This is the band I just finished with. I know this isn't top quality, it's my first recording I've done, and my setup is only $300 right now. I'd appreciate any suggestions or comments on the recording. Thanks.

[url]http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=421538[/url]

[QUOTE]First, what is more important, in your opinion, the software or the hardware? Big question, I know, but is there one I should be paying attention to more than the other?[/quote]
You are going to need to get something at least decent with both, but once you acheive that, I'd focus on the hardware. That's what really captures the sound. Software to a degree just makes it harder or easier to get a really nice sound. That's up to you. If you have crap hardware, no matter how hard you work it, it's going to come out poor. That's my opinion on it, anyways.

[quote]Second, I have a 2 input mbox and I'm looking to get a mixer. I only have USB to work with. Do I need to get a mixer that is USB compatible or can I plug the mixer into the mbox, then to the computer? What is the best setup for this?[/quote]
I'd put everything into the mixer and then send the mixer to the mbox. You'll be hard-pressed to find a mixer compatible with USB within your budget.

[quote]Third, reccommend me some good mixers for recording. I don't need much more than 8 or so inputs, and I'm willing to spend up to $350-400.[/quote]
[url]http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=live/search/detail/base_pid/630053/[/url]

I love Yamaha mixers. For the slight bit you pay more over the Behringer equivalent, you get the satisfaction of knowing that if it breaks, there's most likely someone in your area that'll fix them. All the stores in my area have stopped servicing Behringer products.[/QUOTE]

Woot

Is there a site or something that tells you what the settings for recording drums would be? Well.. see my school has this amp/mixer or wtv their called. So for every chn there a bunch of things to play arround with, for exemple FX, Echo, Low, Mid, High - Blah blah - ... or am I just gonna have to experiment with it?

-Samuel

Record flat. Tweak later. Focus your attention on mic choice and positioning.

Hey i have a akai mpc2000xl (my drum machine) and i try recording my beats on my computer...when i play them through the computer speakers its fine but when i record them and listen they sound kind of distorted. can anyone help me out here .....

Clipping. Check your levels.

to answer
 

This is going to be a lengthy post as I will be responding to many a question.... first:

[QUOTE]1.do i need to buy a special soundcard and if so what kind and why?
2.if i don't need a soundcard, then which plugin should i use?
3.will you send me some money?
4.do i need monitors or studio headphones?
5.what should i record together? (ie guitars,bass,and drums and do the vox seperately or what?)
6. do i need more mics?(obviously for the drums, but any special mics for the vox?)[/QUOTE]

1. Yes & no. You can do just find with your tascam recorder by putting everything onto it. However, you could trade in your recorder at a local Long & McQuade (in Canada) and RENT or buy a Presonus Firepod.

Chances are your built in soundcard is a creative something rather not suitible for recording. You will get what is called 'latency' very similar to the same kind you would experiance playing your Xbox online. Pretty much its the processing delay it takes to get from your microphone into the software... A better soundcard will help you out huge in this situation

2. [B]PLUGINS WILL NOT MAKE A poopTY RECORDING SOUND GOOD!!!![/B] Plugins are like guitar effect pedals. They will ENHANCE your 'foundation'. What I mean is that plugins are made to give life to a recording, make it louder, or add special effects. The most useful plugins are Compressors, EQ's, Gates, and Limiters. Of course in almost all circumstances LESS IS MORE!

3. Sorry, as a working musician/studio engineer I'm probably more broke than you are.

4. you DO NOT need monitors or studio headphones. while the make the recording process 100x easier and more efficent, they are not a nessecity. The best thing to use to mix your music is your ears. My final tests after listening to a track on studio mons and/or headphones is to export it into MP3 format and listening to it through a casset adaptered car kit in my car using my iPod. Pretty much this takes a LOT out of the recording, but it is the situation where 80% of your audience will be listening to your music.

