Help, Complete Beginer

[conqdequeso]

hello all,

I thoght of posting this in the newbie section but i didnt know if i would get anything there.

I am a musician, and I have many songs written that i wanted to get recorded(20+) but i cant afford to go into a studio, but i do have a spare room at home that i wanted to turn into one. Im not looking to make any great quality recordings or anything crazy or too expensive, i just want to be able to lay my tracks down.

So my question is: What do I do?? what kind of recording equipment should i get to start out. I have guitars, bases, amps, P.A. Keyboard, and Drums, but i cant record them.

Please help, any tips even the most minimum will be greatly apreciated

conqdequeso

[pandamonk]

I think the newbie section would be better for you. A few of us hang around there to help guys like you.

Anyway, my standard response:
1. Where are you(UK, US)?
2. What's your budget?
3. Do you have a decent PC?
4. How many channels do you need(drums can be recorded well with just 4)?
5. What are you looking for(interface and monitors)?
6. Do you have much/any experience?
7. Do you have any equipment now(esp recording equipment, mixers etc)?
8. What is your room(s) like(post a room plan)
9. Do you need isolation?

Any more info would be great...

[conqdequeso]

1-US
2-$1000 (stuff doesnt have to be off the shelf right?)
3-The one i have available is a dell c610(i guess that is old by todays standards) I installed cakewalk sonar 6.0 in there
4-channels i would say 12 should be enough, 16 would be great(of course not all of them at any given time)
5-i have no idea what you mean by the interface/monitors
6-recording experience 0(well if you call the sound recorder on windows experience ha!)
7-I dont have any recording equipment at all except for the cakewalk which for some reason doesnt let me push rec
(i do have a cable that goes from the out 1/4" of any instrument to a USB)
8-my room is 10 by 12, pretty standard rectangular room
9-isolation... do you mean insulation?? if so, i've been gathering egg cartons(that works right?)

Thank you again for helping me out

[yoyo]

waht he means by interface is, you're going to need SOME way to attach a mixer (since you want 16 channels) to the computer. An audio interface does this. I would recommend a usb/firewire interface, something like the mobile pre, or firewire 410. something to attach the mixer up to. this will give you very decent quality.

[conqdequeso]

thank you, i have that cable i mentioned before, on one end its got a 1/4" plug, and on the other end it has a usb, its for "computer recording". Is it absolutely necesary to have a computer thouhg?

[yoyo]

Originally Posted by conqdequeso

thank you, i have that cable i mentioned before, on one end its got a 1/4" plug, and on the other end it has a usb, its for "computer recording". Is it absolutely necesary to have a computer thouhg?

that cable won't help anyone. you need an amp and preamp.

good quality? use a pc

[conqdequeso]

well, i have amps for my P.A for my "keyboard" bass and guitars, but im guessing that probably doesnt qualify

[TexRoadkill]

Originally Posted by conqdequeso

if so, i've been gathering egg cartons(that works right?)

They are great for catching fire but not much else. Check out the Studio Building forum.

[yoyo]

Originally Posted by conqdequeso

well, i have amps for my P.A for my "keyboard" bass and guitars, but im guessing that probably doesnt qualify

yeah that's good, you just need a mic to mic those bad boys up

[pandamonk]

Originally Posted by conqdequeso

1-US
2-$1000 (stuff doesnt have to be off the shelf right?)
3-The one i have available is a dell c610(i guess that is old by todays standards) I installed cakewalk sonar 6.0 in there
4-channels i would say 12 should be enough, 16 would be great(of course not all of them at any given time)
5-i have no idea what you mean by the interface/monitors
6-recording experience 0(well if you call the sound recorder on windows experience ha!)
7-I dont have any recording equipment at all except for the cakewalk which for some reason doesnt let me push rec
(i do have a cable that goes from the out 1/4" of any instrument to a USB)
8-my room is 10 by 12, pretty standard rectangular room
9-isolation... do you mean insulation?? if so, i've been gathering egg cartons(that works right?)

