An Introduction...

B

BTO

New member
Hello all. I've posted a couple of things, so I thought it's time for a brief introduction.

I'm 48, a former "pro" guitar player who gave it up for 20 years and have just gotten the bug back in the last couple of years. I did quite a bit of recording back in the late 70's and early 80's...jingles, TV and my own stuff. The best thing was one of my best friends was the electronics tech and an engineer in training at a local studio here. He had keys to the place so we spent a ton of time after hours getting to know our way around the gear. I should say he got to know the gear...I mostly provided the raw material, but I did get to do some knob twiddling. It was a 16 track Neve board with all the bells and whistles. An album recorded in this facility won a Juno (Canuck version of a Grammy) for production, so the stuff definately worked. :)

Things have obviously changed since then. The technology around today amazes me.

What I want to do is put together a home hobbiest recording rig. I have the free version of Mackie's Traction that was available last year and the demo version of Fruityloops. Right now I'm still at the wrapping my mind around the technology phase. So I'm looking forward to advise and guidance from the members here as I get this thing going. From what I've read here so far, there is a lot of knowledge to be tapped into floating around here. Maybe I can help out with some old school techniques (we did some wild things back in the day and got some amazing tones on tape). This should be fun.
 
One intial question is what you want to record and where you want to record it? How many instruments and vocals? How many at one time?

Ed
 
To tell you the truth, the technology hasn't changed, there's just been some additions. Neve still rules as does the 2" 16 or 24 track. It all just ends up getting dumped into a computer for editing (less razor blades and more 1's and 0's). Still the question is, how many tracks at a time (not how many total) and budget. If it's just you all by yourself, a decent two input soundcard, a decent mic preamp and a mic, recording software and some monitors and headphones and you're off to the races. If you want to track an average sized band you'd need a interface with a minimum 8 inputs, as many mics and preamps (which could come from a mixer), a headphone distribution system, etc.
 
What do I want to do. Hmmm.

I've always had a pretty good knack for writing blues/riff/pop rock kinda stuff. So what I was thinking...as a start anyway...is a "one man band" kind of thing. Just for fun, mind you.

Like I said, I have Traction on my PC now and I'll likely buy a version of Fruityloops and run it inside Traction. I've been playing around with the demo version and I can get some pretty convincing, real sounding drums out of it.

I was thinking of picking up something like this
and this
plus a good all around mic and preamp. I have a pair of Tannoy Gold Monitors and a decent pre/power amp set up for them, so I should be set on that front. I need to get a dedicated room together.

Anything else I should consider?
 
That's a fairly simple configuration. As long as you can do 1 or 2 tracks at a time, with monitoring, you can record some pretty complete stuff.

I prefer the standalone DAW for recording and PC for mix, but others like PC for both. One plus of standalone is you can record where acoustics are best and mix at PC, which may be noisy.

Ed
 
Ed Dixon said:
That's a fairly simple configuration. As long as you can do 1 or 2 tracks at a time, with monitoring, you can record some pretty complete stuff.

I prefer the standalone DAW for recording and PC for mix, but others like PC for both. One plus of standalone is you can record where acoustics are best and mix at PC, which may be noisy.

Ed
Click to expand...

I apologize if this is a stupid question. (though I've heard there is no such thing as stupid questions, just questionable answers :) ) I'm assuming if all the recording is done in the digital domain, you could lay down some electronic "scratch" tracks using software & midi etc on the PC, transfer those to a stand alone DAW and take that and whatever you wanted to record...say guitar and amp...to a real good sounding room, record the guitar tracks there, then transfer it back to the PC for polishing and mixing? And syncronizing the tracks won't be a problem?

If this is a relatively easy process, I may need to re-think my approach.
 
BTO said:
I apologize if this is a stupid question. (though I've heard there is no such thing as stupid questions, just questionable answers :) ) I'm assuming if all the recording is done in the digital domain, you could lay down some electronic "scratch" tracks using software & midi etc on the PC, transfer those to a stand alone DAW and take that and whatever you wanted to record...say guitar and amp...to a real good sounding room, record the guitar tracks there, then transfer it back to the PC for polishing and mixing? And syncronizing the tracks won't be a problem?

If this is a relatively easy process, I may need to re-think my approach.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I do most of the time. I have a program called BandInTheBox that can do fairly good bass,drum,keys tracks. Set that up first and copy to DAW. Record your initial tracks using those as a guide. Then later remove those and replace with your own stuff. You can go back and forth to PC as much as desired, all data remaining digital in form (so nothing is lost).

It's quite easy to end up with 2-16 tracks of your own stuff to mix down to a final result that you burn to a CD. I use a Fostex MR8, but there are lots of good similar low cost DAW units made by others.

Ed
 
Ed Dixon said:
The group Bachman-Turner Overdrive was originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Any association?

Ed
Click to expand...

The BTO sig is a reference to a Garnet guitar amp I owned (up until recently). That being said, I used to know Fred Turner quite well...he was on the short list to produce an album for the band I was in at one point.

I did do some minor pre-production work with Burton Cummings from the Guess Who, nothing that made it to final tape, except some ideas and parts. But I did do quite a bit of work in commercial jingles and assorted sessions with members of his back up band. But that was a long time ago, during what I now call my time in the "enchanted forest". Some good memories, a lot of bad and I prefer to live in the present and near future...if you get my drift. :)
 
I almost replied to this

with a gushing comment on what I love about Canada, and then I realized how everything I was saying was insinuating a broad stereotype. It was the equivalent of telling a black guy how much I loved Motown and KFC. Like you give rat's ass.

So let me just say, welcome back, fellow 48'er.
 
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