Desk Recording Enough for a Live Album?

Almost every concert produces a recording from the mixing desk. Usually it’s a stereo capture, because it’s the one button you can hit without any setup. The question that follows is always the same: is that enough for a live album? The honest answer: for a release it usually isn’t – but for plenty of other purposes it is.

What a stereo desk recording actually is

A stereo recording from the desk is a copy of what came out of the speakers in the hall. That sounds like exactly what you want, and that’s exactly the problem. The front-of-house mix was never meant to stand on its own. It was only ever topping up whatever was already loud on stage.

The drums carried the room by themselves, so the engineer sent very little of them through the PA. As a result, they’re barely audible in the recording. The vocal had to compete with the stage volume and sits way too far forward. The bass came through the subwoofers, which often don’t appear in a stereo capture at all.

In short, the mix you captured was never a mix for headphones. It was a mix for one particular room on one particular evening.

The key difference

With a multitrack recording every instrument exists separately and every decision can still be revisited. With a stereo recording every decision has already been made and can’t be reversed. If the guitar is too loud, it stays too loud – there’s no separate fader left to fix it.

What can still be done with a stereo recording

That doesn’t make a stereo recording worthless. A fair amount can be improved.

Tonal balance across the frequency range. If the recording sounds dull, thin or boxy overall, careful equalisation corrects a great deal. A muddy recording can become one people are happy to listen to.

Noise and interference. Hum, hiss, isolated feedback and stray noises can be removed with restoration tools without the music suffering.

Level and dynamics. The recording can be brought up to streaming level so it doesn’t sound quieter than everything around it, and differences between songs can be evened out.

Editing and running order. Trimming applause, removing announcements, setting clean transitions, splitting the concert into individual tracks – none of that depends on the track count.

What can’t be done

Anything involving individual instruments is out of reach. You can’t bring the vocal down without bringing the music behind it down as well. You can’t add drums that were never captured. You can’t soften a guitar that sounded harsh in the house mix without affecting everything around it.

For a release on Spotify or a CD you intend to sell, that’s usually not enough. For a concert video on YouTube, internal documentation, or an archive recording, it can be perfectly sufficient.

When the extra effort pays off

If it’s already clear that a concert is meant to become a release, the multitrack recording is almost always worth it – provided somebody thinks of it in advance. The additional work on the day is small: on most digital consoles it comes down to a few settings and either a computer or an SD card. What it makes possible afterwards is a whole different story.

How this works on the common desks is covered here: how to get your concert tracks off the digital desk.

And if all you have is a stereo recording, send it anyway. We’ll listen and tell you honestly what we can do with it. Sometimes the result is better than expected, sometimes we advise against it. Either way you find out beforehand.

In short

A stereo desk recording is the house mix and was never meant to stand alone
Tonal balance, noise, level and editing can all be improved considerably
Individual instruments can’t be rebalanced or added afterwards
Often fine for YouTube and archive use, usually not enough for a release
Multitrack costs almost nothing extra on the day and determines everything after it

Common questions

Is a stereo recording from the mixing desk enough for a live album?

For a release, usually not. A stereo recording is a copy of the front-of-house mix and was never meant to stand on its own: the drums carried the room and are nearly absent from the recording, the vocal sits too far forward, the bass came through the subwoofers. That balance can’t be undone afterwards because there are no separate tracks. For a concert video or an archive recording a stereo capture can be perfectly sufficient.

What can still be improved on a stereo desk recording?

Tonal balance across the frequency range improves considerably with equalisation, and hum, hiss and isolated feedback can be removed. Level and dynamics can be brought up to streaming standard and differences between songs evened out. Editing is also unaffected by track count: trimming applause, removing announcements and splitting the concert into individual tracks.

Why does the desk recording sound different from the concert in the hall?

Because the front-of-house mix was only part of what the audience heard. On stage the drums and amplifiers were already loud, so very little of them ran through the PA. That portion is missing entirely from the recording, while vocals and other quiet signals sit far too far forward in the mix. The mix was made for a particular room, not for headphones.

What does it cost to have a live recording mixed?

Live recording mixing starts at €450 per song, mastering at €95, both together at €515. A whole concert is quoted as one package: with lots of short songs, a tiered discount of up to 10 %; long-form works such as classical and church concerts are priced by total running time and track count. All prices include German VAT.

You can hear what we make of live material on our page for mixing concert recordings, with listening examples from real concert recordings.

And if a multitrack recording is on the cards anyway, the next question follows naturally: is one show enough for a live album, or is it worth capturing several?

For the whole journey from concert to finished album, from choosing songs to mastering, see Mixing and mastering a live album: how a complete live album comes together.