So my band has got to the point where we want to start recording some of our songs. We've done a first basic recording using Garageband, just plugging into the line in on my Macbook, and recording the guitar, then recording the bass on top of this. Obviously there are better ways for this, but I don't want to fork over a huge amount of money. Anybody have any experience with this, and can give tips/the gear they used?
We've just finished two more songs using our drummers home studio. He's spent thousands of pounds on it though, so a setup like his is probably not really feasible for you guys. We use: Windows PC running Logic Line6 Pod Pro for guitar effects M-Audio Delta 1010 for input Mackie CFX20 Mixer However, he's lent me a lot of his old stuff which I use when I need to record at my place. I use: PreSonus Firebox for input (~£150) PowerBook running Logic Express (~£150 for the software if you're a student IIRC) One of the cheaper Line6 Pods (can't remember which - they're all pretty good and start at around £80) Samson C01 condenser mic for vocals (£35) The bottom setup would be a very good (and really portable) way of starting out recording at home. Obviously you'll need various extra gubbins like a mic stand and pop shield, and a load of XLR and jack leads. Shouldn't add more than £50 or so to the price though. If you've got a niceish effects pedal for your guitar you can DI from that into the Firebox for a reasonable sound. AH BTW, let me know what you think of the tracks - www.myspace.com/forgetthescript
Get a good external soundcard like the M-Audio Firewire 410, which is relatively cheap from the major european music equipment companies like www.musicstore.de or www.thomann.de . Record into Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net ) (if it has a Mac release) or GarageBand . If money is less of an issue, I'd recommend that you get a small mixer such as the "Alesis Multimix-12 USB" and some half-decent active studio monitors. Using any old headphones or the speakers on your mac won't lead you into creating a good mix, as those headphones/speakers won't have a flat-enough frequency response curve (ie; they'll accentuate certain frequencies in your recording, and not others, thus sounding different from the actual recorded music). Avoid Bose headphones/monitors, avoid Behringer mixers. A topic that's often neglected in home recording is that of "ground loops". Try to keep all devices which connect to your recording device (ie; your Mac) on the same electrical circuit and ground-point as the recording device. That includes keyboards/synths, guitar amps, DI boxes, mixers, monitors, etc - This will hopefully eliminate the horrible ground-loop noise from any recordings you make with that set-up. Combine my advice with AH's and you should be well on your way to some great recordings. Have fun
I forgot to mention that we're direct inputting from my guitarist's effects pedal, so it doesn't sound too bad. I'm saving up for an E-Mu 0404 USB for my main rig anyway, will this be decent for recording stuff too?
I haven't used one myself, but they get good reviews around the web. Best way to find out is to google it and check out what people are saying in the audiophile forums around the net.
For recording guitars you're better off putting them through an amp as normal then getting either a condenser mic or, if on a smaller budget, something like a Shure SM-57 and positioning it in front of the amp. You'll get a much nicer sound and can experiment with multiple mics and positions if you have the equipment. Behringer mixers aren't that bad- I've managed to kill one off after tripping over a cable with the wrong fuse in it but I did a lot of work with a band using a Behringer for live and studio stuff and it wasn't too bad. Most M-Audio/EMU soundcards do the job fine- just make sure the system you're running it on is fast enough or you might experience some latency issues and suffer delay between input and output. <A88>
i would be very careful about using condensor mics with an amp since they are designed for acoustic use, mainly vocals and acoustic guitars etc. you could use one with an amp but in a larger room and not right in front of the amp, to capture a natural reverb for example. if u just want the sound from the amp though i would stick with dynamic mics, either an sm57 or sm58 (using a combination of both is a great way to capture a wide frequency range). Alternatively if you have a line 6 amp or pod, they work fine for DI as long as you dont have a noisy sondcard.
A friend of mine has the E-MU card and is very pleased with it, however i would recomend the pci version if its staying in your rig for better latency. I myself use the M-Audio Audiphile Firewire for mobility and its a good card for the price with all I/O`s i need and even midi thru As other sad stay away from Behringer mixer as they are all utter bull.... and for headphone nothing better then Sennheiser HD 25! Monitors are complicated as the price range is huge. Sub 200£ i would say the ESI near05 or Alesis M1 Aktive 520 and if you have more to spend try to get hold of a pair of Genelec 8010 as they are amazing!