5. Depends on how many inputs your using. For the first two years I did everything off a 4 channel Behrringer board I picked up for $50CAD and threw it into a stereo sound card. I did everything track by track into Cakewalk. So, drums first, (kick, snare, 2 overheads for mics) and then every instrument after that one at a time. (Guitar 1 plays solo, then guitar 2 plays solo, etc.)

However now, I would do this.... Kick & Snare, and two tom toms/floor tom using all 4 channels. Get your drummer to play ONLY these drums (no cymbals). Then setup your overheads Left & Right and get your drummer to play only cymbals.... the rest of the process is normal. (This is how Foo Fighters recorded their last record. And after trying the process out myself with a buddy, we realized it's definatly the best way to get drum sounds mixed!

6. You can never have to many mics. I'm probably buying a mic every second month at this rate... But the most useful arsenal of mics are going to be:

2x Shure SM57 (For toms)
2x AKG C1000S (for overheads)
1x AKG D112 (for kick)
1x Studio Projects B1 (for vocals)



[b]NEXT![/b]

[QUOTE]Ok so i've got a few questions about my set up too

two cheap mics that pick up very well
cheap cables
eurotrack ub1622FX pro mixer
-> computer sound card
cubase

my problem is is that the recording gets there too slowly. when i play it back it's delayed a little bit and it's a painful experience getting it exactly right. does anyone have any ideas how to make it faster for not too much $ (don't have a job yet, but that's coming around)?

Also, recommended was the Sound Blaster Audigi 2. Is this one any good?[/QUOTE]

First and formost... sound cards you buy in computer stores (eg Comerical Sound Blaster Audigy cards) ARE NOT FOR RECORDING... they are complete crap and you should stay as far away from them as possible!!!

Get yourself a Presonus Firebox or Firepod. Even the Maudio cards are really good for those of you on a budjet.

Behringer products now ship with a small sticker on them that have a trashcan with an X through it. This implies 'do not put in garbage', however I perfer to do the complete oppostie. Behrringer mixers are A) Very Nosiy B) very Ureliable

Check out Mackie, Tascam, Alto, or Allen & Heathe boards. (Tascam make a wicked firewire board for $700 CAD that not only works as an 12 track firewire soundcard, but also as an amazing live board as well! It's new on the market)

But anyways, your main problem is latency...and this is NOT due to your computer being too slow. This is actually a problem with your soundcard being the suck and not having a good sample rate. Pro soundcards that you can get at Long & MCquade or Gutiar Center (if your in the states) is a great way to go.

DEFINATLY mic your guitar amp.

oh, and Shure SM57's are da bomb in the studio!

[QUOTE] Okay this is sorda on subject but anyway...
I ran my mic through an older guitar amp and it sounds fine, i am satisfied with that. But I was getting a load of feedback, and it was making me angry, i read on the internet that to kill the feedback just turn the treble down and the bass all the way up. Does this sound right or what should I do? The amp has been sung through before, and i got it for free, so i dont really care if it dies or not, but it works now . thanks.[/QUOTE]

What kind of feedback?

And no, turning the treb down and bass up is probably a bad thing to do. Sure it kills your feedback problem...but what happens in your recording? No high end, and nothing but bottom... this = mud. Mud = bad

[QUOTE]hey can anyone tell me what a compressor does??? im wanna take my home reocridng further.. also anylink to cheap ones would be good thanks![/QUOTE]

A compressor takes your signal and squishes it to make things louder and not clip. (in theory its a sound man riding the volume on a mixing board) However, compresson kills your low/high end frequency response, sometimes making things muddy. Compression is a tricky thing to master, and can work wonders on a recording (and is pretty much nessacary to get things heard in the new music buissness).

A GREAT affordable compressor is NOT made by Behrringer as they are noisy as hell and don't do a great job. A reallly good hardware compressor is the JoeMeek ThreeQ. This small unit is a great micpreamp, optical compressor, and threeband EQ in a nice lil package that goes for around $300 Canadian.

