Advice on Computer Recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter I.E. Veritas
  • Start date Start date
I

I.E. Veritas

New member
Here is what I have (for those of you who know what it means!):

Pent 4 3.2 GHz
3.2 GHz, 1.00GB RAM
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Phys Mem: 1024 MB
Mem Speed 533 MHz (1.88ns)
Mem Type: DDR2, Synchronous

I don't know what much of that means, but I just had the computer built so that I can record my music. The Intel Board has a built in sound card and I have a MIDI interface on the back of the CPU with two ports and various cables and connections coming from those ports. For software I am using Ableton G Live, Cubasis, and Wavelab, and I don't know which one I will settle with. (I am learning the most about G Live though...) I have a TASCAN US-122 preamp. I am using a cardioid low impedance microphone and I have an acoustic/electric guitar. I want to record guitar and lead and vocals, and maybe add in some other insturments and effects. I have put up foam on my walls around me ( I am using the corner of my loft apartment. There is only one space, that is, the kitchen, the living area, the bedroom are all in the same space. My cielings are approx. 15' and I have hardwood floors. I have rugs down that cover much of the floors. I don't know how to use most of the things listed above to thier full potential. I hardly have a grasp on the basics. I have spent roughly 20 hours going through tutorials and manuals ,and i have made little progress. I've been playing guitar and sining for about 12 years, so I am not new to music, only recording. I don't know the recording speak, so if you could, explain what you can as if I was 5 years old. I really dig this site, and I'm grateful for any help anyone can provide.
God Bless,
Dallas
 
The Question Is...

How do I use this stuff? How do I fix the overall latency? Can someone please explain some basics to me that I can use to successfully record music? Can anyone share any insights you have discovered along the way?
That is the question. But thank you for your reply, I didn't realize until re-reading my initial post that I was not specific enough.
D
 
Firstly, your computer should handle the job with ease. However, I note you mention an on-board card, and if you are having problems recording, this may well be the cause. On-board cards are generally not designed for audio studio work, and may not live up to expectations. To get you started, there are many available, but I know the Juli@ card works well and is not too expensive. You mentioned latency, and this may well stem from the on-board card.

There is a whole heap of literature in this forum and elsewhere about recording techniques, so maybe you need to do a bit of searching, or someone may provide a helpful link.

You also need advice on the acoustic treatment of your room. However, chances are that your room will be ok; it seems to be fairly spacey with lots of different surfaces and textures (reflecting and absorbing).

You face a number of challenges. Firstly, to ensure that the signal path from mike to PC is intact. This means recording something, anything, and have it get into your machine in one piece. For example, you should be able to plug in a CD player and recorded a pre-recorded piece of music. If you do this successfully, then that is achievement number 1. If you can play it back and it sounds like the original, that's achievement number 2.

The next step is to make sure you can play along and record something that you have already recorded. This means something like setting up a mike, recording some guitar. Then you prepare another track, play back what you've recorded and record another instrument along to it. If you do this successfully, that is major achievement number 3. If you end up with tracks out of synch, you may have a latency problem, and this will be a big hurdle until you overcome it. If you end up with what you recorded on your first track appearing on the second, then you have a signal routing problem to deal with, but this can usually be overcome with a bit of thought.

Once you know that the recording process is working, you can start on the quality, specifically as it is affected by the room and mike placement. Again there is a whole mess of literature on this so it is worthwhile doing some searching. The hard part is knowing what you are hearing and being able to atrtibute causes to why it sounds the way it does. If you get a recorded sound that does what you expected, that is major achievement number 4.

There are a whole heap of other major achievements relating to midi, mixing and other parts of the process, but try for the four above first
 
I highly endorse The Guide at http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm

Yeah, its more reading, but it will give you the introduciton you're looking for to quite a few topics, and you can skip around from topic to topic if you like.

You'll come out with a far better idea of what questions to ask ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top