Home recording guide

Hey everyone. I'm Kinda New Here, But i'm finding it very enjoyable and have become addicted to the Internet!

I have noticed in my short time here that there are alot of threads along the lines of
-how can my band record a demo
-how do I set up a home studio
-how do i record on my computer etc.
etc

I happen to be a producer, So im gunna do a thread thats like a guide to home recording, In which ill type up about one lesson a week untill ive drained myself of all knowledge!

So Here We go...

LESSON 1

Seting up your Home Studio
The following are essentials in decent home recording setups
-PC
-Soundcard
-Mixer
-Microphones
-recording software
-Monitors
-headphone
-a spare room

P.C.
In a big studio like mine, the mixer is the heart of the setup. In a home recording setup, the computer filles this space. Your computer needs to be good enough that it's not going to blow up, or freeze while your in the middle of recording. Any new PC bought from a shop nowdays is ussually pretty good. I suggest spending about $600 on the PC, unless of course you have one already!

SoundCard
The souncard you choose really depends on how many different sources your going to record at the one time. Soundblaster make really great cards for home recording. If your only recording one thing at a time, then you can use the sound card that comes with the PC. If your a 3-4-5 piece band then I would sugest the Sound Blaster Audigi 2 platnum external card. They Have 5 inputs and are great for bands!

Microphones
Depending on what your recording, a studio needs a good microphone, or several good microphones. I will run down different models and how to use them effectively in a later lesson. Just to give you an idea, you can spend anywhere beween 50 and 700 dollars.

Mixer
A mixer you can live without, but they are truly very, very, helful. The mixer is always conected to the sound card, so you can plug whatever you recording into the mixer and ajust the eq and input level on the mixer. Mixers can also be very handy to record drums, for example, you plug all the mics on the kit (snare, kick, toms etc) into the mixer, adjust the levels and eq and then all the mics come out as one stereo signal, therfore only taking up two of your inputs.

Recording Software
There so much recording software out there today that its not funny! The best program by far for begginer recordists (is that a word?). The only problem it wont record from multiple sources. Enter Cubase. Cubasis takes a very, very long time to figure out, but once you have, it is well worth it. Other programs include cakewalk, fruity loopz 4, sonar, logic. Its really up to the user to decide which one they like. You can download them all from Kazaa.

Monitors
Monitors is a fancy word for studio speakers. Monitors arn't just like your average CD player speakers. CD player speakers are designed to make the music sound as good as possible. Thats not what you want. Thats why studio monitors are designed extremely nuetral, so that they play exactly whats coming out of the computer. This prevents the following scenario:
Jonny Producer Dude records a local rock band. This is his first time he's recorded a band because he's just set up his studio. Johny has just spent heaps of hard earned cash on gear for his studio, but Jonny doesn't know ****. Jonny and the band have spent a week on the new demo. They are listening to the songs through the monitors, which just so happen to be his CD player speakers, and it sounds awsome! The band pay jonny lots of thier hard earned cash, get thier CD and go home. On the way home, Bill Drummer, and Frank singer decide they are going to put on the CD. It starts playing but it sounds like ****. Frank and Bill turn around and drive back to johnnys house and lets just say he wont produce another CD in a while! If your music sounds good on real monitors, it'll sound good on any CD Player! Behringer Truth monitors rock!

Headphones
You NEED these. In my studio I have 5 pairs of headphones. You need these. There is nothing worse than having a great vocal track ruined because the vocal mic picked up the monitors! the soloution: headphones! Not Earplugs, Headphones! When your recording something, the only thing the mic should hear is the thing you want on that track.

A Room
You might say yeah whatever I can do it in my garage, or bedroom, and thats fine... If you want to be P***ed of while you record and p***ed of when your doing stuff in your room. Besides it being anoying trying to record while theres mess everywhere, acoustics are very important also. So a room that you can do stuff to the walls in is great (i also wouldn't want to live in a bedroom that has blankets hanging on the walls!
I'll go through how to treat a room for acoustics in another lesson...