[QUOTE]sinister I'll look into it, thanks, any good recomendations?
10-16-2005 03:37 PM
allthegoodnamesweregone buy an external sound card/pci soundcard???[/QUOTE]


The Edirol cards are a huge pain in the *** to use IMHO. The Tascam Firewire 12 channel mixer looks DAMN cool, and will definatly be something I will be playing around with in the near future. My current fav is the Presonus Firepod. As it's pretty much plug + Play, sounds great, and has the least amount of problems or usage pains out of most soundcards on the current market.

[QUOTE]Does a laptop do instead of a P.C?it might be on here but i aint read all the posts.[/QUOTE]

Depends on what your using for a machine.

Two years ago Laptops would have been a HUGE no-no for recording... but today anyone with a Apple Powerbook can do some decent work. My personal main recording device right now is a Dell Inspiron 6000 with a 2.0Ghz processor, 1g worth of Ram, and an external hard drive built by Rocstor.

The biggest things you should have for a decent platform are:

min 512 of ram (more is always better! my 512 machine dies @ 12 tracks and 7 Waves plugins using Nuendo 3)
1.6ghz or better processor
7200 RPM drive with a seek time under 10ms

And of course, get that firewire or USB pro sound card... you'll thank me later!

[B]Part 2[/B]

[QUOTE]Quote:
First, what is more important, in your opinion, the software or the hardware? Big question, I know, but is there one I should be paying attention to more than the other?
You are going to need to get something at least decent with both, but once you acheive that, I'd focus on the hardware. That's what really captures the sound. Software to a degree just makes it harder or easier to get a really nice sound. That's up to you. If you have crap hardware, no matter how hard you work it, it's going to come out poor. That's my opinion on it, anyways.


Quote:
Second, I have a 2 input mbox and I'm looking to get a mixer. I only have USB to work with. Do I need to get a mixer that is USB compatible or can I plug the mixer into the mbox, then to the computer? What is the best setup for this?
I'd put everything into the mixer and then send the mixer to the mbox. You'll be hard-pressed to find a mixer compatible with USB within your budget.


Quote:
Third, reccommend me some good mixers for recording. I don't need much more than 8 or so inputs, and I'm willing to spend up to $350-400.
[url]http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=live/search/detail/base_pid/630053/[/url]

I love Yamaha mixers. For the slight bit you pay more over the Behringer equivalent, you get the satisfaction of knowing that if it breaks, there's most likely someone in your area that'll fix them. All the stores in my area have stopped servicing Behringer products.[/quote][/QUOTE]


Hardware is a very important peice of gear in your setup, and will probably cost the same for a mid-line studio as the best peice of software will.

You can get away with $300 soundcards that are really decent, but I would recomend saving some cash and buying a Firewire expansion card for your laptop/PC and buying a firewire soundcard/mixer.

Good starting software that I'm familiar with is Cubase SL, Sonar 4 (I think Sonar 5 just came out), and Protools is definatly a popular choice, even if it is my arch nemisis (sooooooo many problems trying to get my Mbox to work....)

Good interfaces:
Maudio makes all kinds of nice ones in both USB and 1394 markets
Presonus makes AWESOME firewire ones
Edirol = hard to use, but sound good
Tascam have this cool new 12 channel firewire mxier... get one!

And yes, Software is just going to make things easier or harder... however the difference between lets say... Cakewalk Home Studio 2004 & Cubase SX3 is monstorus in terms of audio quality... Even ProTools dosn't sound as good as Nuendo 3!

Throw your mixer's L/R outs into your 1/2 ins of your Mbox. Treat them as a stereo signal in Protools or Cubase (yes you can use an Mbox in any software!), and then premix on your board then do 'finalization' inside your software... poor mans way to go, but hey, if it works it works!