Thank you again for helping me out

2. $1000 should be possible
3. dell c610, isn't that 1ghz pentium III? Hmm, i'd recommend more.
4. Do you really need 12-16? Most home recordists get by fine with 8. What are you gonna be recording?
5. interface is like a soundcard, gets the signal into the pc, monitors are speakers. Do you want monitors?
6. Recording experience is important, but you'll pick it up as you go along. Play around with sonar for a while, if you can.
7. Is your copy of sonar illegal? People round here don't like illegal shit. You will probably get some decent software with an interface, or you could always download reaper for $40.
8. Will everything be done in that room? Read about acoustics here. You wanna treat corners with at least 4" rigid fiberglass(do a search), and first reflection points(side, ceiling and back wall) with 2" rigid fiberglass. You also want to centre your mixing position along the shortest wall.
9. I mean isolation. Sound isolation. Insulation is that fluffy stuff you get in your loft. Rigid fiberglass is also insulation. Egg cartons don't do a thing for isolation. You need mass, and correct construction(mass-air-mass, decoupled).

Presonus Firepod - $345
Alesis M1 active Mk2s - £300
acoustics
Reaper - $40
shure sm57(snare/guitars) - $100
beta 52a(kick/bass) - $190
2x studio projects b1(overheads/acoustic guitar/vocals) 2x $100

$1175 + p&p, cables, stands and acoustics

[Dags]

Originally Posted by conqdequeso

hello all,

So my question is: What do I do?? what kind of recording equipment should i get to start out. I have guitars, bases, amps, P.A. Keyboard, and Drums, but i cant record them.

conqdequeso

Hey conqdequeso

Things to consider:

*You'll need a variety of mics to capture the drum kit (maybe consider a mix of condenser [overheads or for a general stereo capture] and dynamic [close-micing individual elemants]) and as pandamonk says, you don't need to mic up every component of the kit in order to get a fairly decent recording. But you *will* need to have an audio interface (or mixing desk) that will cope with multiple simultaneous microphone inputs.
*Get at least one large diaphragm condenser microphone for vocals and possibly for micing up your guitar/bass amps.
*You will therefore also need a means of providing this mic with phantom power (most mixers and some audio interfaces have this as a feature)
*Guitars/basses can also be recorded directly into a sound card if the amp has a direct out jack plug.
*Keyboards can be recorded directly into your soundcard (or via the mixer) as the outputs on most tend to be of sufficient volume to not need an amp - and you can therefore record in stereo if you wish.
*Egg cartons for dampening that 'live' reflected sound from a room may not work as well as thick curtains &/or foam panels, but give it a go. It may at least help scatter the sound waves to prevent direct reflection back & forth across the room from wall to wall.
*Get carpet with proper underlay on the floor to also help absorb some of the sound reflections if you can.
*None of this will prevent the noise of the drums from scattering around the room and potentially being recorded as unwanted noise. You may need to build/buy isolation panels to place around the kit when recording (is this what you meant, pandamonk?)
*Studio monitors are speakers that are generally supposed to be more 'neutral' than Hi Fi speakers and are used for helping you to mix your songs.
*I'm not certain that you're going to be able to kit yourself out with only $1000 if you're starting from scratch. Having to purchase a mixer, monitors, microphones and cables will set you back quite a bit of money.

My brain is fried - that's all I can come up with as suggestions to get you going for the moment.

Best of luck!
Dags

[conqdequeso]

oh man you guys are awesome, my limit is about 1200 actually and im going to build it little by little as i dont have a "need" for it, my SONAR was not legit because i just wanted to see how daunting it was before actually buying it. Basically i didnt want to buy it for nothing, so now that i know all the stuff i need beforehand i deleted it until I buy it when the time comes. I dont like illegal stuff either. I have "a couple" more questions but right now i dont have time, i will log on again in the afternoon.

Once again thank you all for your help

[yoyo]

i hate it when people have illegal copies of nuendo....

[TexRoadkill]

Originally Posted by Dags

*Egg cartons for dampening that 'live' reflected sound from a room may not work as well as thick curtains &/or foam panels, but give it a go. It may at least help scatter the sound waves to prevent direct reflection back & forth across the room from wall to wall.

No, they don't noticeably help with absorption or diffusion and they are a fire hazzard.

[jaybriggs84]

many interfaces will come bundled with a lite version of some recording software, many times it is Cubase LE, which does a good job of hooking people and getting them to upgrade to their better Cubase versions.