Need Help With Recording

[Mini-Chad311]

Alright, here's the question:
Me and my band have been playing, wrote a few really good songs, and are trying to come up with a way to record our songs. THe instrument setup is pretty simple, 1 guitarist, the guitar is VERY heavy and deep, played on a 7 string Ibanez, 1 bassist, 2 vocalist, 1 drum player. We are trying to think of a good, cheap way to record our music. Would just micing everything be the best, for the money, route? We just found a 16 channel Yamaha mixer and a pawn shop here for $300, should we get it? Would it be any help? ANY help is appreciated! Thanks!

 

[James HE]

The Yamaha Mixer.would be a good investment depending on it;s condition and capabilities. But here's a simpler (and cheaper) idea. Got a two-track cassete recorder? you know like a JVC or Pioneer Dual Well cassette deck (a single three head would be better, but you'd need another deck to make dubs)Make sure it has some sort of record level control. You might be able to find one with 1/4 inch inputs and individual left and right channel control (we used a recorder like this to record practices with my old band) Without 1/4 inputs you would have to get two 1/4 inch to RCA adaptors (and depending on your cables you might need XLR to 1/4 in. trasformers) (Radio Shack would have them) Get two mics (I'm assuming you have a few already and a PA you may need more for this) Setup the band, place the mics out in the room plug them into the cassette recerder, adjust your levels so that your not frying it) hit record and your off. Granted it's not gonna sound all that great, but it's straight forward and CHEAP! the more money you sink into your recording mics the better it's going to sound. and Of course your band has to sound good live! Or you could get that mixxer and a bunch of mics and mic every thing and go straight to the two track. But if you're really serious about it, Get a four track (or even an eight track if you've got the money) The tascam 424MK3 looks awsome to me, Every thing you need to know about 4-tracks you can find on this site. (the mixer will still come in handy) Just check out the tutorials and stuff, see what you can afford an do it!

 

[Dragon]

James HE, good thing you were so careful...I just got up from sleeping after a long night of flying around in search of virgins (forget it, I live in California and I haven't had breakfast yet!

Very nice advice, BTW.

Mini-Chad 311: you will eventually want to multitrack. I know you can find 4-tracks in that price range, in fact someone wrote me last night about Tascam 424 Mk2's going new for $250 (neglected to tell me whare, unfortunately). I think -- especially considering every multitrack being made today has a mixer built in -- you'd be much better off using one from the start.

If you didn't have any money I'd say use a cheap mixer and plug it into a cassette deck (or even a VCR, see http://homerecording.vhs.html for more info), but spending $300 for a Yamaha mixer from a pawn shop is not a great idea...you don't need anything like 16 tracks anyway, and for the same price you could get a new Mackie mixer that would be good enough for digital.

 

[James HE]

OOOPS! MiniChad-311, disregard some of the information that I gave you above. I'm just now realizing the fact that the two track we recorded our practices with had MIC inputs. this is very important. Your regular home system tape recorder only has line inputs so connecting a mic source is defintly not advisable, no matter what kind of adaptors you got. You'll need some kind of pre-amp (like a mixer, which haas mic pre-amps) I really goofed this one up. I got out of bed to post this out of fear that the Dragon would haunt me in my sleep, setting me and all my gear aflame with his firey breath. Maybe look for a recorder with mic inputs. I saw one recently in a thrift store for about 5$, now thats cheap! I wish i had gotten it that day, but i waited (I had only 2$ on me) and it was gone. Same one as the old one too! oh well.