Recording Question ???

opeth8

opeth8

My Arms, Your Casket
Sep 29, 2005
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USA
I haven't done much research on this, but I'm hoping you guys can help me out.

I'm looking to record some of my guitar licks & drumming & then synch them together. Can this be accomplished easily ?? It doesn't need to be professional quality. I'm wandering what kind of equipment I'd need to purchase, to give it a shot at home.

Ideally I'd like to be able to transfer them to an mp3 file or some type of pc format. Being able to add effects would also be cool.

Where should I begin or is this just a dream ???
 
Well if you were to get cubase se or something (very easy to get hold of, very cheap too) It has a drum machine with it. And if you use the 24 track audio option thing, all you need to do is mic up your amp and record in to the computer. I suggest gettin a brief guide on how to use cubase or something also. You could probably directly plug in your guitar to the computer but you need an adapter for it, and its quite unstable for the sound card if you do this. doesnt mean it will happen tho.
 
Great suggestions above. It looks like these programs will allow me to do exactly what I was hoping for.

If possible I'd prefer not to use a drum machine & play the drums on my own, but I'm curious how the sound goes from the instrument or amp onto the computer. Do I need to purchase a sound mic adapter for the pc ??? I know affinityband mentioned a direct plug-in adapter for the guitar, but how about the drums ??? Is all this stuff included with the software ???

Thanks guys
 
Ok well Mic'in drums and makin them sound good is actually stupidly difficult. But what you need is ideally a drum mic set, a know how of where to put the mics and (doesnt have to be real expensive) a mixing desk with at least 2 xlr inputs ( Ideally 4, or as many as you can ). you need a good sound card also. But then again if you dont want/need a good sound quality, you just need a condenser mic or something, Just one that picks up higher frequencys (Cs1000s are pretty good value). The person to ask about this sorta thing is probably 'soundave' or 'Moonlapse' Or any other tech monkey on this forum. Im not one of those yet but i hope to be.
 
opeth8 said:
Great suggestions above. It looks like these programs will allow me to do exactly what I was hoping for.

If possible I'd prefer not to use a drum machine & play the drums on my own, but I'm curious how the sound goes from the instrument or amp onto the computer. Do I need to purchase a sound mic adapter for the pc ??? I know affinityband mentioned a direct plug-in adapter for the guitar, but how about the drums ??? Is all this stuff included with the software ???

Thanks guys
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's why I suggested Adobe Audition -- I assumed you were recording real drums because you never said otherwise. I know you can mic your drums and have all the mics go into a mixer, then into Adobe Audition, but I can't really help you out anymore with that because I've never actually done it (I do the drums with Fruityloops because I can't play real drums).

To get a good guitar sound, you have two options:

1. Guitar -> Preamp -> computer
Preamps come in many different forms, for example you can buy something that is a dedicated preamp or you could buy a computer interface that has a preamp. I actually have a guitar multi-fx pedal (Boss GT-6) and it has a built-in preamp so I can have my guitar going into my pedal then into the computer and get a good guitar sound that way.

2. Guitar -> Guitar Amp -> Microphone (mic'ing the amp) -> Computer
Here, all you have to do is plug your guitar into your amp, put a mic in front of one of the speakers on your amp, and have that mic go right into your computer. It's usually best to use a dynamic microphone for this (Shure SM-58 or Audix OM5 are good ones that aren't that expensive and are also great for vocals).
 
record over it yes so you don't have to spend countless hours later trying to make the parts sync up. and DEFINITELY use some form of timekeeping like a metronome...
 
Buy a Mac Mini and use Garageband. Best Solution. Best Price. Can export to iTunes and burn to a CD in one step. You can do all kinds of easy editing, and easily sync the two tracks together. You can add as many tracks as you want. If anybody disses macs for audio production, you have never been in a real studio recording atmosphere.

Here is the link to Garageband on the Apple website. Do yourself a favor and go the Apple store in Beantown, and check it out in person.
 
This is easy, and you don't need to spend much money, $50 tops. Buy a cheap microphone with a 1/4" audio jack, not an XLR. You can get that when you're more seasoned and looking for better quality. Go cheap, because you don't have the know-how to get the most out of expensive stuff anyway.

Get some sort of program for home recording. I use Cakewalk music creator, which is suitable. You can lay down the guitar track by mic'ing the amp, then play that back through headphones while you play and record the drums on a second audio track. DO NOT buy a drum mic set. Those are ridiculously expensive, and since you are primarily a guitarist, don't bother. You can record drums with one well placed mic adequately. You may need to pad the bass drum or toms more than usual depending on the acoustics of where you record.

Cakewalk has a fair amount of effects you can use. Since my goal has always been to have rather raw and simple production, there's no need to spend much money on fancy mic setups or programs.
 
MixGrafix said:
Buy a Mac Mini and use Garageband. Best Solution. Best Price. Can export to iTunes and burn to a CD in one step. You can do all kinds of easy editing, and easily sync the two tracks together. You can add as many tracks as you want. If anybody disses macs for audio production, you have never been in a real studio recording atmosphere.

