Audacity n00b

[ian410]

I'm looking to record a very rough demo for my band. I have my kit set up in my room with 1 mic overhead, i've recorded myself messing about and it doesn't sound too bad. I'm probably going to record the drums, then bass, then guitar followed by the vocals. I have very very basic equipment -

• 1 Mic Stand
• 3 Basic Mics
• 1 Windows Vista Laptop - 1 Mic Input
• Audacity

Questions...
Any tips to make the best use of what I have?
Mic positioning for drums, guitar amps etc?
Any very cheap equitment you can suggest I invest in?
Audacity, are there any good tips to get the best sound etc?

Any help is much appreciated..

 

[Newbie dude]

well, for drum recording, it sucks that you only have one mic input. If I were you, I would go to radio shack or somewhere like that, and I believe they have adapters where you can plug multiple mic cords into it, and then plug it into a mic jack, that way you can plug more than on mic into a mic jack. True, all your drums will be on one track then, but its better than nothing.

Also, go to Taxi.com and find something called "Studio Buddy" and download it. Helps alot with micings and such

 

[TimOBrien]

My obligatory standard reply 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)

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs

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


Plenty of software around to record for free to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/
(It's $40 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($20) 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 studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (Last November, they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150 - pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)

 

[XLR]

I'd suggest that you don't use the microphone input of your computer (or a line level computer soundcard input either). Look up "interface" with the search function here and look up USB and firewire interfaces.

Also, read the Tweakheadz Guide.

 

[ian410]

Thanks for your help guys.

Quick question..

I downloaded a plugin pack from this website

audacity.sourceforge.net/download/plugins

It has installed fine, but I can't see any difference in Audacity.. where are the new effects etc.. ?

 

[XLR]

Re Audacity - I used it a bit to get familiar with it, as I teach audio production and am always looking for the best freeware/cheapware out there for people just getting started. I gave up on the practicality of Audacity as its plugin integration doesn't use the plugins' graphic interfaces, and so makes many plugs unuseable for practical purposes, especially for beginners. Kristal doesn't have that problem, Reaper, N-track, Multitrackstudio Lite either. Audacity is great if all you're going to do is record and normalize but for multitrack use where you're going to be processing and using effects it's a less desireable alternative IMO. You need real-time processing and functional graphic interfaces.