Advice Needed Please - Home Recording Start Up

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lga5824

lga5824

It's Just My Opinion
Hi - I am sure this question has been asked and answered a million times on this site so forgive me. I am looking to start up with home recording. I am an experienced performer, but have almost no experience behind the scenes. I want to record for demo and personal purposes only. Not looking for the best of the best in sound. I currently have an old tascan 4 track (tape), an Alesis QS7 keyboard, a Fender 4 channel PA head with speakers, and several microphones (Shure, EV). I am investing in a new computer. What I need advise on is what else I'm going to need to complete the set up in regards to equipment and software. I heard you can do all your mixing online if you have the proper software, is that true? Any advice would be very helpful. I am on a budget, so low cost/high quality is what I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
Help Getting Started

A good software pick for a home studio on a budget is ntrack studio (in my humble opinion only.) Since you are a beginner, this is a relatively simple recording software with easy to understand tutorials. Your best friend when recording to a computer is a good sound card. Whatever you do, ensure you have at least two identical sound cards on your motherboard; one for output processing and one for input processing. If you use mis-matched sound cards, you will have problems with audio sync because of digital latency (electronic signal delay) problems. Also, ensure your sound cards are capable of 16 bit audio processing. Don't mess around with the advanced sound card settings by changing the kHz settings; leave these set to 44000. Another common mistake is to alter the audio buffer settings, this is a big no-no if you don't know exactly what you are doing. Your sound card and ntrack studio will set the buffers to a default setting which you should leave alone. The meters will not be in sync with your input or output signals because of the buffer settings, but this is ok. Use the input meters in ntrack studio to set the input trim to the sound card, and that's all.

Use your PA head and speakers to monitor your sound card output and make sure your speakers are at ear height. Set the EQ on the PA head flat so you are not adding artificial frequency boost to your recorded output. With this software, you won't need to use your tascam multi-track recorder unless you want to use it to master your recording project.

Remember to record all tracks dry with flat EQ and no effects. Use ntrack studio to add effects and compression during final mixdown.

One thing to look out for when recording at home are ambient noise sources. If you are using a CRT style monitor on your computer, you need to shield it so that its hum is not picked up by the CPU. Fans, air conditioners, heaters, power amps, instrument amps, etc. will induce low level hum into your tracks that you need to eliminate.

When recording vocal tracks, you'll need a good set of headphones and a headphone amp to use as a monitor of the main program.

Lastly...experiment, experiment, experiment...and have fun.

If you have some specific questions for me as you jump into home recording, feel free to ask away and post them in this forum.

ntrack studio can be found at ntrack.com.

Mike Gilbert
Audio Engineer
 
I think REAPER would be a far better choice than ntrack. ntrack is traditionally plagued with bugs of all sorts. I am probably a bit out of the loop on it, but for the same money, even if ntracks is working flawlessly, REAPER is a much better value! The included plugins are excellent, and new cool features are added all the time! Heck, you get a free AutoTune type of plugin in with it!

You can "try" Reaper for free, and really, aside from a nag screen, you never have to pay for it. I think after you learn it, you will feel inclined to pay the paultry $40 for it. ;)

Good luck.
 
Spend some time and money on sound treatment for the room/s you are recording and mixing in.
 
Thanks for both of your responses. I ended up ordering a Mac computer and I'll just go ahead and work with Garageband for now.

You had said I need a good amp for my vocal recording. I haven't gotten the items yet, but the mac computer and the Presonus firebox are on their way. Here's another dumb question.....when I get them, don't I just plug the mic cord into the firebox? Do I need something besides that to hear my voice in the headphones? Same questions would go with my Alesis QS7 keyboard. Can I use my PA for anything besides playback from the tracks on the computer? I'm a moron, I know.

Just not sure what else I will need to complete the set up.

Thanks for your help!
 
There is a good possibility that you can use your PA as a mic preamp. Just conect the line (main out) from the PA to a line in on your interface, use shielded cables for this to reduce hum and noise issues. Do NOT use the speaker outs or you may damage your interface or computer. Depending on if your PA has stereo outs (or a single mono out) you can pre mix with the PA (up to 4 mics onto a single mono (or stereo) track.) If you use the PA as a peramp/mixer keep the speakers conected to avoid damage to the amp. You can even use a mono PA as a stereo mixer by using the main out for one side and the monitor out for the other side. Getting the propper balance is a little tricky but it can be done. I used to use a similar set up before I got a dedicated mixer board. If you come up with an idea, post it, surely someone around here has tried it and can let you know how well it works and if there are any risks (to gear) before you try it. Experimenting and trying different (and sometimes unusual) ways of getting good sounding results is part of the fun of home recording.
 
My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies 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)
You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Gui...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1
(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!)

Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!!

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics and have good tips:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs
http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/

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

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) not quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Here's a good guide and suggestions: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm


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/smm

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)
I use Reaper and highly reccomend it...

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($25) 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 FREE 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 gave away SamplitudeV9SE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)
 
Thank for the info!

I am new to sound recording and it can be really confusing at first. I will start right now with the books, and learn my way slowly!
 
A good software pick for a home studio on a budget is ntrack studio (in my humble opinion only.) Since you are a beginner, this is a relatively simple recording software with easy to understand tutorials. Your best friend when recording to a computer is a good sound card. Whatever you do, ensure you have at least two identical sound cards on your motherboard; one for output processing and one for input processing. If you use mis-matched sound cards, you will have problems with audio sync because of digital latency (electronic signal delay) problems. Also, ensure your sound cards are capable of 16 bit audio processing. Don't mess around with the advanced sound card settings by changing the kHz settings; leave these set to 44000. Another common mistake is to alter the audio buffer settings, this is a big no-no if you don't know exactly what you are doing. Your sound card and ntrack studio will set the buffers to a default setting which you should leave alone. The meters will not be in sync with your input or output signals because of the buffer settings, but this is ok. Use the input meters in ntrack studio to set the input trim to the sound card, and that's all.

Use your PA head and speakers to monitor your sound card output and make sure your speakers are at ear height. Set the EQ on the PA head flat so you are not adding artificial frequency boost to your recorded output. With this software, you won't need to use your tascam multi-track recorder unless you want to use it to master your recording project.

Remember to record all tracks dry with flat EQ and no effects. Use ntrack studio to add effects and compression during final mixdown.

One thing to look out for when recording at home are ambient noise sources. If you are using a CRT style monitor on your computer, you need to shield it so that its hum is not picked up by the CPU. Fans, air conditioners, heaters, power amps, instrument amps, etc. will induce low level hum into your tracks that you need to eliminate.

When recording vocal tracks, you'll need a good set of headphones and a headphone amp to use as a monitor of the main program.

Lastly...experiment, experiment, experiment...and have fun.

If you have some specific questions for me as you jump into home recording, feel free to ask away and post them in this forum.

ntrack studio can be found at ntrack.com.

Mike Gilbert
Audio Engineer
you do not need 2 different sound cards. Also Im not at all a protools fan, I prefer sonar but...get an mbox, used even for like 200 bucks,forget the soundcard,mbox will be your soundcard.It also has 2 micpre's and it is what every studio uses for the most part so if you do ever want to grow, you have learned the most used program out there,cant hurt you. It would to me be the most wise and cost effective
 
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