How do i get the best sounding record out of my vs880

H

HotCommodity

New member
I am in a band which consists of drums, 2 guitars, bass, and vocals. We would like to take a month and record a nice album to sell to our fans. We have previously recorded a cd of 11 songs and it turned out nice, but not what we wanted. We play songs from hard rock to blues-funk jams.... Here's what we have.................vs880, computer(compaq presario)with cool edit pro, 4 sm57's, sm58, adk tube mic, tons of mic cables, an EV 6 channel mixer, .....if any one has any suggestions that would help us make a really good sounding cd, i woiuld apreciate it.
Oh, and also, how do i get indivual drum tracks onto the computer? so that i can EQ them.

thanks, mike
 
Judging from your questions dont expect a real quality recording in a month. Read up on the different parts of the forum here and you should get a lot of good advice and techniques.

If you want to dump the drums from your VS to the comp you need a multi channel sound card or a way to sync the VS to the comp so you can transfer them one at a time.

My advice for good home recordings is to keep your signals hot and dont forget to turn off the AC and unplug the fridge while tracking quiet stuff.
 
High !

Why do you wanna EQ your drum tracks on the computer? Doesn't your VS have an FX board? IMO it's a lot of work to transfer the tracks two by two , then work on the PC... If you transfer, be careful, as the sync seems not to be so good that you can transfer two tracks that hold similar sound info in two passes. If you take the the two OH tracks, just might have to correct the phasing problem otherwise...

I started with similar dreams some time ago. The first recordings were something for our FANS, but only for them... At least try one thing: DO NOT RECORD MORE THAN ONE SONG A DAY! You should have the time, and inevitably you'll do some mistakes that might be hard to fix in the mix but easy while recording. Or you simply see some mixes with other eyes a little later, and do them in another way. Don't get discouraged...

Ciao,

Axel
 
Get a decent preamp. The pres on the VS880 suck. I couldn't get an acceptable signal without a ton of hiss. A hot signal from a pre allows you to turn down the inputs on the VS. The sound quality improved a bunch. Don't fool yourself, a VS880 is good for a lot of things, but not as a D/I.

Forget recording more than a few songs on the VS880, the hard drives are pitifully small, mine was 540 meg. Get a separate HD for audio only. Memory is cheap, regret is not.

Then get the best possible sound card, that your budget will allow, with a digital input. Check out the Delta series from Midiman. I use the SPDIF out on the VS to my comp to keep the signal as clean as possible. From there, it's all you and cool edit...
 
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