New to digital recording!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seraphina Heart
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Seraphina Heart

New member
Hi,

Back in the day I used to mess about on an 8 track with some other musicians and got good results. I write, I sing, I compose a little. I want to get back to it but it's all software and very technical...but, not to be deterred I have bought the Scarlett Focusrite Studio package and downloaded Cubase LE 7.
My aim is to record vocals over backing tracks produced by someone else. I have been listening to the tracks, writing and recording my vocal into a dictaphone for a few weeks so these songs are ready to go.

Today I intend to start plugging in this new equipment into my Mac and messing about with cubase:) any tips or words of encouragement would be really appreciated! I know I can sing and write, no worries there, it's the technical side of things that I want to be able to do on my own. Once I have recorded the vocal I just have to send it back to the producer guy.
Cheers
 
The focusrite is a great choice. There are lots of people here who can give you lots of help with setting up Cubase to get great sound...I use Reason (and formerly Cakewalk) so I have no real experience there. I can tell you, that you will have a hard row to hoe putting your vocals over sound tracks. I write my own soundtracks, and what I use to sing at church rarely works well for a wav with vocals. Don't know why, but when I listen to the final with just my vocal over my soundtracks it isn't as good as if I remix after the vocal. The sound guy at our church is very good though, so maybe he's manually sidechaining the mix for me...
My first suggestion would be to optimize your mac for sound recording (again, I'm a pc guy, so I don't know the right answers). Then learn how to do the basics (eq, de essing (I do mine with sidechained comp),
Anyway, look forward to hearing your solutions, and I'm fairly confident you'll be doing great in no time. There are professional and intelligent recordists on this board from all over the world. Ask questions. Learn whose advice works best for you and weigh the answers with a grain of salt. Because in the end, if it sounds good, it IS!
 
Nice welcome BH!

Post up some samples when you get something down.

I am one of the Cubase guys around here. Hit me up if you hit any snags. You likely will. It happens. :)
 
^^^ Give a listen to the stuff at Striclerstudio.com (as is in his signature). He gets really great sounding music from Cubase! Ask, listen, learn. If you can add your knowledge, good on ya, mate!
 
Hi and welcome.

You say " Scarlett Focusrite Studio package" but which one? They range from just under £200 to well over £500!

Would be nice if you had the one with the reflection filter (or clone thereof?) because your biggest challenge IMHO is going to be in getting a good recording of your voice due to the general grottyness of most domestic rooms and you will I am sure need to investigate the usual measures such as duvets and other sound treatments.

It might also be that THAT mic might not suit YOUR voice. 'Appens.

I am also not a "mac" person but when it comes to installing any audio interface on any computer the word is Read The Book! Check before you connect anything that you have the correct drivers downloaded from Focusrite for your particular OS (if that is moot for macs?) and follow the install procedure to the letter.
IF anything seems not to make sense, ask here first. Do not just blunder on.


Dave.
 
Ok, thank you, was hoping it would be fairly straight forward, producer guy am gonna collab with is about 500 miles away so I thought having a go like this could be good. Thanks for advice, I can only learn and move forward!
 
Thanks, will give it me best shot, technology is not my thing but is gonna have to be to complete this project :)
 
Hi, thanks for this, my Scarlett was £199. Room, yes, have read up on acoustics so can fix that to suit, I know will be trial and error to begin with, just need to get set up and then experiment. Great to have found this site :)

2i2
 
Last edited:
Seraphina Heart said:
Thanks, will give it me best shot, technology is not my thing but is gonna have to be to complete this project :)
Click to expand...

THAT'S the Spirit!!! Embrace the technology and learn!
I confess I find little time for noobs who whine that they are just "Artists" and cannot cope with anything more technical than a corkscrew!

Dave.
 
jimmys69 said:
Nice welcome BH!

Post up some samples when you get something down.

I am one of the Cubase guys around here. Hit me up if you hit any snags. You likely will. It happens. :)
Click to expand...

Ok thank you, I am set up & ready to go, have down loaded, activated, registered, re registered, found me plug ins, lost my plug ins and re found them again. Hoping to get something down in next few days :) missing the old 8 track lol
 
[/QUOTE] You say " Scarlett Focusrite Studio package" but which one? They range from just under £200 to well over £500!

Would be nice if you had the one with the reflection filter (or clone thereof?) because your biggest challenge IMHO is going to be in getting a good recording of your voice due to the general grottyness of most domestic rooms and you will I am sure need to investigate the usual measures such as duvets and other sound treatments.

It might also be that THAT mic might not suit YOUR voice. 'Appens.

I am also not a "mac" person but when it comes to installing any audio interface on any computer the word is Read The Book! Check before you connect anything that you have the correct drivers downloaded from Focusrite for your particular OS (if that is moot for macs?) and follow the install procedure to the letter.
IF anything seems not to make sense, ask here first. Do not just blunder on.


Dave.[/QUOTE]

2i2 cheaper end but am just getting going. Also wasn't going to do Cubase but had planned for Logic being a Mac person, but hey, let's see what happens. Room should be ok, will experiment, thanks!
 
Seraphina Heart said:
Ok thank you, I am set up & ready to go, have down loaded, activated, registered, re registered, found me plug ins, lost my plug ins and re found them again. Hoping to get something down in next few days :) missing the old 8 track lol
Click to expand...

Looking forward to it.
 
Hi Seraphina,
What kind of 8 track did you have ?
 
ecc83 said:
because your biggest challenge IMHO is going to be in getting a good recording of your voice due to the general grottyness of most domestic rooms and you will I am sure need to investigate the usual measures such as duvets and other sound treatments.

It might also be that THAT mic might not suit YOUR voice. 'Appens.

I am also not a "mac" person but when it comes to installing any audio interface on any computer the word is Read The Book! Check before you connect anything that you have the correct drivers downloaded from Focusrite for your particular OS (if that is moot for macs?) and follow the install procedure to the letter.
IF anything seems not to make sense, ask here first. Do not just blunder on.


Dave.
Click to expand...


Thanks for this, room needs some adjustments but am using a preset Plate Reverb which seems to make a difference. Will try some blankets on walls as still a touch 'hall' with echo and I want a solid sound for this particular track.
Some practice recordings are going ok so far! No blundering necessary- perseverance and you tube demos! :listeningmusic:

Thanks tho
 
And will need to stick with this particular condenser mic for time being, maybe in time I can shop around,
Cheers
 
"Blunder" was perhaps an unfortunate choice of word!
What I meant was, don't suffer in silence if there is anything you are not sure of...Ask!

Dave.
 
jimmys69 said:
Nice welcome BH!


I am one of the Cubase guys around here. Hit me up if you hit any snags. You likely will. It happens. :)
Click to expand...

I hit a snag!! Probably a very minor one so have pm'd you. Thanks.
 
I have sorted minor snag. I now know what encodings are and can stick to Wav from now on. Sorry Jimmy69 and to everyone who will say that I should have googled it first.
Well, I should have googled it first and then checked the Cubase Forum here :thumbs up:
 
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