Remote recording

Remote recording, also known as location recording, is the act of making a high-quality complex audio recording of a live concert performance, or any other location recording that uses multitrack recording techniques outside of a recording studio. The multitrack recording is then carefully mixed, and the finished result is called a remote recording or a live album. This is in contrast to a field recording which uses few microphones, recorded onto the same number of channels as the intended product. Remote recording is not the same as remote broadcast for which multiple microphones are mixed live and broadcast during the performance, typically to stereo. Remote recording and remote broadcast may be carried out simultaneously by the same crew using the same microphones.

One important benefit of a remote recording is that the performers will respond to the audience; they will not be as distracted by the recording process. Another reason for a remote recording is to capture an artist in a different acoustic space such as a church, ballroom or meeting hall.

To make a remote recording, studio-quality recording equipment is trucked to the concert venue and connected to the concert microphones with a bank of microphone splitters. Other microphones may be added. The individual microphone signals are routed to separate tracks.