Conclusion
So thats what youll need!
Please comment on the lessons and ask questions and i have a go at answering them!
If you want you cant tell me to shut my big mouth too.

Next lesson, I'll go through how to connect the studio together, and some basics on how to get is running. Also I'll go through acoustic design and studio layout

Have fun buying all your Gear!

[ManWhoSoldTheWorld]

Wow, thanks a lot, thats very informative. I have a question though, instead of buying a soundcard and mabye a mixer, does it work as well to have an audio/USB interface?

USB interfaces are really good! If you want to record strait into the computer u might also want to buy a DI box, but its not essential

Hey dudes it's time for...

LESSON 2

So last time I talked about wot you need. Well this lesson I'm gunna tell you how to set it all up.

K youve got you room and I't empty, this is a great place to start.

Step 1 Acoustic Treatment

If your a home recordist, then you probebly dont have much money (because youde record in a real studio like mine and help me get some money if you had any) so real acoustic foam isn't an option. Egg Cartons Dont Work. Hang blankets, or sheets on the walls to deaden down the reverb. If you want it to look professional, use black, like stage curtin stuff. Also if you have a couch lying around put that in there, it will be a good place for the band to sit, and it will absorb sound waves.

Step 2. Layout

when u record, u want it to be fun! so it needs to be easy to operate in your studio. I'm going to assume you have a desk. You need one thats at least 4 feet wide. Position it on a wall, in the center, because corners trap low frequencies. Put your computer monitor in the center of the desk. Place the keyboard in front of it, or even better, on one of those keyboard trays. Put your mixer next to your keyboard. Place your monitors on the ends of the desk and make sure nothing is blocking the space between your ears and the speakers.
Amps, and other instruments can go against the other walls. Put the main mic that u use on a stand in the center of the room, ready for action
If you do woodwork or metalwork at skool, u can make wall mounts for your monitors or whatever. Put the big computer box thing on the floor out of the way.
Please Note: this is just a general guide, you can customise this to how it suits you best.

Step 3: Setup
Your almost there, your studio is almost ready for action!
Ok plug everything into the power points. Take two leads from the main output of your mixer and plug it into the input of your sound card. Take a lead out of the main output of your soundcard and plug it into your speakers. Take a lead from each of the sound sources, ie mics, guitar amp outputs etc, and plug them into the inputs on your mixer.
Please Note: you may need to buy some addapters or weird leads, depending on the sort of plugs on your sound card.
Please Note: before you stard your studio, please get a job! (unless of course your parents are incredible wealthy)

There you go, your studio is now ready for some action, and your ready for lesson No. 3

Next Lesson: This ones going to be in a number of parts. Like this
Part 1: Setting up the programs etc For recording
Part 2: Recording Drums
Part 3: Recroding Guitar and Bass
Part 4: Recording Piano
Part 5: Recording Vocals

Have Fun!

[Aus_rock_god]

*one thing you left out: If there's a window in the room, rest a mattress against it, otherwise neighbors will get annoyed.

yeah true, forgot about windows and niebours, I live in the sticks

Well, I'm stuck at home sick, so i might aswell do lesson 3

LESSON 3 PART 1: Setting the Computer

All right...
I'm just gunna run throught the adobe audition software, which is very beginer oriented, but if your more advanced, then maybe you should use the time u would reading this lesson, to learn how to use a different program!

ADOBE AUDITION
Please Note: adobe audition is simply an updated version of cool edit 2.0

Step one Select your input: Make sure you have your mixer plugged into the line in on your sound card, not the mic in. You can tell the difference, because one has a picture of a mic next to it (this is on standard souncards that come with the computer). If you have a different model, read the manual.

Go to one of the drag down menues at the top of the screen (near FILE and EDIT i think it might be options). In one of those menues is a thing called windows recrding mixer. Once youve clicked on that, you need to select line in, if it isn't already selected, and make sure the fader is about 4 fifths of the way up.

Next go to options again and click monitor record levels. Play your whatever it is your playing and see how high it goes on the meter. Adjust the volume output on your mixer, so that the level only occasionally goes into the red, or never at all.