Here is the link to Garageband on the Apple website. Do yourself a favor and go the Apple store in Beantown, and check it out in person.
Click to expand...
other suggested options are cheaper, and better than Garageband, which i never liked in the slightest. studios run macs, but i sure don't.
 
I just started some audio recording class this week and our teacher claims that PCs are 'just finally' catching up to macs in terms of audio recording capabilities. I dunno. I have cubase sx3 which is pretty complicated but sure works well, and then cool edit pro 2.0 (adobe audition is an update of cool edit pro, but it's less stable) when I just want to throw a few tracks together without doing anything fancy or much with plugins. Cubase (or something else besides cooledit/audition) is required if you want to mess around with drum machines and other midi plugins IN THE PROGRAM though.
 
What your teacher said is total bullshit. I use a Dual G5 in the main control room of our studio and the fucking thing has crashed on me more in 2 sessions than my home PC has crashed on me in 6 months. Don't buy into Mac elitism. Use both platforms and then make up your own mind. PC's running Windows XP, optimized well, are recording beasts - don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

@FRUGiHOYi: You got your chain a bit wrong there. If you are going the Guitar direct in route it's:

Guitar > DI (Direct Injection Box) > Preamp > Converter > PC

Now let me elaborate. Most audio interfaces (sound cards) function as A/D and D/A converters. When you put something into the 'line-in' of your soundcard, the soundcard itself is doing an Analogue to Digital conversion, which is why the sound of most economy cards isn't so flash.

Some newer sound cards even have in-built preamps or DI's on them. Some just have a simple 'instrument in' jack which lets you put the guitar right in.

When it comes to a mic'ed amp chain, it goes like this:

Guitar > Amp > Microphone > Preamp > Converter > PC

You need a preamp if you're going to use a microphone. Don't use the 'mic in' on your soundcard... and don't use any mics that can interface with a 1/8' jack. Seriously - don't do it. If you're even going to bother with the mic'ed route, get a decent mic (Shure SM57) that outputs XLR signals and a preamp that receives XLR signals (I'd assume by definition, all of them should).
 
Hey Moony. I'm curious about mic'ing my amp and such. I've always been confused by what a preamp actually is :cry:

Also, what do you mean by converter? Excuse the newbie-ish questions - I have to start from somewhere =P

Oh yes, another question - what's a good sound card to get?
 
A preamp is a device that gets a 'microphone level' signal (usually quite low) and boosts it to 'line level'. This allows the signal to interface at a good level with the converter/soundcard (hence your 'line-in' jack on your soundcard). Clean preamps are extremely important in maintaining a clear signal going onto your recording medium. In some cases I have found them to be more important than the microphone itself.

A converter is basically a device that gets an analogue signal and samples it a certain amount of times per second. It takes 'snapshots' of the level of the signal at regular points during that second. The amount of times those snapshots are taken per second is called the 'sample-rate'. The sample rate of CD's is 44.1kHz, which is 44,100 times per second. Essentially what it does is get an analogue signal and make it digital, so that your computer can start dealing with it.

Soundcards... it's really just contingent on your needs and what software you hope to use. There's a plethora of them out there, but you need to know what you want to do before you commit to getting one.
 
For high-end ones? Very much. A few grand on each.

But like I said before, there are preamps and converters built into some recoring soundcards today. The Digidesign Mbox2 has 2 Focusrite Class A preamps in it and some rather shitey converters. I'm sure some of the M-audio soundcards have similar things happening too.

Remember, you get what you pay for.
 
Well, on the Audigy 2 page it says:

* 24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion during playback with sampling rates of 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz in 7.1 mode and up to 192kHz in stereo mode
* 24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion during recording in 8, 16 or 24-bit at sampling rates of 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz
* SPDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) input at up to 24-bit/ 96kHz quality
* SPDIF output up to 24-bit at 48 or 96kHz
* ASIO drivers for low latency (>=2ms) multi-track playback and recording at 16-bit/48kHz*

So I would assume that the converter part is out of the way, hehe. Although, that doesn't mean there's a preamp in it does it?

Btw, sorry for taking over this thread, although I'm sure many people will find Moony's expert advice useful :p
 
Yeah I use an Audigy 2 ZS. I'll tell ya what the major issues are.

When you use the ASIO drivers for recording (which you would if you're using any half-decent software) you're restricted to what it says there... 16-bit/48kHz. It's not a big issue if you're just doing some home recordings, but for me it has been a major bitch. I've had to up-sample recordings I've brought home to mix to 48kHz simply so I could load them up in a session without getting the damned chip-munk super-fast effect.

The Audigy does have internal converters, yes, like most soundcards. You'd still need to get an external microphone preamp though. Keep in mind that the 'line-in' jack on the Audigy is 1/8' which is for all intents and purposes a consumer-end jack. Professional interfaces commonly use 1/4' TRS jacks, which are balanced.
 
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