how to get started? (home recording)

[ChanMin]

I feel my days of recording using my Ntrack and cheap computer mics are over.

ive got no idea whats going on... what 16bit/24bit...etc... really confused wiht what ive been trying to "learn" ... anyone can help ..
would like to record guitars .

how much is a SM57 , sm58? ...
is home recording very expensive?...
ive seen pics of parablue , jame's set up s... and WOW thats really pro stuff man.... any tips for me to get started??

 

[seekz]

Well. If you're not about quality, all you need is right in front of you.

Digital drums and bass, and a cheap pre-amp/di like the pod or guitar port to your PC to record the guitar can already.

Software wise, i really dont know, its a prefernce thing, you can try cubase, thy can let you program the drums. I thinkg....

Can try to get those Warez version.

Everything CAN be free and real cheap in home recording. But the quality wont be good.

I think most of the people who are talking in those technical jargon are using pretty good stuffs, hehe, and its like pro-audio in a home = home recording. *shrugs*

 

[fibredrive]

I second that. it all depends on what ur budget is. gear wise, u get pretty good quality with a POD XT/Guitar Port combi. or like dhaliff, a ds-1 striaight into soundcard works just as well apparently!
well, i suppose first step is, what soundcard u have?
next, what currently are ur gears? for guitars? fx? amps? etc.
software wise, friendly ones are widely available as i understand it. hehe. cubase or sonar producer edition are pretty much rock solid oredi. nuendo or protools LE (freely available on net). (but only 8 tracks i think).
what do you want to do? just record rhythm guitars and solos with basic drum tracks? or u want a full band with vocals and maybe looped drums and keyboards and bass?
maybe if u list out some of ur goals and visions we can offer some more accurate advice.
cheers.

 

[ChanMin]

i will be getting a laptop beginning of next year...
most probably a mac powerbook or sumthing la... i heard need to buy like some "audio interface " not very sure about that... but anyone using a mac to record music...is a laptop powerful enough??

i will be getting a sm57 to mic up my guitar amp.... for drums etc.. i might get a drum machine from city music... i heard them doing some pretty good "techno" that day..interesting...
free drum programs are they just as good as a real drum machine?...

 

[fibredrive]

macs come with the garage band software. never tried it but heard its pretty ok. can lay down ur stuff in no time. user friendly. plugs wise i dunno what they offer. but i would recommend sonar if its avail in mac cos u get lexicon soft plugs, amplitube, sonitus fx and other cool dxi plugs like ozone and psp.
as for drums, erm, well, i tried the whole drum machine thinggie, and drum programmign thinggie thru fruityloops (think they have free version avail. ), but found it a real hassle and tough to program. could be just me tho. if u r doing mostly techno music, no probs, those things cut it nicely. if u r doing rock and metal stuff, i doubt u'll find it useful. best is still drum loops for me. acoustic loops recorded in studio with real drums. try betamonkeymusic.com for starters. in fact, i foud it was pretty much all i needed. check it out.
thing abt the mac i think, is that u still need to buy an external soundcard. a m-audio firewire 410 or an emu1820m shld do the trick.
cheers

 

[veganbleu]

I wouldn't get a mac if i were you. A comparable centrino will be much cheaper. Plus you can avail yourself to the many free vst plugins out there. A laptop is fine as a tool nowadays, but you'll need to have a better audio interface like maybe something from rme, m-audio or tascam. Drumwise, you can get pretty good drum sounds, and they are as authentic as the drum machines ( which themselves use samples anyway, except for a few oldies). You can actually find samples of older drum machines out there on the net for free, plus you'll be able to handle drum loops. If you're looking for actual drums, the BFD XFL will give you 22GB worth of single drum kit hits. That's a lot. So you might not want to purchase a drum machine, but a controller and software would be much more flexible.

For guitars, i'd say give the v-amp2 a try. It's retailing for under 200 these days. Or a simple mike up like your original plan is a good one, that way you can actually get feedback, which none of the software amp sims can replicate properly.

 

[fretless6]

If u could afford it, go for a mac, else if budget is a concern, go with a pee cee. If you are serious bout doing decent recording, expect to spend around $5000 on a powerbook, and at least $700 on a firewire audio interface. The macintosh advantage is more in the robustness of the OS.

Depending on your requirements, there are several firewire interfaces on the market. M Audio has a new one called the Firewire Solo, cheaper but only takes in one track. Going up the scale u have multitrack capable units like the MOTU 896, 828mkII, Tascam FW-1884, etc.