Take a look at Yamaha, Tascam, Mackie, Alto, and Allen & Heath boards. Just stay away from Behrringer... the power supplys are not sheilded properly, and like to give off tons of background hiss/noise. They also blow up on a regular basis... and you know what Behrringer does with them? Throws the boards in the garbage, reuses the knobs and casing...then builds a new one. Worst company ever...



Anymore questions?

Go out and use an MDX2600, man. Seriously. Maybe you have noisy ears?

would it be easier for a young band like mine to just go into a studio and pay the guy to do it??? home recording sounds like a hassle and it sounds rather expensive

Okay guys. I've got a question, or two, for theabstract, or anyone knowledgeable for that matter! I've begun building my home studio, based around a PC. I have a decent PC and SONOR 4 Producer, and know how to use it. This is what I currently have, or is on it's way to me:
M-Audio Delta 1010LT PCI Sound card
Behringer Eurorack UB1222FX-PRO Mixer
MXL 990/991 Condenser Mic Package
2 ON-Stage Boom Mic stands
2 extra Horizon Lo-Z XLR Cables
2 Hosa RCA to RCA Cables

I'm confident I've gotten the basic things I'll need. I will, without a doubt, be buying either a drum mic kit, or making my own drum mic kit (sm57,condensers, etc) SO, have I forgotten anything crucial? For now, recording acoustics/voice will be fine. I'll buy better mics soon. Do ya'll think I'll be able to make decent sounding recordings?

really really good thread

jaykemurd...you will def be able to..if you know what your doing...and know your techniques...look around on the internet for other recording tips and tricks...anything will help...also there is no wrong way to do something

I've just got a quick question about the thread, why is the thread starter's name, theabstract, not clickable or doesn't show any post count? It doesn't say he's banned.

His account was most-likely deleted at some point.

Adobe Audition vs Cubase

Which one is better? I heard they are some what the same.

[QUOTE=ZildjianFrk89]Adobe Audition vs Cubase

Which one is better? I heard they are some what the same.[/QUOTE]

Cubase.

Seeing as i'm not willing to read through 35 pages, and the search button just hates me:

I'm considering building a home studio.
Assuming that i go for middle-range equipment, what kind of price will I be looking at?
I'll need mics, a mixer, cables, and the recording software.
Instruments to be recorded:
Drum Kit (5 piece, preferrably individual mics for the toms)
1 guitar
1 bass
vocals

I'm only looking for a rough estimate of the price, just to see how feasible this is.

Thanks

[QUOTE]Assuming that i go for middle-range equipment[/QUOTE]

Allow £700 - £1000 for the PC, more if you want a mac

Monitors: £400 - £500

Large Dia Condensor - £250 - £400
Stereo Pair Small Dia Condensor - £200 - £400
Kick Drum mic - (AKG D112) - £100 ish
Extra dynamics for drums/guitar - sm57 + 2/3 others = £200 ish

Interface (presonus firebox) - £500 ish?

Extra channel strip for more important things - £350 - £600

DAW - Sonar 5 Studio = £230
If you go mac then logic 7 express - £175

Allow an extra £100 - £200 for extra bits like a monitor controller, cables, headphones etc, and your done:chug:

I havnt included a mixer as the Firebox has 8 mic preamps anyway.

You could get say an M-audio delta 1010, (£300) which has 8 jack i/o, and then get a mixer for that, but you'd be better off getting the firebox anyway.

Gareth

[Edit] Dont forget the extra cost of the room itself. You'll need adequate acoustic treatment, in the form of corner bass traps and at least first reflection absorbers. Allow £100 - £200 or so for this, though it can be done a lot more economically DIY

I've already got the computer, with an Audigy 2 ZS sound card, so I can cut that out.

But basically, I'll be looking at upwards of £2000?
I guess that's quite a bit more than I was expecting.
Looks like i'll be holding off until I have a bit more cash :(

Thanks for the help anyway.

