New To Home Recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter aprilsrain
  • Start date Start date
A

aprilsrain

New member
Hey there! I just set up my computer with reason/record/reaper about 4 weeks ago. I used to make some pretty bad demos on acid back when I was in high school, but now's the first time I'm working on serious home recordings.

I can't post urls because of the new person rule, but I'm on soundcloud.com/aprilsrain

are a couple of the tracks I've done. Did everything myself except the female vocals are by my wife. A big frustration I've had so far is bad guitar tones. No matter what I do, it always seems to come out muddy or too thin. Is this just my inexperience with the finer details of EQ? Or should I be able to get a good signal in to start with?

I'm running record or reaper for my live audio through a E-MU 404 USB device plugged into a grace pre amp. I've tried both plugging in a guitar directly into that and micing my amp with an SM-58.

Thanks!
 
Get yourself up to 5 post and you'll be able to post links.
Are you sure that you have the sweet spot when you mic up the amp?
 
Hey thanks for the quick response. No, I'm not sure. How big of a difference does a couple inches make? I feel like it sounds good through my headphones which are coming out of the E-Mu, just not on the computer when I play the file back.
 
Sometimes all the difference in the world.
What else do you have to mic up the amp?
 
YOU'VE GOT A C-12! Well then keep the 57 up on the amp and put that C-12 out in front of the amp 4 or5 feet (play around with that measurement) and combine the two tracks to taste you should come up with a good recording.
 
Also take a look at the forum just below this one thread titled - Best microphones to mic a guitar ....
In it you'll find a bunch of suggestions.
I would think you would want to purchase a Nady RSM4 ribbon microphone ($70.) for an amp I have great results from it!
 
Yeah. I recorded an album with a professional studio about 8 years back and found someone who had one who was selling for less than what I knew it was worth. Was more of a business decision at the time (and a great investment with how much the value has gone up), and now that I'm getting into recording myself, thank god I got it. It's beautiful. I had it rented to a producer actually recently so I haven't had it since i got my recent set up, just got it back last night and my new vocal recordings will ALL be through that.

My grace pre-amp is only single channel is the only problem with using two mics on something. so I've only got one input, don't know what I can do about that. But if I am only getting muddy, flat tones with my 58 up close to it, wouldn't adding a bit of room like that only make it worse as well?

JUST saw that post. For $70, I will definitely go get one of those RSM4s.
 
NOW you have 5 post link away ;)
Well it depends on what your capturing It might sound good with the room mic it's just hard to say until you do it.
Your also going to need a few more inputs to your recording DAW for just such an occasion.
 
Well I am earnestly looking for advice especially for the guitar sounds, and though I've done a fully produced album by someone else in the past, I'm taking the baby steps myself now. It's not like I didn't know what I had or why I was getting the mic while I got it. Like I said, was a really good business decision, and has the added benefit of giving me really nice vocal tracks.

Here's kinda where I'm starting from in terms of my own recordings from home with my own criticism of my mixes so you guys can at least kinda see where my starting point is.

Newyearshangover by aprilsrain on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Above was my first real attempt at tracking myself, just trying to see what sounds I could get and how best to go about doing it. I think my acoustic guitars came out pretty well, and the reason sounds obviously were nice and clear. Definitely can do more with the vox and the drum sounds were presets that I'll edit eventually. This is an example of my electrics being miced with my 58 through my amp.

The Thanks I Get by aprilsrain on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

And here after a couple weeks is where I ended up. I think I got stronger with the vox and doing better drum sounds. The electric guitars are clearer than before - run direct into my computer and then amp modeled with a line 6 plugin. They were still a little flat, so I took out the lows which made them a little shrill and thin, but I think clear is first step before getting other good sounds. The lead vocals I think are done better too than the first song.

I guess I'm looking for a "what's my next step to get better sound" sort of feedback.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top