Okay, Damn it, I am Newbie and I have some questions.

M

Mastervolume11

New member
The last time I did home recording I did it on a Fostek Cassette 4 Track recorder. I did as good as I could what I had. But now I have a new PC and need to know is the best equipment to get to generate decent quality recordings. I'm not looking for pro sounding quality, I just don't want it to be hack and more importantly, I need the process to be as easy as possible,

Here are the specs of my Laptop.
HP Elitebook Pro 9470M
Intel 2.1Ghz - 2.6Ghz
Internal Ram 8GB
64 Bit Operatiing System
500GB Hard Drive

Right now, I own an M-Audio Mobile Pre-USB interface and various DAW Software. Cakewalk Guitar Tracks pro 4, Ableton live 8.0 (I think) and some other misc stuff. But I don't know what is best for me.

What I am looking for are answers to what I should get next with these goals in mind

  • Goals
  • Record at Home
  • What other equipment should I get or do I need
  • IS my current Interface sufficient for recording basic rock tunes?
  • Is my PC up to snuff for recording basic Rock tunes or do I need to upgrade?
  • If the Interface I have isn't sufficient, what should I get
  • If the Software isn't sufficient, what should I get
  • I also already have an SM57 Microphone.
  • What other equipment should I buy ie: Headphones, Monitors, controllers, etc
  • I just have a home stereo and some nice Bose Speakers but no pro Monitors.
  • Do I need special PC drivers, if so what?
  • What should I get for special headphones or monitors?
  • What about a control surface? I know nothing about them, what they do and/or why to get one. Would one even benefit me if I am only planning on recording Rock.

I'll leave it at that to start. I have many more questions and I really appreciate anyone that takes the time to answer to what are them, extremely basic in nature. But to me, they are the holy Grail of info.

Here are some examples of some crap I recorded with my 4 Track Cassette recorder. so you can at least know I am serious and you can use it to find mistakes. These are probably 20+ Years old, recorded on a 4 track with lots of bouncing in my bedroom in the late 80's. Then again, that's exactly what they sound like. SoundClick artist: Tuto Tunes - page with MP3 music downloads
But at least take a listen so you know what kind of sound I am going for. It's kind of a Steve Morse, Joe Satriani and Danny Gatton kind of mix. With a Little SRV.

Any help on equipment and software recommendations and or technique suggestions will be much approved.
 
I am very new to home recording too. Been an AV tech for 22 years and have done live sound for bands on and off for at least that long as well.
I will start with what I have done and take it for what it is.... I am no recording expert in any way and this is just stuff I have learned researching the topic and using some of my background. This site has also helped a lot.

1 . Monitors are nice to have. I purchased some Tannoy Reveals for about 600.00 for the pair Canadian with tax in. Designed to give u a flat sound.
2 . Headphones - I have 4 different kinds. My faves are the JBL's S700 synchros... Prices vary of course...from very inexpensive to super pricey. My JBLs were almost 300.00 I also own KRK's, AKG's and some pioneer DJ style headphones.
3 . I recently downloaded Reaper as my software. 60 dollars for the basic license. Allows full features and an easy program to start with.
4. Finally got my Audio interface. I went with the Tascam US-16X08. 350.00 Canadian Tax in.
5. Picked up an open air style rack for 30.00 and some better rack screws for another 6 dollars.
6. Still looking at Microphones to add to my set-up. Shure microphones seem to be the industry work horse!

kind of a gear junkie. I play guitar and that's mostly what will be recorded...maybe some friends bands. Here are a couple pictures of what I am doing. Keep in mind it's a work in progress...image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
 
The Mobile Pre USB is okay, but I'm pretty sure it's 16 bit only. You can do good work at 16 bit but one that recorded 24 bit would be more forgiving. Going with 24 bit pushes the digital noise floor way down so you can record lower and leave yourself more headroom. An analog signal at 0dBVU generally lands around -18dBFS (digital full scale). There are lots of interfaces discussed on the forum. If you want to record drums you'll probably need 8 inputs.

If you're really used to your speakers and room you can do okay, but proper monitors would probably be good. Room treatment can be a major improvement on your monitoring. You can't mix well if you can't hear well.

Decent closed headphones are essential for recording. I and many other have had good luck with Sennheiser HD280 Pros. There are others.

Do what you can with the 57 for a while, then get yourself a large diaphragm condenser, a small diaphragm condenser etc.

You may want to try Reaper, a very good recording program. Skip the control surface unless you really, really feel you need faders.
 
Wow! Quite a list for a noob Em!

Firstly the interface: Pretty basic I am afraid, you will soon get frustrated with it I bet. Does it have MIDI? (you mentioned a "surface" so you must be aware) does it even have phantom power?

You really need both these things, especially spook juice, 48volts because capacitor (aka condenser) mics are the mainstay of recording these days. Ok, the 57 will be fine for close up rock singing and micing cabs but for anything quieter or more subtle you will struggle for level*.
AIs at the £100 end are the Steinberg UR22 , bit more is the Focusrite 2i4 (NOT! the 2i2) . Roland have some good stuff. Closer to £200 my personal favourite is the NI KA6 which gives you an extra 2 line inputs (4 tracks) and 4 outputs. If you read more you will come across "latency". Needs to be low. The KA6 is the "best in class" for this by a good margin.

The Laptop: Looks fine, bit tricky to find exact speccs but it seems to be an i5? If so, more than enough grunt, I am typing on an i3 HP lappy and that runs 20 tracks of Cubase at about 50% CPU usage. I doubt however that it has a CD burner? If not and you have no other computer handy* I have used an external USB burner on a netbook with good results. CDs are very handy for playing work on other systems, hi-fi, cars, Boom Boxes, this gives you a good idea how your mixes "translate".
The laptop also seems to have USB 3.0? A usb 3.0 drive would be most handy in two ways.
1) dump music track off to it to keep the onboard drive as free as possible.
2) You might find the drive fast enough to run recording in and out of it in real time and be faster than the (likely) 5,400rpm drive in the HP? (I am no computer guru. Top Techs please advise) In any event, a USB 3.0 drive will be quick!

Software: Some of the above AIs come with Cubase lite. No better DAW to learn and super for MIDI work. If you find it tricky look at Reaper.

Microphones: Next best buy IMHO would be a pair, if you can, of Small Diaphragm Capacitors. Just about THE most versatile mic type, very useful for acoustic guitar for instance.

Ok, started the ball rolling, others will no doubt pop in.

*Might as well start you right! "Level" in a computer music program is measured from "0" down as dB Full Scale i.e dBFS. The noob is tempted (and many AI manuals tell you to!) to record at as high a level as possible without clipping as per tape. DON'T! Your signals need to be at -18dBFS on average and loud peaks no higher than about -10 or -8dBFS.
Also, record at 24bits and 44.1kHz.

Dave.
 
Forgot..*only one computer.
Not good if so, even an XP clunker from a charity shop will let you go on line to ask for help if the laptop goes Ts U!

Dave.
 
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