Home Recording

[Retro]

How many of you guy/gals are involved in home recording and what kind of equipment do you use.

[MrSamson]

Hummmmmm....

Here is a thread Stonedragon will be interested in.....

http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/devil.gif

[StoneDragon]

You called that one right El Sampsino.

I have been into recording since I was a little boy. I remember being embarassed as a teenager because my sis had found a tape of me as a little boy singing a song I had made up off the top of my head into my bro's tape recorder. It was some sort of cowboy riding off into the sunset after raping the horses and riding the women (ala Chevy Chase in Three Amigos).

I also remember my bro pretending he was a rock and roll drummer and me pretending to be Coward Nosetell (Howard Cosell) and using the same tape recorder to interview him. Man!!! If any of those tapes are still kicking around I'm liable to be very embarassed some day!!!

Anyway, my current setup is a broken Tascam 488 (I still use the 8-channel mixer), Cakewalk Pro Audio 7, and Cool Edit 2000. I've got an Alesis QSR for synth sounds, an Alesis DM5 for drum sounds and a POD Pro for some of the killingest guitar tones I have ever heard. For signal processing I have a 3630 compressor, Quadraverb and Micro Enhancer... all by Alesis.

But suddenly, my computer has decided that it doesn't want to have to deal with being used as a hard disk recorder, so I am investigating what it is going to take to put together a dedicated digital audio workstation capable of taking a raw composition all the way to a CD.

What about you Retro?

[Retro]

I am presently standing on the edge of the abyss contemplating taking the DAW plunge. http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/redface.gif

The setup I am thinking about putting together would look like this: a 24 bit 4in4out sound card (looking at a couple different manufacturers), a Behringer MX602A board, a large diaphram condensor mic for vocals (maybe a Rode NT1) and a SM57, a RP2000 or POD for direct guitar recording, software effects and drum tracks, external compression.

I have a bunch of original stuff I'd like to get down on tape (ok CD). Guitar + bass + drums + synthetic orchestration stuff. If it turns out good, maybe I'll sell CDs over the Internet. http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/wink.gif

I just have to scrape the money together and convince my wife that I NEED all this stuff. http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Retro]

I also have been known to frequent recording forums on the Internet trying to discover the in and outs of how this recording thing is done. It's easy to push a record button; it's quite a bit harder to wind up with something worth keeping!

[Josh]

Ok, this is a pretty old string, but I wanna add my little setup (and wish list.)

I use a Soundblaster Live! and cheap notation software. That's it. Thanks to soundfonts, the SBLive! is a full fledged sampler. I record everything using an audio program called DD clip. This actually works pretty good.

I'm getting a program called Orion which is unbelievable. If you haven't tried it yet go here http://www.sonic-syndicate.com/ to download a trial. I'm gonna change all my stuff over, maybe get some VST plugins (it supports em.) I'm also thinking about getting CoolEdit because the audio program I'm using sucks. Eventually when I have enough stuff that I deem 'good' i'm gonna burn some cds, and maybe pass em around.

And now my wishlist:
Synths (Nord Lead maybe)
32 channel mixer.
Really good turntables.
Nice monitors.
A lot of other cool stuff.
More guitars.
Maybe one of those awesome JCM2000s and a couple stacks of speakers. (wonder where i'd put all this stuff)
A nice big loft to put all this stuff and so I can play as loud as i want. http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/wink.gif

[Sixstring]

Stone,
I was talking to a guy who used the POD for home recording and said he had trouble with a lot of hiss. This could be pickups or cords too, but I wondered if you had any trouble with "white noise" and how you get around it in your setup.
Thanks

[StoneDragon]

So far, I must say that the POD is a noisy bugger. I don't notice a lot of "hiss"... some hiss... especially with the extremely overdriven/effects laden patches... but mostly, I get a lot of hum instead. I assumed that I had a ground loop or some such thing happening in my chain... which is pretty common at my place... lots of electrical interference.

I also think that the AD/DA converters are probably not very well isolated in the POD, which adds to the noise.

But.... big but.... compared to miking up my amp and the hum and hiss that that thing puts out the POD is silent!

My work-around at the moment is to make sure I unplug the thing when not in use. I've also got some noise filtering capability via Cool Edit that I have yet to implement lately... used it all the time to clean up the grunge that my old soundcard added to everything I recorded. I also have a stereo noise gate that I may end up using on the guitar tracks. It's not the most ideal solution, but I have no complaints.

[sancho]

we just use a tape recorder

[drumstix128@aol.com]

A bad one at that. It uses mini tapes, not regular sized ones. You were talking about making a tape when you were younger SD that you would be embarresed about?If you listened to the ones we made youd probably kick us off this forum and tell us to never come back.http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/think.gif I get embarresed when I listen to them.

[StoneDragon]

If you heard some of the stuff I recorded then... you'd probably kick ME off these forums.

[drumstix128@aol.com]

Well were even then.

[Xavier Corrmier]

I use an Athlon machine with 512 Megs of PC133 ram two 7200rpm ata66 HD. I use Gadget Labs 8/24 for recording 24 bit audio data and a MTPAV for syncing midi. For software I like to use Sound Forge 4.5 and Cakewalks Pro Audio 9.0 It was built and configure by the guys at the Studiobox and I have to say it runs live a Viper.
http://www.thestudiobox.com

[just fixing the link.... SD]


[This message has been edited by StoneDragon (edited January 05, 2001).]

[StoneDragon]

I ended up with a custom built PIII 700mhz... 256 mb RAM... dual ata/66 drives... plextor burner... WaMi Rack 24/96 sound card and Cakewalk 9.

I have yet to do anything really serious on this machine, but so far it is as solid as Sears.

