Recent content by Cosmic

It depends on the amount of effort you want to put into it, and the amount of quality needed, not "one or the other" as if they are equal. If you want to track through your Graces, you have already answered your own question: you use the laptop and feed the Grace pres in. "Portable": High end...

You're asking about two different things at the same time: 1. You want to record. 2. You want software to use samples for your piano to sound different. Keep it simple: get Audacity (it's free, simple and sounds as good as any other DAW, depending on what you put in front of it) and a...

I had cassette recorders from about age 12, first portables, then upgraded. Had Dolby B, then C, also Dbx II, the whole journey of getting better sound.... Later, doing my own music, I went into digital Tascam units like the 2488. Currently using a DP24SD with outboard gear. Along the way, I...

The answer to the original question would be: "WIth careful mic placement." Phasing is going to be the one thing you want to avoid. The mono button will be your friend in setting this up, as you can check if the two mics together are creating cancellations/phasey sounds/drops in frequencies or...

For drums, since my music needs acoustic ones, I just "order out" from Fiverr. I don't play drums, I have no desire to spread myself further out by trying. I'd rather concentrate on my songs and the instruments I do play, and get good-quality drum work from someone who is a pro drummer. C.

Jim Keltner. Rocks and swings with subtlety and texture. Earl Palmer. One of the best in 50s N'awlins music. Kenny Aronoff. An absolute locomotive for rock. Jay Bellerose. Gorgeous tone and touch, has a '40s Slingerland kit and uses mallets a lot. Gilson Lavis (former Squeeze, now drummer for...

This is why I spend less and less time on forums: The keyboard "heroes" slinging terrible names at someone, in this case because she is: successful, rich, pretty and on top of it all, very generous. Going back to the various forums of the early 2000s, when I was doing collabs on-line with a...

My experience: I've used Fiverr to get professional drum tracks, and I am very happy with the outcome. 1. Seek through the drummers and read carefully in terms of styles they play well/mostly and what their influences are. Also pay attention to what their kit and recording setup are. You want...

Well, since we're going down the rabbit hole, my Windows sound settings internally are at 100, which is what they have always been. For my scratch recordings,I am using Audacity on my Win 10 machine, with a FocusRite 2I2 interface. In the Audacity choices for "recording" and "playback" devices...

Gain staging is everything. Start with setting the mic input on your Behringer so it is happy with the mic, a solid but not crazy level. Then you know that part is done. Now, knock your DAW/Windows input level down to 40-50 or so. Speak into the mic and compare levels between the known healthy...

As someone finally noted along the thread, how about asking what genres we are talking about before making recommendations? If you want to sing opera (or even Broadway), without proper training you will get nowhere, and likely wreck your vocal cords in the process. If you want to play classical...

Radial makes a nice line booster for such purposes, a clean and solid device: https://www.radialeng.com/product/j4 C.

As John says, start at the source: Room: Have you moved and tried a different position? Mic: What are you using? Have you tried another mic? Compressor: Are you compressing on the way in, possibly affecting the freqency response that way? Singer's Technique: Breathing/addressing mic,/forcing...

In a sense, you have answered your own question: you say you like what the Shure SM81 does in your situation. You have to address your preferences before thinking of a "different" mic: what sound are you after? Two identical Shures will give a unity of soundscape that one Shure and some other...

"But given many people are going to be listening on less than optimal equipment, I wonder if it makes sense to worry about anything other than a fairly basic sounding earphones performance. I'm not saying I'm sure, it's just a wondering of mine." That's upside-down logic. Regardless of what the...