[QUOTE]with an Audigy 2 ZS sound card[/QUOTE]

Hate to set you back, but that isnt a recording interface. Im not sure of what it can and can't do, but i'd imagine it probably cant record high sample rates (though 44.1khz 16-bit is fine [CD quality]), but more importantly it will only allow one stereo input, and one stereo out, both of which will be on small 3.5mm jacks, which tend to be noisy.

Though this may be "ok" for very budget recording, it wont be good enough for anything more than demo recordings, if that.

There ARE ways to cut costs on that list, but you said mid-range quality, so i gave a list of that.

You can deffinatley cut down on mic's, say by getting a drum mic kit (still £200 or more for a decent ish one), but then you would only need an extra large condensor for vocals, as the other mics would be in the drum mic kit.

For software you could look at Studio to Go (found here >) [URL="http://www.ferventsoftware.com/"]http://www.ferventsoftware.com/[/URL]

At £50 (or £80 boxed with manuals, which i would prefer) it seems like a good buy. Just make sure your recording interface is compatible (firewire cards tend not to be, so it may be a case of Delta 1010 and SMPro audio 8x preamps. Look here for what i mean.[URL="http://www.smproaudio.com"]http://www.smproaudio.com[/URL])

I would still advise around £400 for monitors, as these are the key to mixing. You cant mix what you cant hear. I suggest Event TR8's or KRK Rokit 8's.

While this will give fairly good results, you'd be pushing it for hiring out as such. If you wanted to use your studio for more commercial means, you would need to buy better mic's (or at least add a few nicer ones to what i suggested in this post), deffinately a nice voice channel (eg TL Audio 5050, though more can be had for the money), generally better pre-amps, (eg Focusrite Octopre LE), and probably some more well known software, as im not sure what plug-in format Studio To Go uses.

If you went for the M-audio card, i would suggest Pro Tools M-Powered, as its a fairly easy to use. Personally I use Sonar 4, but Pro Tools would be adequate.

You may also want to consider a seccond Delta 1010, so you could record 16 tracks at the same time (you would also need more external preamps for this though).

To really impress in a studio, you could probably do with some outboard processors, but when your just starting out plug-ins will do a fine job, and intergrate better with a DAW

Sorry that was long, and i've probably really screwed your head up with all the info, but its not cheap to do properly! heh

Gareth

[Edit] Just had a check, and concerning Plug-ins for Studio to Go, a forum post stated:

[QUOTE]You can run many Windows VST and VSTi plugins from the hard disk. Support varies depending on the plugin, but we have had success with a number of highly useful plugins including several of the Native Instruments ones.[/QUOTE]

So it looks like you should be ok with STG, but remember, it's not as advanced as the major's in terms of GUI, but the performance should be good enough, at least to get you going.

Maybe I missed it, but...

DID you mention that it's possible to record and burn a full, multilayer, multitrack demo using only Windows Sound Recorder?
That's all I ever use when i feel like copying a song down, it works fine. About a $1000 bucks cheaper than some cetups, too. :)

[QUOTE]DID you mention that it's possible to record and burn a full, multilayer, multitrack demo using only Windows Sound Recorder?
That's all I ever use when i feel like copying a song down, it works fine. About a $1000 bucks cheaper than some cetups, too. [/QUOTE]

I may have missed it but, how the hell do you multitrack on sound recorder lol!

And yeah, its fine for the very basic of demo's (as in, just for personal reference demos), but it wont ever be good enough for any releases.

Setups*:thumb:

just bumping this for a guy so he can find it.

I have to admit I skipped some pages, so this may already have been answered, but...

What's the bottom level for recordings where kick drumming / distortion won't totally ruin it? I'm not looking for anything that'll give a hugely polished effect, just a recorder (multitrack would be cool), where I'm not going to need to buy like 10 mics to a four piece band, yet will give an accurate reflection of our sound without anyone who listens thinking how crap the quality is...



Can anyone point me in the direction of an entry-level recorder (four-track or eight-track would be excellent, so we could record instruments individually and/or add effects on top) that'll do the job without breaking the bank?