Now click the little red R on the track you want to record on and start playing. Once your done, turn the little Red R off and turn it on on the next track, and record the next one etc.

I'm not going to go through how to use th effects and stuff cos its all in the help menu!
Sorry for that extremely boring lesson but it had to be done!
Next Lesson: Recording DrumS

LESSON 3 PART 2: Recording Drums

Ok here we go, the drums can make or break a recording, and they are really hard to do well! Its taken me years to get my sound, so i'm going to try to make it a little easier for u guys!

Like anything, theres no right or wrong way to record drums, but there are many tequniques to help you get a good sound.

Kick: Maybe the hardest of all the drums. You really need a proper kick drum mic, you cant really get away with using a vocal mic. AKG make a good one thats only about $150. The standard way to record a kick drum is to put a mic inside the drum, by cutting a hole in the front skin. On the nevermind album by nirvana, the producer put a cardboard tube that was about 10 feet long inside the hole and put a mic at the other end of the tube, so there you go, there a many ways to record it!

Snare: SHURE SM57 SHURE SM57 SHURE SM57 SHURE SM57 SHURE SM57 SHURE SM57 SHURE SM57. By using a SHURE SM57 you really cant go wrong. These mics are as old as the hills but talk about getting it right 1st time, and their virtually indesrtructable. Put the mic about 1-3 inches above the rim of the drum. The further away you put the mic, the more ambient it will sound in the mix.

Toms: Some say mic them, some say dont, its up to you. Personally I think you should. Any vocal mic ussually does the trick. Mic them like the snare, but bring the mics in a bit from the rim towards the center of the drum.

Cymbals: two condenser mic over the cymbals is what you need. Behringer make good ones that are cheap enough, or if you want to go even cheaper, then the samson ones are ok. Put them about two feet above the cymbals.

EQ. Listen to what the drums sound and youll notice that less eq is often more!. If you have to do some I suggest raise the lows in the kick drum, to give it phatness, and raise the highs to give it definition. Maybe raise the highs in the snare a little.
Remember less is often more

So there ya go. experimenting is the key to getting a good sound. I suggest if your recording your band, then spend at least a couple of hours with your drummer, getting a sound, before your band arrives, coz getting a drum sound takes time!

Next Lesson: Recording Guitar and Bass

[Trent Hatfield Manson]

hey i love what you've done good work!!

but

i'm recording my stuff mostly on my own, occaisionally with one or two other people and half of it will be MIDI stuff, the other half vocals and guitars and some other ****

any tips for that?

[Trent Hatfield Manson]

the other thing is for my other band we have drums
BUT
we don't have the money for the mics and ****

[Yatty]

So I bought a peavey pv I mic, hooked up to my guitar amp, and from the amp into my computer line in socket..

I can hear myself through the computer speakers fine, but when it comes to recording, my computer freezes...any reason for this?

Ok Trent Hatfield Mason For you midi based band, I suggest you download a program called Fruity Loops 3.0 Its like midi but it uses samples so it sounds way better. You just arrange it and then export it as a wave file and put it in cool edit or whatever u use, this sounds sooooooo much better than midi!!

K, foe your other band, you can get away with a cheaper setup, but theres a few things you need to keep in mind...
-make sure the drum mics cant hear anything (for example put your guitar amps outside the room)
-make sure your drums sound abseloutly unreal before you start recording (new skins are great, but at least a new skin on the snare)
-make sure your drummer hits them ****ing hard

ok heres the setup...
Put a dynamic mic in the kick drum (prefferably a kick drum mic, but a vocal one will do if it has to)
-Put another one on the snare
-put a condenser mic over the whole kit (if it really really has to be, use a vocal mic with the gain turned up a bit)

Thats an allright setup on a budget.
Anothe option is to hire mics. With stands and leads it only costs about $10 per night, so if you could get all the drums done in two days then that would be relatively cheap.

There you go, hope that helped!