I'll have to dig around on that site and see what they are offering just for kicks.

[I_b_a_nez]

hardwear :
pent 550 128 megs ram dule 20 GB 7200 rpm HDs
,soundblaster live! + crystal fusion sound cards(2 cards seem to come in prtty handy),
zoom 505 II multi effects(ok but nothing special),and an ibanez RG-570-SS(great Axe),
and a JB player acustic(cheep but nice)
for recording i use Cakewalk 9 pro + cool edit 2000(mainly to convert to MP3 and reduse noise)
if your looking to buy a good card for recording the soundblaster live! family is about your best choise for under $200
the next step up in cards puts you in the $900 price range and that is a bit much
the zoom 505 II is nice(for the price) but i think i could of done better with a POD
cakewalk and cooledit are an awsome combo for home recording and both can be downloded of the net,and are used by hobbiest and pros alike
as for my guitar i wont say much other then
it makes me wanna throw rocks at every other guitar ive ever played id like a les paul but cant afford one
just because i have all this stuff dos not mean i know how to use it(i have no clue hehe) but one thing ive learnd about recording is to do 2 tracks of rythem and 2 tracks vocal and merge them together this makes a much much better sounding track(fuller) that hides any small mistakes you may make in just 1 track

[Retro]

There are plenty of pro-quality sound cards in the $250-500 range (MAudio/Midiman's Delta 66 package with seperate 2 channel premap is an great deal at $399). These are much better for serious recording than the sound blaster live (of course they do cost a little more than a SBL).

[This message has been edited by Retro (edited March 22, 2001).]

[I_b_a_nez]

cool,i did not see any of those when i was looking but that would of been out of my budget any way
but your input may help some one looking now
thanks

[Retro]

I_b_a_nez,

BTW - A lot of people who do use a more expensive card for recording also use a SB Live card in conjunction with it for midi processing because of the Live's soundfont capability. So, even though you may decide to upgrade to a better recording card later, your SB live would still be usefull in your recording set-up. http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/wink.gif

[Jag]

I started recording when I was like 10.. and I used my lil crate peavey, and my squire guitar. And I recorded it w/ a cam corder..like a concert style thing.

[Jag]

It was acually kinda funny

[Retro]

Update,

http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/wink.gif Well, it's taken some time but, I finally convinced the wife and ordered a Echo Mia sound card and Behringer MX602a mixer. Just waiting for it to arrive.


[This message has been edited by Retro (edited April 11, 2002).]

[dmt]

I have a Korg D-16. You can burn your multi-tracked digitally recorded compositions direct to CD, right on the machine (with an external CD drive), or transport the tracks to a computer for easier manipulation. The unit's touch screen menu helps you do stuff right on the D-16, though. This model has been discontinued (replaced with the less capable D-12 and the much more capable D-1600), but it's still supported and can be gotten for a reasonable price. I'm using Sm-57 and 58 microphones with it.

I'm currently using cheap speakers and headphones as monitors. If I get more into it, those are obvious upgrade candidates, as well as possibly getting a nice condensor mic (big bucks) for room ambience and/or vocals.

If I had to do it again, I might just have used software and gotten a new computer (since the computer could do other things and software is upgradeable). I came here from using a cassette multi-tracker, though, so the Korg digital dedicated recording workstation was a natural progression. This would have been a DREAM unit if you were into home recording back in the 80's (which I was)! The main flaw is that you don't have the editing ease of seeing everything on a full sized computer display.

[Retro]

If anyone is interested in a really inexpensive condensor mic ($40) that is decent, check out the Behringer ECM 8000. It will work as an overhead, room mike, or for aucustic instruments. It has gotten good reviews at www.homerecording.com/bbs/ (http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/) where a guy name Harvey Gerst broke the news about it.

[JerBear]

I'm currently set up pretty well but have not been doing much with it of late. It has taken some time to put this all together but I think it will last me a few years anyway.
Hardware:
PIII 990Mhz box
750mb ram
2 80gig AHDA drives
Delta 44 4in 4out 1/4 that will handle 24 bit at 96hz
MIDIman 4x sampler
Equipment:
12 channel Mackie Mixer
Diditec Quad studio reverb
2 Alesis RA300 amps
Alesis 3630 compressor
POD
Alesis SR-16 drum machine
all running to a pair of Yamaha s115 cabs and a pair of Community foldbacks.

The software I use now is QBase VST and is what I consider the best in performance but seriously difficult to learn. It does come with time though.

[StoneDragon]

Looks like you've gotten pretty well set up there JB.

I've just started working with Cubase VST for the first time in the last few weeks. I bought into a local recording studio, and that is their software of choice. Most of VST's features seem to be pretty straight forward if (like me) you've got plenty of experience with multitracking software.... but I pity somebody just trying to learn.

It doesn't help that nobody can find the "Getting Started" manual, either.

[BrettV]

I prefer Cubase VST 5 to most of the other DAWs that I've worked with. At the school here, we use protools. I still prefer Cubase. http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/smile.gif

I'm running:
P3 800mhz (PGA, of course)
512MB PC800 RDRAM (yes, a p3 that uses RDRAM)
60 Gig Western Digital ATA-66 7200rpm
20 Gig Western Digital ATA-66 7200rpm
SBLive (for output)
Lexicon Core 32 (not the crappy core2)
Lexicon LDI-12T
SONY 24*10*40 CD-RW
Altec Lansing speakers
Cubase VST 5

Sometimes when I'm in the mood for a nice warm sound, I go through a Tascam 488mk][ analog recorder prior to going into the Lexicon.

I'll leave out the rack gear and other studio stuff.

-tk