Basic studio for home recording

[goldstarsteve]

Hi again,

I am a newbie but I have gone and read up the forums and stuff. I am a sw engineer and also make music with friends at home just for fun. There are 3 of us that play together; upright piano, sax, vocals, sometimes we have guests with guitars or drums but not often.

I want to record so;

• We can learn from mistakes
• Learn a bit about recording
• For personal use only - does not need to be CD quality

Here is what I already have;

• Netbook with Win7/USB2 for recording sessions
• PC in another room for mixing afterwards (Vista)
• Harbeth speakers in my hifi (exellent for monitors)
• NAD AMP in my Hifi (for playback)
• AKG headphones

Here is what I am thinking of buying;

• Behringer UCA 202
• Behringer Xenynx 802
• Behringer XM8500 Dynamic Microphone
• Behringer C1 Condenser Microphone
• Cables, Mike stand for table, some beers for inspiration

The Xenys is there not so much for the mixer as for the 8 inputs & 2 preamps for the mics. The UCA is to replace the netbooks soundcard. I reckon with 3-5 people I will get by with 2 mics but am a bit worried if I will need to add more in the future.

Leaving asside the beer I am interested in hearing on if you like this set up and any improvements remaining in the same budget

Thanks for reading this far,

Steve

 

[TimOBrien]

My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies that I keep in Wordpad so this is just a paste (I don't want to re-type this all the time):

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/04...mp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470385421
(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!!)

And you can get a FREE subscription to TapeOp magazine at www.tapeop.com

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/
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html

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) and NOT quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Here's a good guide and user-tested suggestions that work: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm
(you'll want to bookmark and read through all of Tweak's Guide while you're there...)
Another good article: Choosing an audio interface - http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/audiointerfaces.htm


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

Sony ACID Express (free 10-track sequencer): http://www.acidplanet.com/downloads/xpress/
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 and July 2009 issue they put out Samplitude10SE. FREE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)

 

[mjbphotos]

If you do some reading around these forums you will find that Behringer is generally not well thought of.

 

[TetraFish]

Wow, I looked up thhe mixer and interface and I think the total is $135.00. Add the mics and it's only $255.00. That's not much of a budget for digital recording. I didn't even realize it could be done that cheap.

No chance you can bump that up a bit (like $300-$500)

 

[Armistice]

Wow, I looked up thhe mixer and interface and I think the total is $135.00. Add the mics and it's only $255.00. That's not much of a budget for digital recording. I didn't even realize it could be done that cheap.

No chance you can bump that up a bit (like $300-$500)

^^^^
+1 - buy semi decent gear to start with - people spend hundreds and thousands on other gear - guitars, saxes, whatever - and then try to record them for $3.95 - I don't get it.

Read around here and you'll find out what's regarded as good and what's not.

 

[moresound]

^^^^
+1 - buy semi decent gear to start with - people spend hundreds and thousands on other gear - guitars, saxes, whatever - and then try to record them for $3.95 - I don't get it.

Read around here and you'll find out what's regarded as good and what's not.

I can do it for $4.37

 

[witzendoz]

Wow, I looked up thhe mixer and interface and I think the total is $135.00. Add the mics and it's only $255.00. That's not much of a budget for digital recording. I didn't even realize it could be done that cheap.

Maybe not $255 in Israel, not everyone has US prices.

Don't worry about the anti Behringer brigade, if it's what you can afford and it gets you started that's fine.

Cheers

Alan.

 

[goldstarsteve]

Hi,

Thats a perceptive observation witzendoz - the cost for this system in Israel is about $300 without the stands or the beers. Thx for the encouragement.

As for the rest of the comments....

Yes, I have read around as I said in my original post and that's why I understand I need a sound card and mike pre amps.

As for Behringer stuff - it fits the budget. Do you have any better stuff in same budget?

As for the budget being low - this is an experiment to record a bunch of friends at home and learn a bit about recording - it may be that I will be giving this stuff away a year or two down the road either to get better or to move on to other things.

Steve

 

[TetraFish]

Hey, that's cool. I think what you selected is probably the best you'll be able to do for that budget.

 

[goldstarsteve]

Zoom went the strings of my mind

In another thread MoreSound pointed me to the Samson Zoom H1 but that is not yet available here in Israel so I discounted it. It now turns out that we do have Samson H mikes here (not the H1 yet) and i missed it because only one chain sells them.

What do you know - for the above budget ($300) I can get a Zoom H2 (yes we get ripped off here) so I am going for it!

 

[rayc]

Some Behri stuff is OK and a fair bit is less than that. I have some of both types.
Look, what you've listed will get you going. What program are you going to record with? Audacity or Reaper (I assume you'll go for low cost at present - the former is free and so so the latter is free, has a good price when you decide to pay the piper AND is powerful)
You may kick yourself in a year for buying pretty much entry level stuff but if you're entry level & don't have much cash go for it knowing that sooner rather than later you'll want to do better with better bits.
Hey, I started off my digital recording phase with my super nasty cheap inbuilt sound card & a Tandy/Realistic dynamic mic. I slowly spent more & bought better but even so haven't spent more than AUS$200 on a single piece of recording gear other than the computer. (I buy used, NOS & 2nd hand a LOT).
Have at it!

 

[moresound]

That is always my first resort .... purchased used when ever you can.

 

[M-520]

I have a Zoom H2 and I can't recommend it enough. very versatile and can pull a decent drum sound on it's own.