Disagree - I use a pair of AKG K271 studio headphones, and I can't imagine how they could be better really - excellent sound quality, and they have a microswitch on the headband which cuts them out when they're not on your head, so they don't pollute your mics if they're sitting on the desk and you've forgotten to switch them off. AH
I never heard the AKG K271 so i dont know how they sound but the sound on the HD 25 is amazing. Clear, good range and really honest. Then again sound is really a thing of opinions.I gone check out the AKG K271 as they seem to be a it cheaper the the HD 25 and the microswitch is a good idea
ok so sound is a thing of opinion but what you really want from decent monitoring headphones/monitors is a flat frequency response. to say they sound really good means they are unlikely to have a flat response and so when eq-ing/mixing/mastering recordings, you will compensate for parts of the sound that aren't really there. like antiHero i'd go for the HD25
QFT. Buying Monitors/Speakers & Headphones for listening to and enjoying music is very different from buying them for mastering/production. Buy the ones that sound good to your ears for listening, buy the ones that have a flat frequency response curve for production and monitoring.
Link to frequency response comparison Granted, the AKGs have bass roll-off that is less than fantastic, but other than that the frequency response is similar to the Sennheiser cans. Sound quality isn't a huge consideration when monitoring, and for production I place much more importance on how things sound in a variety of realistic listening environments than on how they sound through pristine studio monitors. We make a point of evaluating our tracks on all our home stereos, in our cars, and on our iPods through both consumer and studio headphones when we master our tracks. Don't forget, the guy is just starting out, and headphones aren't the bit of kit that the big bucks need to be spent on in the early stages of recording - worry more about the sound going into the desk than the sound coming out. The HD25s are half as much again as the AKG cans, and don't have the auto-mute feature, which I now couldn't live without - it's fantastic. My recommendation stands - I think the AKGs are a better buy than the Sennheisers. Er... I didn't say that. I wasn't going to bother going into the technicalities of why different headphones are better or worse than others because the OP is just starting out and doesn't need to worry about that stuff overly (yet). As an aside, have you considered booking some studio time? When I was first starting out recording we spent 3 days at the Lodge in Northampton - I'm not suggesting you do it every time, but spending time with a professional producer really gives you invaluable experience in terms of best practise when recording, and it will make your home recordings better in the long run. I think it cost us about £300 between the four of us for the four days, but that includes room and board, which is really great - it's an awesome place to hang out. AH
From the brief forays that I have had in recording stuff (most of the stuff I did was live), I would say the following: Don't skimp on your microphones. You really want to be looking at £300 each for them. If that is too much for your pocket, then hire them for a weekend, you shouldn't pay more than about £10 each for that length of time. The Shure Beta 87 is a nice mic, as is the AKG C451 for a condenser. Both are around the £300 mark to my knowledge. I have heard some recordings made with the Shure SM58, and whilst they are great for live stuff / being abused, they do suffer in studio work. However, no amount of kit / money can make up for poor placement of mics and not enough time spent in the mastering / production stages. When it comes to this stage, you need to be able to put aside whole days to working on it, not just a couple of hours in an evening, simply due to the way you end up listening to the music that you have.
I'm just starting out recording with my band and I'm learning things as I go. So I'm not exactly an expert, but I can recommend pretty much everything that I've purchased. My big purchase was an alesis multimix 16 *firewire* mixer. I can't recommend it more (or one of its smaller siblings), but the firewire is important, as that means that it sends each individual channel to the computer (usb only sends the mix). As for the computer side, I've got a macbook with logic express 7, which is equally amazing. But that's all kind of pricey (the mixer is about twice as much as the E-Mu that you're looking at). However, it gives you a ton more options, especially if you get a full set of drum mics; being able to record up to 16 channels at a time is really quite useful. It sounds great to my admittedly untrained ears, and they even have leopard drivers out. As far as getting the sound to the mixer, I've found that taking the guitar amp out of the signal chain doesn't really do favors for the sound, and it might be worth it to get a mic and throw it on the amp (I'll recommend the standard sm-57 here). But to be fair, I haven't tried the amp modeling in Logic, and you might have luck with that. For software, if garage band is working for you, by all means stick with it. However, if you get the firewire mixer, garage band can't take advantage of all the inputs. Logic express is the (ahem) logical step up, and is well worth the money. The newest version has no limits on the number of simultaneous inputs.
