the vocals, during a live performance the singer is not always going to be exactly 6"-9" from the mic capsule, and they're not going to be singing as consistently as they would for a studio take, due to body position and other performance related things.  So you're going to have to be pretty heavy handed with the compression in your FOH mixer.  Unfortunately, this really takes away from the dynamics of the song when recorded.  As a possible alternative, you could try to manually ride the fader during mixdown, presuming you know the song pretty well.  Then you might be able to drop the volume of the softer vocal parts a bit to compensate for the over-compression you'd previously been forced to do.

Yeah, I'm not going to bring them back in to re-record folks. Everyone's too busy. It's a for fun thing.
 
Maybe if I get extra time down the road I'll re-bounce the tracks with compression more carefully applied. I hear what you were talking about and take your point.
 
Thanks for the lesson.
 
I also bookmarked the mic techniques. Thanks for the tips.
 
Geoff
 

Yes that's better.
 
On the mix, Lots of issues there. So, going by what you said... this was an outdoor concert on a windy day.
 
Sounds like 2 guitars and 2 singers. 
 
It sounds like you got a good signal from each of the mics and guitars. 
 
The electric pickups in acoustic guitars are what they are.... they work and sound OK for the job they have to do.  As far as that goes, there's not a major issue with the guitars.
 
The vox..... I understand that you are balancing the signal from the board against what the speakers are doing.  Many speakers tend to have really powerful horns so that the highs you hear live are exaggerated and as a result the FOH needs to turn the highs down to keep from shattering glass and ear drums. This shows up in the board mix as dull sounding vox.
 
How to fix the mix:  What I would attempt.  Place a little bit of a stronger reverb on the entire mix.... not heavy but enough to give a sense of space to the mix and blend things a bit more.  On the vocals, use an EQ to brighten the high end, or use something like Ozone  int eh master bus to add that high end sheen  and sparkle to the entire mix.
 
If you are looking a truly live sound, you need to be miking the audience as well using a nice condenser turned toward the audience, located near the center front of the stage so the bleed from the PA and stage is not too badly out of sync with the music. Stage mics, especially the dynamics most often used on stage will not pick up the audience sufficiently.
 
Lastly, and I know this is not so much under your direct control... get the pickers to tune their instruments.
 
All in all, this is not a bad job.