 

[ChanMin]

yep ... im looking at the power book ..problem being that i am not good with computers , lil knowledge of macs. but i like the looks and have read and heard great stuff about them. tried my friends ibook and i found it very easy to use...damn cool stuff.



regarding all the firewire interfece stuff .... i really have no idea , any like
home-recording for idiots website i can go and read up?...
i really need to understand the basics of recording first... like what does what... what i need etc..before branching out to the different brands and features..
thanks guys!! great help!!

cheers,
min

 

[fibredrive]

http://www.soundonsound.com/articles/Technique.php?session=5432a857f268c3e17147349a52e9c6f0

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/main.asp

always found sound on sound website to be an invaluable resource. check it out under the articles section. they also have apple friendly user notes and tips so u might find that useful they've written several starter guides for newbies on home recording as well. under theory and techniques link.

another great resource could be homerecording.com and prorec.com.
a brief search with google could give you several useful links to get ur feet wet.

or going down to esplanade library could get you several books that could definitely help you loads. soem books are specifically for recording guitars and what eqpt and how it works etc.

hope this helps. cheers

 

[fretless6]

yep ... im looking at the power book ..

The good thing bout macs is that they are nearly idiot proof. No hassle installation of drivers, resources clashing, etc. Esp since the OS is unix based, u get protected memory, true multithreading, yada yada yada. Heh heh, of cos use PC save alot of money la, if u dun mind putting up with crashes, fixes, viruses, worms, spyware, etc... My powerbook hung maybe like once or twice in the past 2 yrs.

But dun expect do play games on mac. The selection is pathetic. Also, note that alot of PC dedicated peripherals do not have drivers for mac platform. Most audio interfaces are mac competible, but look out for mac friendly logos to be sure.

Oh yeah, if u're not in a hurry and planning to buy new. Wait a while, the G5 powerbook will be out soon. That will be one scary notebook!

 

[ChanMin]

ok.. got the powerbook.... and already getting used to OSX...problem is.. i think garage band is really more tuned towards people who do Techno music... got some pretty hot " YIo ar yio " in my room.

my next step is to decide on which audio interface to get. ive already decided on the sm57 long ago... and my budget is around 500 bucks...

so mic and external firewire audio interface for $500 possible?...
just for simple laying of tracks into a tracking soft ware..

any good FREE software available? where to get the drum machines ?...

thanks guys!

 

[ChanMin]

Depending on your requirements, there are several firewire interfaces on the market..

as i will only have one mic... for my guitar ... or bass... i think a one track unit is gd enuf right?... as i will be laying down tracks one at a time.

 

[ChanMin]

my powerbook already has a mic line in. Can i just use that? or will i definitely need an external audio interface?? if so..i only need one input...as i will only have one mic... for my guitar ... or bass... i think a one track unit is gd enuf right?... as i will be laying down tracks one at a time.

any idea whats the difference between the m-audio
Fast Track USB msrp $129.95 usd
and the
Firewire Solo msrp $249 usd ???

like what justifys the different price? ..sound quality?... capabilities?

 

[lowjk]

Hi Chan Min,

For software, refer to this site:
http://www.kvraudio.com/


As for the two interfaces,
the Fast Track USB is of course on the USB bus. But it's also 24bit/48Khz.
The inputs appear to be only mono which is fine if you are recording just vocals and guitar but not so if you want to record from a drum machine or a synthesizer.

the Firewire Solo is 24bit/96Khz but you may not want to record at this setting to save on disk space. The line inputs appear to be stereo.

Hope this helps,
jk

 

[championboxer]

know its not nice to hike onto this post...


also planning to do some simple recording...
more like a talk show / or radio session at home..
machiam like dj speaking.. spinning music... guests talking...
all these recorded live...

Questions :

(a) whats a software I should use to record the vocals and the music...
(b) do i need a mixer? or an interface?

I'm using a PC...
thks

 

[ChanMin]

you mean like live streaming radio?... or pre - recorded interview sessions etc?...

 

[soft]

(a) whats a software I should use to record the vocals and the music...
(b) do i need a mixer? or an interface?
I'm using a PC...
thks

What do you have now?

 

[championboxer]

for the moment, it will be pre-recorded

what do i have...
hmm.. just a pair of monitors...
no mixer.. no sequencing software...

what do u suggest to build a system?
thks

 

[soft]

to start off with the basic, you would need

A computer microphone. S$10
This can be plug right into your soundcard's Mic In. So you dont need a mixer/pre-amp.

Recording/mixing software.
Too many to choose from, but a budget one would be n-Tracks Studio costing USD$49 http://www.fasoft.com

So basically you record your voice into the computer and mix it with music in the software.

*you need a pair of headphones too. cause it is kinda difficult to record your voice when you are listening to the playback via your speakers. Feedback.

 

[sound_designer]

dudes... listen rite up here aite...!!
all r craps..
get a mac for some serious audio editing n recordings... dat the first things for sure...
second a good soundcard is an essential..
a good ones would probably cost aprobably 1500 n even more from motu or digidesign..!!
thiird use a proper recording software.. like cubase, nuendo, logic audio or protools...
forth a proper mics..
fifth some processors ...
i would say a good 5 or 6 thousand for a decent recording studio would be good... anything less than dat... probably juz settle down with a cassette recorders aite..
oh yeah by the way... need any help w audio software for mac or pc.. leave me a msg...!!
cheers