Before I even got Toneport, I honestly thought all that stuff I saw TV and movies was just "overdoing" it, but I didn't realize the necessity of it all was.
And now here I am today, realizing that if I want to do what Toneport promises, I have to go get the real things. Not so much a "pro studio" just some real equipment, rather than a simulation of it.
Ya. So your broke like I was. I don't have parents Ive been on my own since 16 and Ive been doing music since I was on my own. Im from the literal GHETTO in Chicago. At least you have a fucking mom. My dad died from a brain tumor at 5... My mom gave me up and I was adopted at 6 then I was adopted and left with my REAL grandmother somehow then left and was on my own since 16.
And everyone on earth has bills man... I said SAVE money. You can't find a job!? Try a different approach. I'm sorry if I came off as an asshole but the secret to life is being positive and not worrying and complaining about problems. Telling yourself you can't afford it is the reason you can't. If you stay focused and try to your best ability good things will come to you.
If I had EXTRA equipment I would GIVE it to you! If you knew you would continue on! Just because your so broke. I'm not that much of an asshole.
I did read your whole post I understand your situation. But if you love your music your going to do it! No matter what we think about your situation.... You wouldn't come on here and passively ask us if you should wait till after college to do music. You'd do it now.
Its sounds like Im being an asshole Im just trying to give you that HARD push to tell yourself if you love your music you CAN do it and you CAN do it NOW till LATER and AFTER THAT... Not MAYBE LATER and possibly after that.
Everyone on here is helpful! These are a wonderful group of guys that are happy to give advice. But the MAIN answers to your 5 paragraph post you can answer yourself bro. Don't ever give up. If everyone gave up when shit was hard we wouldn't have 95% of the music we have today... Cures for diseases... or information we live with everyday.
Sorry for being an ass that's not how I'm trying to come off.
If you want to sound like a real amp, there's no substitute for a real amp. Period. *BUT*, that does not in any way mean that you can't get great, quality and even appropriate sound through a device like a Toneport. You just gotta develop that ear that can tell the difference between "real" and "artificial" without automatically adding "good" or "bad" to your judgment based upon that property alone.Would you guys consider digital almost always inferior compared to doing things the manual way with a miking an amp? Toneport can be good and a lot of these posts offer a lot of options and before I go out buying a replacement for my Toneport, I'd just want to hear what you guys have to say.
I must admit that my friend and his Macbook + GarageBand + Guitar and me and my Toneport have really exceeded what is to be expected, but I decided to not spend any more money on recording and just drop it till I'm done with school and have a good paying job. I could be spending that money else where, rather than a dream that may require a collective amount of money. Besides, I plan to major in computer/electric engineering, might come on handy in some aspects.
Maybe if I wasn't into such heavily distorted music, quality would not be such an issue, but anyways, do you guys think I made the right move calling it quits for now? I don't mind putting this dream on pause. I'm just getting very tired of bringing the best out of what would be sub-par. Is home recording with a USB device just a dream in today's time?
Yep, all the way back to your childhood when you said you wanted to be a fireman when you grew up.
...Good thing you didn't want to be an astronaut. I can hear a frowning Mrs. SG now: "Honey, why is there a Gemini capsule on our front lawn???"
G.
That's not a Gemini capsule. I'm just happy to see you.
Edit: I uploaded some short samples in another post along with my definition of "studio", it'd probably help a lot to read that post too.
Hey, wow, I wish I knew this place existed two years ago. I'm a high school graduate who is into just about DIY everything, so after writing lots of music, it was only natural that I would want to lay down my own tracks and have them played back to me. My goal and dream was to basically make songs I wish existed; songs perfectly tailored to my own taste and also to bring my own taste to others ears.
I'm a very cheap person. I think I've invested less than $500 in music in my entire life. I still use my first guitar, which I think is very tight in sound, but it could use better pick-ups. There's seldom times where I actually go: Wow, this is garbage. Especially after all the tweaks my guitar buddy taught me. I have a $100 comboamp, $100 Toneport, $50 mic, etc.
Recently, I've been slowly getting more frustrated with recording, even though I'm getting better and better. I wanted a very heavy distorted sound, yet the clarity was just not coming through and the notes weren't distinguishable enough. My first recording was awful, buzzing bass, staticy guitars, now my recordings sound very tight, with many hours spent EQing and working on tone. But it never sounded "alive."
I was thinking of upgrading my guitar, but I read something on this forum, that kind of changed my approach on the whole home recording thing: A home recording is just that. A home recording. I was told I could get studio quality recording with a Toneport, yes, maybe a $100 studio recording (Great clean settings and such though). I think I may have set my expectations too high.
I must admit that my friend and his Macbook + GarageBand + Guitar and me and my Toneport have really exceeded what is to be expected, but I decided to not spend any more money on recording and just drop it till I'm done with school and have a good paying job. I could be spending that money else where, rather than a dream that may require a collective amount of money. Besides, I plan to major in computer/electric engineering, might come on handy in some aspects.
