Home Recording Question from Experienced Musician, Recording Newbie

G

GardenofMike

New member
Hi all,

Came here in search of some guidance on home recording. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I play drums, guitar, and bass pretty well but know next-to-nothing about recording at home. I'm looking to do the following three things:

(1) Audio record my original stuff using electric guitar, bass, and electric drums (I live in an apartment so acoustic drums are not an option). It doesn't need to be perfect quality - the goal, for now at least, is just to throw it on soundcloud - but I want it to be properly mixed and sound good.

(2) Make youtube videos doing "one man band" covers. I have in mind a split screen, with me handling bass, (electric) drums, and guitar duty. I'm not much of a singer so I am hoping to either (1) find a way to isolate vocals and lay the original vocal track over my instrumental parts or (2) play the vocal melody on guitar.

(3) Not hemorrhage money.

So my question to the board is - what equipment I need to get this done? Thinking about everything, top to bottom - pro tools, camera, interface, mics, etc... Again - pretty experienced as a musician, but a relative neophyte when it comes to laying it down, so please, drop some knowledge on me.

Thank you!
 
If you will be micing an amp, you will need a Shure sm57, at least a 2 channel interface and a computer. (plus the obvious cabling) Reaper seems to be the recording software of choice because it works well and is free to try indefinitely and only $60 to purchase (iirc) An active DI for the bass and to possibly DI the guitar for reamp purposes.

If you aren't micing an amp, you will need an active DI (you can get away with a passive one if all your pickups are active) You still need the interface and computer mentioned above.

That is the very least you need to record the audio. You can get better drum sounds if you have an interface with midi inputs and you use a VST to create the drum sounds. But the VST's cost money and have a learning curve. It is much easier simply plugging the stereo outputs of the drum brain into the two inputs on the interface and hitting record.

Assuming you have a computer, the rest can easily be bought for well below $500 if you go new. An decent two channel interface can be had for around $150. SM57's are on sale for $75 all the time. An Behringer active DI can be had for about $40. The rest is just cables.

I'm pretty sure a ton of youtube videos are just don't with people's phones and some cheap video editing software. But I don't do video, so I won't be much help with that.
 
Number 1 is pretty straightforward. You need a computer, recording software, an interface and a pair of headphones. If you don't sing you might not need a mic. It is the preferred way to capture electric guitar but if you're already limited to e-drums then you're probably recording guitars direct.

Number 2 is doable but takes more gear, planning, time etc. If you're serious about video then look into Sony Vegas audio/video software. You could do audio recording and video editing in one program. There are less expensive options, like using Reaper for your audio and separate software to edit the video.

Getting the original vocals could be the hard part. If you can get the original vocals you would either have to play to the original song to make them fit as is, or you would have to edit them to fit your version's timing.

You could collaborate with a singer. Send them an audio file with a mix of your instrumental and let them sing over it and send you those files. You import them to your project and mix to your liking. You might even get them to record video of themselves singing the song.
 
Jay (Farview) is very knowledgeable, but you don't need a DI box to plug your bass or electric guitar right into an audio interface to record them direct, most AIs have instrument inputs specifically designed for this.
If you are DIing all your instruments, you don't have to worry about acoustic treatment of your tracking room, same thing if you use only headphones for mixing, but you will find that your mixes don't translate to other playback systems well without a lot of experimentation and remixing. Monitors and a well-treated mixing room are recommended.
3rd vote for Reaper - ProTools is not needed unless 1) you're already familiar with it; 2) you want to export full sessions (not just stems) to a studio for mixing/processing and they use PT.

Camera - lots of choices, since you will only be using it for the video (not audio capture) - you can get a pocket-size digital camera that records hi-def video, like the Sony Cybershot line - you pay more for more zoom, which you won't need - so you can get something for less than $125.
 
"Mixed properly and sound good" is the hardest part of the equation. There's a lot behind that one little notion. Enough to dedicate endless websites, books, videos, products, etc. If you're going to be using a mic at all, then you're going to need a nice space to record in. If you're space isn't great, like an apartment, you can find compromise by close micing everything.

If you're going to do the mixing yourself, you need a great space for mixing. This includes monitors and your listening environment. It's possible to mix on headphones; some people do it, but 99% chance it won't sound good when played on other audio systems. (Cars, earbuds, hifi steros, etc) The good news, is you can provide yourself a decent mixing environment for not a lot of money. It will definitely be the biggest bang for the buck for improving your mixes. Check out the Studio Build section of this site for acoustic treatment.

For a one-man band, you really only need a two channel interface and the market is abundant with them. Most will usually come with a Lite form of a popular DAW software program such as Cubase, Sonar, Pro-Tools... Be sure to keep that in mind when shopping for an interface.

