Digital Recording

[Big Help Needed]

First off I just want to say that I am not only a newbie to this forum but the whole idea of recording as well. So this means I know very little about recording. I need to know how Digital Recording works actually. Do Digital Recorders have the same capabilities as an beginner's Garage Band Application? How do instruments sound when you plug them straight into the digital recorder? When plugged into the recorder are affects such as distortion already built in? Which do you prefer; plugging into the recorder or playing through an amp? When playing with an amp where should the condenser mic be placed? Is all work done on the digital recorder itself or do you need a computer program like Acid Pro 5? Is a mixer needed?

 

[manning1]

phew - just too much for me to type in response.
a reply would take 50 pages at least.
i would suggest you get a book on setting up a recording studio.
there is a ton of info as well if you search under my name for my posts in the past year.
a site you might also look at are the pgmusic.com faq's covering various aspects of recording and tutorials. and there is a slew of info on this site/posts to go through.
basically to get recording you need a mic, mixer, a pc with recording software (or mac) , and some powered monitors and various other doodads.
no disrespect - but i think there is also a recording book put out in the dummies series which ive heard is pretty good and would save me typing pages.
if you tell me if you have a pc currently and what gear if any you have - i'll try and help further.

 

[dmc777]

It really depends on what you're trying to do.

 

[NYMorningstar]

First off I just want to say that I am not only a newbie to this forum but the whole idea of recording as well. So this means I know very little about recording. I need to know how Digital Recording works actually. Do Digital Recorders have the same capabilities as an beginner's Garage Band Application? How do instruments sound when you plug them straight into the digital recorder? When plugged into the recorder are affects such as distortion already built in? Which do you prefer; plugging into the recorder or playing through an amp? When playing with an amp where should the condenser mic be placed? Is all work done on the digital recorder itself or do you need a computer program like Acid Pro 5? Is a mixer needed?

First off, don't listen to a thing manning1 says, he's just an old man trying to sell you software from pgmusic.

Digital recording is a means to reproduce sounds using mics, instruments, effects and such using a computer with recording software or a Digital Audio Workshop(DAW) which is basically the same thing but more exclusive and portable.

When guitars are plugged directly in they usually sound like crap unless you have a DI box(direct-in) or use effects pedals, distortion boxes etc. I prefer miking the amp with a dynamic mic usually somewhere around 6" away. A condensor mic will generally sound better when recording acoustic instruments.

To record mics or intruments you need the signal they send out to be amplified before hitting the recorder or soundcard. You use preamps(pres) to do this and if you use a condensor mic you also need what they call phantom power with the preamp. Some soundcards have some pres built in and a few have phantom power too. You could get dedicated pres for you mics or you could use the pres on a mixer which normally has one on every channel. These days most all mixers have phantom power for condensor mics.

With digital software it is very easy to add effects to your instruments after they are tracked and while you do the mixdown. Effects on digital tracks are sometimes plugins.

Whether you need a mixer or just a couple pres, or maybe just a soundcard that has some built in pres all depends on what you want to do. It's a real good idea to plan ahead before you start buying stuff. It's awful easy to through away money on cheap software just to get started and find out in six months you don't need it anymore.

The best thing you can invest in first off is your knowledge and this BBS is the best place to do that. Hang around for a few days, weeks, months whatever it takes till you start understanding some of this audio mumbojumbo. Read, read read, it's all free and there's nothing better. There's lots of great engineers that drop by pretty often and you can get just about any question answered. Drop by the cave and err... well that's a whole other education.

Anyhow, hit the library and find some books on sound and recording techniques. A must have book is 'Modern Recording Techniques' by David Miles Huber.

If nothing else all this reading and learning will make you a better musician too!

Welcome to the BBS.

 

[Big Help Needed]

phew - just too much for me to type in response.
a reply would take 50 pages at least.
i would suggest you get a book on setting up a recording studio.
there is a ton of info as well if you search under my name for my posts in the past year.
a site you might also look at are the pgmusic.com faq's covering various aspects of recording and tutorials. and there is a slew of info on this site/posts to go through.
basically to get recording you need a mic, mixer, a pc with recording software (or mac) , and some powered monitors and various other doodads.
no disrespect - but i think there is also a recording book put out in the dummies series which ive heard is pretty good and would save me typing pages.
if you tell me if you have a pc currently and what gear if any you have - i'll try and help further.

Wow! Thank you for all the helpful tips! To answer your question I have a PC.

 

[Big Help Needed]

First off, don't listen to a thing manning1 says, he's just an old man trying to sell you software from pgmusic.

Digital recording is a means to reproduce sounds using mics, instruments, effects and such using a computer with recording software or a Digital Audio Workshop(DAW) which is basically the same thing but more exclusive and portable.

When guitars are plugged directly in they usually sound like crap unless you have a DI box(direct-in) or use effects pedals, distortion boxes etc. I prefer miking the amp with a dynamic mic usually somewhere around 6" away. A condensor mic will generally sound better when recording acoustic instruments.

To record mics or intruments you need the signal they send out to be amplified before hitting the recorder or soundcard. You use preamps(pres) to do this and if you use a condensor mic you also need what they call phantom power with the preamp. Some soundcards have some pres built in and a few have phantom power too. You could get dedicated pres for you mics or you could use the pres on a mixer which normally has one on every channel. These days most all mixers have phantom power for condensor mics.