Maybe if I wasn't into such heavily distorted music, quality would not be such an issue, but anyways, do you guys think I made the right move calling it quits for now? I don't mind putting this dream on pause. I'm just getting very tired of bringing the best out of what would be sub-par. Is home recording with a USB device just a dream in today's time?
Thanks to anyone who takes the time out to read this.
It doesn't help that he won't listen to occasional advice from professionals who actually know what they're talking about, which is why real industry pros are never in discussions on internet fora, even when they retire or otherwise have time on their hands and want to help young artists. It's like beating your head against the wall, a perfect waste of time. I've known quite a few who have with the best will in the world tried -- and they last about a week before giving up. I know I did.
Edit: I uploaded some short samples in another post along with my definition of "studio", it'd probably help a lot to read that post too.
Hey, wow, I wish I knew this place existed two years ago. I'm a high school graduate who is into just about DIY everything, so after writing lots of music, it was only natural that I would want to lay down my own tracks and have them played back to me. My goal and dream was to basically make songs I wish existed; songs perfectly tailored to my own taste and also to bring my own taste to others ears.
I'm a very cheap person. I think I've invested less than $500 in music in my entire life. I still use my first guitar, which I think is very tight in sound, but it could use better pick-ups. There's seldom times where I actually go: Wow, this is garbage. Especially after all the tweaks my guitar buddy taught me. I have a $100 comboamp, $100 Toneport, $50 mic, etc.
Recently, I've been slowly getting more frustrated with recording, even though I'm getting better and better. I wanted a very heavy distorted sound, yet the clarity was just not coming through and the notes weren't distinguishable enough. My first recording was awful, buzzing bass, staticy guitars, now my recordings sound very tight, with many hours spent EQing and working on tone. But it never sounded "alive."
I was thinking of upgrading my guitar, but I read something on this forum, that kind of changed my approach on the whole home recording thing: A home recording is just that. A home recording. I was told I could get studio quality recording with a Toneport, yes, maybe a $100 studio recording (Great clean settings and such though). I think I may have set my expectations too high.
I must admit that my friend and his Macbook + GarageBand + Guitar and me and my Toneport have really exceeded what is to be expected, but I decided to not spend any more money on recording and just drop it till I'm done with school and have a good paying job. I could be spending that money else where, rather than a dream that may require a collective amount of money. Besides, I plan to major in computer/electric engineering, might come on handy in some aspects.
Maybe if I wasn't into such heavily distorted music, quality would not be such an issue, but anyways, do you guys think I made the right move calling it quits for now? I don't mind putting this dream on pause. I'm just getting very tired of bringing the best out of what would be sub-par. Is home recording with a USB device just a dream in today's time?
Thanks to anyone who takes the time out to read this.
The OP's original premise is 100% spot-on, but for the wrong reasons.
Home recording usually is a bust because of the natural prevalence of the Division of Labor.
The studios are where the pros work, and pros know how to record.
An amateur in a state of the art studio still sounds like a hopeless duffer. A true pro engineer in a home studio still sounds pretty good.
A friend of mine was a second-generation recording industry pro in Hollywood. He was an award-winning music producer for Sony and MGM for over twenty years. He had a little scratch studio in the corner of his bedroom at home for doing quick takes of ideas he got in the middle of the night. He was running a Telecaster through a J-Station to a little mixer and into his DAW. The straight tracks he produced in the corner of his bedroom on consumer hardware were good enough that after minimal clean-up in the corporate studio downtown they would often go into TV series and movies all over the world. Every one else was griping about how amp modelers were junk, blah, blah. His stuff sounded pro.
He knew what he was doing because recording and producing at the top of the entertainment industry were his life.
Objectively, some kid with a reasonably modern hand-me-down computer, a basic interface, bunch of hi-end, industry-standard audio warez and some condenser microphones is technically in a better position to record a hit than most pro studios were a decade or two ago. But...
Many years ago, I used to be a nationally influential guy in the music/broadcast industry in NYC and learned a lot about how it works. To make a charting hit for a new act requires a few hundred specialized professionals from studio acoustic engineers to market publicists doing one thing each -- and they've each prevailed over hundreds of other competitors who didn't do that one thing as well (or at least as convincingly) as they did. For the engineers, the technical learning curve for nearly any of this is near vertical. They've been doing one or two things in the process for ages.
The kid in his bedroom has to re-invent the wheel every day in a hundred ways to do a few dozen different jobs. He has to learn from trial and error and if he had about fifteen lifetimes to learn it all, he might be able to work to pro standards.
It doesn't help that he won't listen to occasional advice from professionals who actually know what they're talking about, which is why real industry pros are never in discussions on internet fora, even when they retire or otherwise have time on their hands and want to help young artists. It's like beating your head against the wall, a perfect waste of time. I've known quite a few who have with the best will in the world tried -- and they last about a week before giving up. I know I did.