For recording audio, computers don't need to be powerhouses. Things like sample based virtual instruments, certain plugs, number of tracks, all start to add restrictions on the processing power. If you're just going to record audio tracks and use a few plugs, comps, eqs, on each track, then you don't need a lot. If you want to throw in virtual instruments, you'll have to give consideration to processing power. However, if you're going to be doing video, then you do need a powerful computer. So, anything good enough for video is good enough for audio.

Sony Vegas is a great suggestion. It's cheap and very capable as a video editor.

Most any camera will do, even your phone. You can overcome any limitation in video with a little bit of creativity.

There's a lot more. But browse through the website and read up on everything.

Good luck and have fun.
 
I forgot that a lot of interfaces have instrument inputs. Those will take the place of a DI.
 
The mantra is monitors and after that it is roooom treatment! 99% of the time I agree but in truth Mike, what do people listen to The Toob on? Buds, pods and PC shitty speakers!
If you can't let rip on a drum kit I doubt you would be able to get full benefit from monitors and they would be a huge chunk of the budget.

My suggestion is to buy the best headphones you can afford and if you are not using an open mic they can be open backed types which give better sound quality (in any event a pair of closed Senny HD 202s are more than good enough for tracking IMHO, $20)

Interfaces? The Steinberg UR22 has not to my knowledge had a bad word said about it? Comes with a Cubase light version which might do video? In any case you get a cheap upgrade to a version that does. But if the money will stretch to it ~$200, all here will know I am going to say Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6! Still gets you Cubase but a lot more software as well.

Dave.
 
Thanks for the replies y'all! Gonna dig through this and see what I can piece together. Will likely be back here with more questions, but the feedback is greatly appreciated!
 
ecc83 said:
The mantra is monitors and after that it is roooom treatment! 99% of the time I agree but in truth Mike, what do people listen to The Toob on? Buds, pods and PC shitty speakers!
If you can't let rip on a drum kit I doubt you would be able to get full benefit from monitors and they would be a huge chunk of the budget.
Click to expand...
Dave, you're right in that people will listen on crappy speakers, but mixing on monitors means better translation of the mix to those crappy speakers!
Nothing says you have to turn the monitors up to drum kit levels! Everyone has tvs and Bose or other home systems for playing music in their apartments, that's never an issue - drum kits and guitar amps are.
 
mjbphotos said:
Dave, you're right in that people will listen on crappy speakers, but mixing on monitors means better translation of the mix to those crappy speakers!
Nothing says you have to turn the monitors up to drum kit levels! Everyone has tvs and Bose or other home systems for playing music in their apartments, that's never an issue - drum kits and guitar amps are.
Click to expand...

Quite so Mike and I shall not press the point except to say that when running at a calibrated 85dB SPL the peak output of my very modest Tannoys is well above that of most FSTVs. (hisses wife off next room anyway!)

I just meant that...At this stage,,,The OP might not want to make "perfect" mixes and put his limited budget into other things. A bottom feeder pair of monitors is £300 but that buys you some stonking cans! And! You don't need to spring for rockwool!

Dave.
 
If you're not recording with microphones then you can get away with open back headphones, which would also be less bad than closed back for mixing.
 
ecc83 said:
Quite so Mike and I shall not press the point except to say that when running at a calibrated 85dB SPL the peak output of my very modest Tannoys is well above that of most FSTVs. (hisses wife off next room anyway!)
.
Click to expand...

And my wife complains when I turn up the tv because of my tinnitus!

OP did say:
but I want it to be properly mixed and sound good.
Click to expand...
 
"OP did say:



but I want it to be properly mixed and sound good. !" He did indeed and to do that he will need to spend out on monitors and room treatment. Just thought he might belay that and concentrate on tube stuff?

Dave
 
Hopefully the OP will return. 21st Century home recording can be a little overwhelming to someone who hasn't done it before. The days of sound-on-sound reel-to-reels and bouncing with 2 cassette decks was so much easier!
 
Hi Farview, you mentioned something I never hear of before. What is a Behringer active DI, what does it do and why it is needed for the bass ? Why not just record directly with an sm57 on the bass amp?
Thank you
 
A di takes the signal from a guitar or bass and turns it into a balanced mic signal, so that you can plug into a mic input.

You can just record the bass amp with a mic. It is also very common to just record the bass direct, which will require a di or an instrument input (built in di) in the interface.

Behringer is a brand name. Di's come in in active and passive. Passive di's can load down passive pickups and make them sound muddy, so I recommend active di's because they work in any situation.
 
Ok Thank you, so we would need a DI only if we plug the bass directly to the sound card and that sound card doesn't have an instrument input.
Is the sm57 a good choice of mic to record the amp of a bass?
 
It will work. Whether it is the best choice will depend on the sound you are going for. The 57 will accentuate the midrange, which could be a good thing. A lot of people will use kick drum mics for bass, other people use large diaphragm condensers... There are a lot of possibilities.
 
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