Any advice on next step

D

DeshevldMusic

New member
Ok so,

Ive been in a band off and on for the better part of 10 years and in all that time I've pretty much made recording myself a hobby.. Started on Cakewalk guitar tracks years ago and I was hooked.

So even though Ive dabbled with it, I only ever recorded myself and used what was readily available. Over the years Ive gathered some stuff and now I think I have a pretty good base to start with but wonder what else I need and where to move on to next.

Heres what I have.

Guitars
schecter c1 exotic star
Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty
Peavey Bass Guitar
Alvarez Cutaway Acoustic Elec

AMPS
Peavey Bandit112
Crate Halfstack
A little crappy 30 watt crate I've had since the dawn of time

Mics...
I have a bunch of NADYs
I think I have a few Peavey's
And my baby a Shure Beta 28
obviously lacking studio mics

DAW
Using REAPER I love it
I have 2 M Audio Monitors Brand new
I have a back up Hard drive
and I have a LINE6 TONEPORT that i use as my interface.

I also have a FOSTEX MR8CD and a little behringer Mixer
A PHONIC 760 PA System. Loud bastard
and an Old Peavey Passport PA systtem
all of which I will probably sell/trade towards new equipment...

That's it.

I've always been intrigued by rack effects but they are completely foreign to me.

Basically I want to remain as a recording Hobbyist, primarily just recording myself but want to know what I should get next...
I'm refininishing my basement this year and will create my first ever designated studio space. (very excited)


So any help or advice would be helpful... not looking to record other bands or anything at this time... maybe one day
 
I seem to do ok with what Ihave...but I want to get some new stuff and maybe dabble with midi controllers...learn how to incorporate rack effects and overall make great sounding commercial quality stuff. Learn to master
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Raise your monitors to ear level.
Click to expand...

And put them on cement.

I use cement caps - they're approx 2" x 8" x 16" and they're made to put on the top of a cinder block wall. It stops the speaker cabs from transferring energy to whatever they're resting on. I use one layer of paper towel under the speakers so it won't scratch them.
 
Id sell the amps and get a good low watt tube studio amp...sell the mics and get just a couple of good ones.

The toneport is a cool thing because you can get preamp sounds others have spent thousands trying to aquire here.
 
That looks like a UX2. That's a nice interface with decent pres, you can do a lot with that thing. I think you're set there for now.


Upgrade the monitors and treat the room next before messing with any more gear. You need to be able to hear what's going on before you can tell where your gear is lacking. Looking at your gear list you'll probably need to upgrade you mics and possibly your guitar amps. You can get decent results with guitars direct through your line 6 though. Might be good to start there until you start to feel limited.
 
DeshevldMusic said:
This is my set up...haha pretty sad
Click to expand...

That doesn't look so bad, I've seen sadder... Everyone that already answered is spot on - I'd follow ALL that advice. Treatment is less sexy than new gear with faders and led's and knobs, but it's prolly the best improvement for the dollar u can get for now. The amp can be dirt cheap - I got a little 5w epi valve jr on craigslist for $50, it's my fav. amp in the studio by a longshot.

After that, work with what you have, figure out what your limitations are, and when you hit one, THEN upgrade something. Rack fx? DAW's have a ton of free plugins you can add, and free plugins are way better than cheap fx, in fact you have to start getting into some really nice higher end stuff before it's better than plugins. I dont use ANY rack fx in the studio.
 
The advice here already is great. I'd question your motives with rack effects. What do you need them for? What's wrong with your current plugins? Would you be better off investing in high end plugins instead? (My thoughts are - probably.)
And you say rack effects are completely foreign to you - I'm guessing guitar effects pedals aren't? You can think of them as the same thing, really, just dealing with different level signals. Send a track out of your PC, through the rack, back into your PC and re-record the effected signal.
 
I don't know there is just some thing about rack gear that you just don't get from a plug in trying to emulate it. IMHO...YMMV ;)



:cool:
 
moresound said:
I don't know there is just some thing about rack gear that you just don't get from a plug in trying to emulate it. IMHO...YMMV ;)



:cool:
Click to expand...

Yeah, what's missing is the impressed chicks ready to get it on in the control room with all the flashy rack gear all lit up, drooling over what a masterful producer you must be, knowing how to operate all those knobs and read all those complicated meters, :D A list of 368 files in c:\Program Files\Cubase\plugins doesn't have the same affect for some reason :laughings:
 
suprstar said:
Yeah, what's missing is the impressed chicks ready to get it on in the control room with all the flashy rack gear all lit up, drooling over what a masterful producer you must be, knowing how to operate all those knobs and read all those complicated meters, :D A list of 368 files in c:\Program Files\Cubase\plugins doesn't have the same affect for some reason :laughings:
Click to expand...

What turns on the chicks impresses the clients too...
 
suprstar said:
Yeah, what's missing is the impressed chicks ready to get it on in the control room with all the flashy rack gear all lit up, drooling over what a masterful producer you must be, knowing how to operate all those knobs and read all those complicated meters, :D A list of 368 files in c:\Program Files\Cubase\plugins doesn't have the same affect for some reason :laughings:
Click to expand...
You never heard of 'puter groupies ? :eek:
 
Holy crap

Wow I wish I had joined sooner. The response here is unbelievable.

Ok so thank you all.
As far as bringing the monitors to ear level- I'm going to be getting a desk soon hopefully but if I brought concrete caps into my condo and threw em on my fiance's childhood desk, I could kiss all of my equipment goodbye. ha

Working on finishing my basement and all of these great tips will be incorporated. Yes I have been quite impressed by my ux2 and the quality of the preamp effects and I have been using Ozone 4 for my mastering and those plugins are pretty kickass... I think maybe I have been suckered in to believing that more is better, and the impressive look of a stack of rack effects would be nice... I think i was reading into the rack effects more than i needed to..

Send a track out of your PC, through the rack, back into your PC and re-record the effected signal
Click to expand...
wow that made it black and white. ha

as far as getting the desk out of the corner... will do
and consider the gear sold. im going to look for a good tube amp.
thanks!
andy:)
 
DeshevldMusic said:
Wow I wish I had joined sooner. The response here is unbelievable.

Ok so thank you all.
As far as bringing the monitors to ear level- I'm going to be getting a desk soon hopefully but if I brought concrete caps into my condo and threw em on my fiance's childhood desk, I could kiss all of my equipment goodbye. ha

Working on finishing my basement and all of these great tips will be incorporated. Yes I have been quite impressed by my ux2 and the quality of the preamp effects and I have been using Ozone 4 for my mastering and those plugins are pretty kickass... I think maybe I have been suckered in to believing that more is better, and the impressive look of a stack of rack effects would be nice... I think i was reading into the rack effects more than i needed to..

wow that made it black and white. ha

as far as getting the desk out of the corner... will do
and consider the gear sold. im going to look for a good tube amp.
thanks!
andy:)
Click to expand...

Great but remember 5w is all you really need.



:cool:
 
why would a little 5w be big enough?
i thought you hit that tonal sweet spot the louder the amp is. i used to blast my half stack to get a real crunchy tone
 
The sweet spot is when u get the power tubes juiced up, saturated, whatever the amp wattage is is irrelevant. So... The question is, do you want 5w cranked, or 100w cranked? Think of your ears before you answer. You'll get the same tone either way, one's just a lot louder. And the fact that louder usually means crankier neighbors.. Besides, trust me, 5w is a LOT louder than u think..
 
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