I have tried the workarounds (different rooms with no visual communicaiton)
you are talking about. My experience has been that when tracking a band,
they are going to line-of-sight to you and to each other in order to be
most comfortable and you are going to want the line-of-sight also just to
stay in the loop. At least in my situation, when I'm tracking a band or
performer, I'm as much of a player as the musician(s). I'm playing the gear.
Withoutme and my gear, tey and their gear doesn't get recorded and it often
works better if I've got a visual of for what's happening. Sometimes, just
looking at a performer's body language can tell you what you need to do to
change something for the better. Running up and dow stairs to reposition a
mic will introduce a disruption in the flow of a session that incrementally
creates a higher level of stress into the equation each time it happens.
There's a big psychological factor to running a session. Smooth and
glitchless is good. I like to keep the musicians focused on the music (and
if it's a band the inevitable internectine jealousies and insecurities that
make them fucntion as they do) and handle the rest of it so that they don't
really have to think about logistics. Remodel the basement if you can.

Doug Joyce
Animix Productions
Durango, CO




"Raymond" wrote in message
...
If it where me Mike I'd remodel the whole basement and start from scratch.
It
sounds like you've got a lot of square foot space down there so you can
plan,
construct and set things up the right way.
This will be costly, time consuming and you (and others) may not think
it's
necessary but the key to a great pro recording is with the right rooms.