Can someone lend a n00b a hand?

[Matti Frost]

Greetings. My name is Matti Frost and I am a n00b. A hopeless, clueless newbie to the world of home recording.

OK, that's a little too debasing, but really, I am a hack, and I want to learn how to create my recordings in a more efficient and productive manner.

So, here is basically what I've been doing for the last year.

A friend and I have been recording my one-man metal band with various techniques, but in all of them we've used programmed drums. I'm pretty fair at creating good beats with Drumkit From Hell. Then, we simply layer real instruments over the drums. We started with Garage Band and now we're using Digital Performer.

To hear what we've done so far, you can check out (and download if you like what you hear) the Frost Giant demo album. Note- all of these songs will be re-recorded with live drums in the near future, but everything on there is DFH.

I have my issues with DFH, which I will take to the appropriate forum... but I just want to say hey, and don't beat me up too badly.

 

[Chili]

Can someone lend a n00b a hand?

Welcome to the site... what exactly are you looking for help with??

 

[guitaristic]

Greetings. My name is Matti Frost and I am a n00b. A hopeless, clueless newbie to the world of home recording.

OK, that's a little too debasing, but really, I am a hack, and I want to learn how to create my recordings in a more efficient and productive manner.

So, here is basically what I've been doing for the last year.

A friend and I have been recording my one-man metal band with various techniques, but in all of them we've used programmed drums. I'm pretty fair at creating good beats with Drumkit From Hell. Then, we simply layer real instruments over the drums. We started with Garage Band and now we're using Digital Performer.

To hear what we've done so far, you can check out (and download if you like what you hear) the Frost Giant demo album. Note- all of these songs will be re-recorded with live drums in the near future, but everything on there is DFH.

I have my issues with DFH, which I will take to the appropriate forum... but I just want to say hey, and don't beat me up too badly.

Welcome! Just give anything around here that looks interesting to you a good read! Your stuff sounds good. Hope you stick around!

 

[Matti Frost]

Welcome to the site... what exactly are you looking for help with??

I asked this question here, I am having trouble with changing the tempo in a project I am working on (using Ezdrummer/DFH for Cubase Studio 4). I can't seem to get the tempo track to put the time change in. If I change the tempo it stays the same for the whole song. It has to be something simple I am missing.

 

[Matti Frost]

Welcome! Just give anything around here that looks interesting to you a good read! Your stuff sounds good. Hope you stick around!

Thanks, there's a lot of good info I've found already, and I plan on absorbing much more.

 

[Matti Frost]

I am such a tool... I couldn't get the tempo track to work because I wasn't using the PENCIL to move the line!! GAAAAAAAAAH! What an idiot I am! Feel free to point at me and yell "BOOOOOO!".

 

[moresound]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Matti and welcome to the ZOO!

 

[Matti Frost]

Oooh, spankings. Me gusta.

 

[kentheriot]

Welcome Matti!

I do some of the same things you describe...layering real instruments and vocals on top of a computer drum kit. But all my gear is different from yours. I use Jamstix for my drum programming (awesome!). Then I use a Line 6 Guitar Port for the electric guitars and bass. For vocals, I use an EMU mic pre-amp/computer interface. For tracking and mixing I use Reaper (also awesome). And for editing/mastering I use Adobe Audition.

When you say you're a noob, it might help to break that down to specific questions. Though I have to say that you don't sound like that much of a noob.

Cheers!

Jake Weston

 

[Matti Frost]

Welcome Matti!

I do some of the same things you describe...layering real instruments and vocals on top of a computer drum kit. But all my gear is different from yours. I use Jamstix for my drum programming (awesome!). Then I use a Line 6 Guitar Port for the electric guitars and bass. For vocals, I use an EMU mic pre-amp/computer interface. For tracking and mixing I use Reaper (also awesome). And for editing/mastering I use Adobe Audition.

When you say you're a noob, it might help to break that down to specific questions. Though I have to say that you don't sound like that much of a noob.

Cheers!

Jake Weston

Cheers Jake.

Maybe n00b is the wrong term. I've been writing and recording music for a long time. However, I am rather new at wanting to be on the other side of the console, and I've been using my own music as experimentation in that effort. My partner-in-crime is the one who got the DFH setup with Cubase, but he's not a drummer, so he asked me to help him write drum tracks for his project. Then I kind of took it over on him and started using it for mine.

I also used guitar port for guitar & bass on all but two of the songs at my link. Tracks 2 and 3 were recorded with a 5150 head through two mesa cabinets. Four mics were used through a Motu 8pre interface into Digital Performer for simultaneous tracking, and for bass we used two live mics (the DI channel wasn't cooperating, I was clipping big-time and we couldn't figure out why). The rest of the tracks were done with the guitar port, one track at a time, into Garage Band. They were later remastered in DP to make them a little louder and bring them up to the level of tracks 2 & 3. If that makes sense, I don't know.

So, I guess I am not totally new, but I have a huge amount to learn. It's time I actually started educating myself on this instead of just winging it.

 

[Matti Frost]

Alright. New question.

I just got a Line 6 Guitar Port with a Gear Box disc. Installed the software. Hooked up my computer speakers through the GP, and when I play through it, it sounds pretty good.

Only trouble is, when I go to open Cubase, it locks up and won't open. Even if I exit Gear Box and open Cubase, it just stalls. I have to unplug the USB cable to get Cubase to open, but when I do that and then plug it back in and open Gear Box, I get no sound from the Cubase end, it's just the guitar.

I am puzzled.