I really need help starting to record

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cliffmantheband

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I am ready to start recording with my band, and we have obviously decided to go the home recording route. I will, at least at

the onset, be recording the instruments seperately. I have 5 microphones, 4 Behringer XM5000's and one MXL 990 condenser,

a Line 6 Toneport UX2, egg carton foam and a computer. Musically, I have 5 guitar amps, 2 electric guitars and one acoustic,

a bass with amp, drum kit, electric piano, harmonica and a theremin that goes into a guitar amp. I know I need a mixer,

minimum of 4 or 5 inputs to record the drums, but what else? If you could please tell me what I need to get, and maybe what

the best things are to get, that would help me out an incredible amount. I've been working at this for a while, so I am a bit

desperate. Sorry for the wall of text, but can you help me?
 
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Egg carton foam isn't actually egg cartons is it? :confused: That won't do anything except turn your room into a giant, ugly, fire hazard.
 
My obligatory standard reply that I keep in Wordpad:

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...ce&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info:
http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books:
http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html


Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)

Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)

Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/
(It's $40 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($20) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they're giving away SamplitudeV9SE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)
 
You have the computer. Do you have recording software? Do you have an audio interface to get the sound into the computer software? Do you have preamps to get the sound from the microphones into the interface? Do you have cables for microphone-to-preamp? Lots of things you didn't mention.
 
you don't need a mixer. You can get just an audio interface instead and mix in your DAW. O yeah... you need a DAW.

We're gonna need the specs on the computer too. CPU speed, ram, and sound card play a big role.

leave the egg cartons out of it. It's a fire hazard more than anything. Acoustic Treament. If your serious about recording, than acoustic treatment will be a big part of getting a quality recording.

your also going to need decent headphones for tracking and a couple of moniters for mixing, computer headphones or speakers won't get the job done.
 
You don't need a mixer? I think, really, it's an either-or situation when it comes to recording drums. You need... either a mixer, or an interface with many inputs. I'll explain. Most instruments are singular, and you can record them separately, one at a time, and then mix them all together to produce a whole song. So, with most instruments, you are really only using one, or two inputs at a time. You don't need a hardware mixer for that. And you don't need a lot of inputs on the interface for that. Drums, however, are several instruments, all playing at the same time. You have to record them all at the same time, with several microphones, then mix all the drum instruments together to form one combined drum track, which then gets mixed with all the other instruments. To record all of the drum instruments at the same time, you either need a mixer with several inputs, or you need an audio interface to the computer with several inputs. Both ways work. Both ways get you to the same result. One way is not any "better" than the other. The total cost is about the same, either way. It becomes a personal choice. Do you want to tweak sliders and knobs on a hardware mixer, or do you want to tweak software sliders and knobs on the computer. You choose.
 
For an interesting look at how to set up an acoustically sound listening room, and other important stuff, get this month's edition of Sound on Sound magazine. They say the same thing about the egg cartons.
 
thanks for all the help guys, and I think I will purchase one of those books to help. I did take down the egg cartons, but I still think I am going to tarp in the drums to try and dampen the sound a bit. I do have a recording software, Live Lite- Line6 Edition (came packaged with the toneport ux2) and it should work. I thought the Toneport would serve as the audio interface between the computer and the mics, but I could be wrong. I have standard microphone cables, XLR heads? Sorry, don't know the terminology. I can't find my CPU speed, but I have 1.0 GB of ram, and SB Audigy soundcard I think. Can you explain what a DAW is as well? Thanks.
 
Yes, the UX2 will serve as the audio interface. And, it will become your soundcard. I recommend that while you have the Toneport attached to the computer, that you disable the SB Audigy. Your software will think that the UX2 is a soundcard, and also the Audigy is a soundcard. It will confuse the computer, and the software, to have two soundcards enabled at the same time. So, disable the Audigy while you use the Toneport. When you disconnect the Toneport, re-enable the Audigy.
 
Thanks, I would not have known to do that. Could the computer reading it as 2 soundcards possibly be related to why I could not get a signal when I plugged the toneport in last? It was just a microphone into the toneport into the computer.
 
cliffmantheband said:
Thanks, I would not have known to do that. Could the computer reading it as 2 soundcards possibly be related to why I could not get a signal when I plugged the toneport in last? It was just a microphone into the toneport into the computer.
Click to expand...

could be many things... bad usb port, didnt tell your recording program to record from that device, etc.
 
I have a quick question, instead of buying a seperate power amp to power the mics, can I use a 1967 Crown DC-300 with an old IC-150 preamp. From there, I could send it out to speakers or a guitar cabinet? Would this work yes or no.
 
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