OK folks It's time for

LESSON 3 PART 3

Hey all, i'm still at home sick so i just thought i might aswell get this done...

All right guitars and bass. Well theres and age old question when it comes to recording guitar and bass... To mic the amp or to go strait in... the answer: well you decide i'll just run through both options

GUITAR

Micing: to mic a guitar amp, a dynamic mic is used, athough a large diapham condenser can be used. The closer you put the mic to the speaker, the more in your face it is in the mix and vice versa. SHURE SM57, are pretty much the standard mic used by producers everywhere for guitar amps.

Direct In: Pretty much a big fat no no in the world of recording. Guitars sound small and lifeless when going direct in...UNLESS, you have an amp simulator like a V-amp or a POD, in which case, going direct in sounds awsome, and you have no problem of the guitar amp mic picking up the drums or whatever!

BASS

Micing: you can get a very good bass sound by micing an amp, however you need a great mic that can handle the...well...basiness. This is where having a job comes in handy because mics that handle low end sounds can be partuculary expensive. The good news is that you can use the same mic on your kick drum, so maybe your drummer will go halves, or maybe not?

Direct in: Bass direct in can sound good. Isuggest going out of the line out of the bass amp and into some rack gear, like compressors limitors etc. Spending alot of time, can get you a great warm sound. A amp modeler like a Bass V-amp is reallly good too.

Both: If your sound card has a few inputs, then this is your best option! Mic the amp and go direct in, record them onto separate tracks and blend the two in the mix. The mic should have a big phat warm tone, and the direct in will have your more mid-high end sounds and sultle pick noises etc.

Remember: the better your instrument is, the better it will sound once recorded..
Next Lesson: recording vocals, (i might put off piano for a while cos I don't think many people will find it interesting, stop me if i'm wrong)
Have Fun Amigoes!

yatty, i dont know why that is happening, maybe you should get a computer specialist to check that out?

PS I like your nipple

[italic zero]

What about line out from the amp head into the computer?

yeah Italic Zero thats what it means to go direct in, and I'm not saying you cant get a good sound this way, it just takes a lot of stufing around!

[Yatty]

Well I've got it to work...

but a problem has occurred...I hear a fuzzy noise in the background all the time...I do not know why...

I think it could be because i've got a stereo adapter, and plugged my mono jack cable in it...I'm not sure...but tomorrow I'll buy a mono adapter...hopefully that will work better..

[Trent Hatfield Manson]

Originally Posted by theabstract

Ok Trent Hatfield Mason For you midi based band, I suggest you download a program called Fruity Loops 3.0 Its like midi but it uses samples so it sounds way better. You just arrange it and then export it as a wave file and put it in cool edit or whatever u use, this sounds sooooooo much better than midi!!

K, foe your other band, you can get away with a cheaper setup, but theres a few things you need to keep in mind...
-make sure the drum mics cant hear anything (for example put your guitar amps outside the room)
-make sure your drums sound abseloutly unreal before you start recording (new skins are great, but at least a new skin on the snare)
-make sure your drummer hits them ****ing hard

ok heres the setup...
Put a dynamic mic in the kick drum (prefferably a kick drum mic, but a vocal one will do if it has to)
-Put another one on the snare
-put a condenser mic over the whole kit (if it really really has to be, use a vocal mic with the gain turned up a bit)

Thats an allright setup on a budget.
Anothe option is to hire mics. With stands and leads it only costs about $10 per night, so if you could get all the drums done in two days then that would be relatively cheap.

There you go, hope that helped!

hey thanks for that
the thing with my MIDI type band is i have Fruity Loops, it aint really what i'm looking for, it seems to pre-done so i feel limited, maybe i'm just not using it right or something but yeh.... I've downloaded a trial version of a program called MIDI Maker, i was wondering if you knew of any programs alond those lines but better quality.
Any help would be great
Thanks

Fruity loops is really customisable, u just gotta spend time. I think u might be using The preset beats? Read the manual, once u know how to use it youll neverturn back!
Acid Pro is another sampling program.