With digital software it is very easy to add effects to your instruments after they are tracked and while you do the mixdown. Effects on digital tracks are sometimes plugins.

Whether you need a mixer or just a couple pres, or maybe just a soundcard that has some built in pres all depends on what you want to do. It's a real good idea to plan ahead before you start buying stuff. It's awful easy to through away money on cheap software just to get started and find out in six months you don't need it anymore.

The best thing you can invest in first off is your knowledge and this BBS is the best place to do that. Hang around for a few days, weeks, months whatever it takes till you start understanding some of this audio mumbojumbo. Read, read read, it's all free and there's nothing better. There's lots of great engineers that drop by pretty often and you can get just about any question answered. Drop by the cave and err... well that's a whole other education.

Anyhow, hit the library and find some books on sound and recording techniques. A must have book is 'Modern Recording Techniques' by David Miles Huber.

If nothing else all this reading and learning will make you a better musician too!

Welcome to the BBS.

Hahaha. Wow. Thanks for all that! I appreciate it.

 

[Richard Monroe]

Well Dog, as Randy Jackson would say- You are asking questions that often have irrelevent answers. Digital recording is simply a way of storing a model of sound nemerically, and then manipulating that model, and turning it back into sound. Can you process the sound within a digital recorder? Yes. Can you do it in a computer? Yes. A digital recorder is just a specialized computer. What does it sound like when you plug an electric guitar into a digital recorder. If you know what you are doing, it can be "OK". Most people would agree that mic'ing up an amp wins, in most cases.
What's really important? ***IT'S NOT THE RECORDER***!!! What's important, really? The front end, the microphones and preamplifiers. What's more important than the front end? The room it's played in. What's more important than the room? The song. What's more important than the song? The player. Your brain is way ahead of itself. You have to build the signal chain from front to back, not back to front. If you have a great musician with a great instrument playng a great song in a great room, you put a really good microphone in front of them, plug it into a great preamp, push record, and say, "Go girl!" Far more important than the recorder are the tracking engineer, the mixing engineer, the mastering engineer, and the producer, who make all those great components come together, capture them, and then display them in the best possible light.
Where do you put the mic in front of the amp? Where it sounds good. The song, the player, the room, the axe, the amp, the mic, and the preamp will dictate where that is, and it won't always be the same. You mention a condenser mic. That can work, especially backed off in a good room. More commonly, dynamic mics are used for amp mic'ing, and many people like the mic right up against the grill, just slightly outside of the center of the speaker cone, but there's a hell of a lot of ways to skin that cat. Many times, the sound you want can be elusive, and the solution can be a mic you didn't expect in a place that wasn't recommended. Consider "The Recording Guitarist" by Jon Chappell. It's not a bad place to start for guitar recording. But, if you have a good engineer, the player, the axe, the amp, the song, the room, the mic, the preamp, you can plug it all into a top of the line Walkman, and it will rock. Good luck. The learning curve, and the confusion, starts here.-Richie

 

[NYMorningstar]

See what I mean about great engineers dropping by.

I can't believe I was in Framingham running the Boston marathon and didn't stop in to see you!

 

[Big Help Needed]

Well Dog, as Randy Jackson would say- You are asking questions that often have irrelevent answers. Digital recording is simply a way of storing a model of sound nemerically, and then manipulating that model, and turning it back into sound. Can you process the sound within a digital recorder? Yes. Can you do it in a computer? Yes. A digital recorder is just a specialized computer. What does it sound like when you plug an electric guitar into a digital recorder. If you know what you are doing, it can be "OK". Most people would agree that mic'ing up an amp wins, in most cases.
What's really important? ***IT'S NOT THE RECORDER***!!! What's important, really? The front end, the microphones and preamplifiers. What's more important than the front end? The room it's played in. What's more important than the room? The song. What's more important than the song? The player. Your brain is way ahead of itself. You have to build the signal chain from front to back, not back to front. If you have a great musician with a great instrument playng a great song in a great room, you put a really good microphone in front of them, plug it into a great preamp, push record, and say, "Go girl!" Far more important than the recorder are the tracking engineer, the mixing engineer, the mastering engineer, and the producer, who make all those great components come together, capture them, and then display them in the best possible light.
Where do you put the mic in front of the amp? Where it sounds good. The song, the player, the room, the axe, the amp, the mic, and the preamp will dictate where that is, and it won't always be the same. You mention a condenser mic. That can work, especially backed off in a good room. More commonly, dynamic mics are used for amp mic'ing, and many people like the mic right up against the grill, just slightly outside of the center of the speaker cone, but there's a hell of a lot of ways to skin that cat. Many times, the sound you want can be elusive, and the solution can be a mic you didn't expect in a place that wasn't recommended. Consider "The Recording Guitarist" by Jon Chappell. It's not a bad place to start for guitar recording. But, if you have a good engineer, the player, the axe, the amp, the song, the room, the mic, the preamp, you can plug it all into a top of the line Walkman, and it will rock. Good luck. The learning curve, and the confusion, starts here.-Richie

Sweet. Well I've studied all I could about altering a room to fit recording/listening room standards already through the forums here, hopefully there will be existing threads about tracking/mastering/mixing. I may actually be getting an internship at a local recording studio, so that may contribute to the cause as well. Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[Richard Monroe]

Yo Morningstar! I'm not going anywhere. If you do it again, let me know, I can get you a really good spaghetti dinner, and I'm a pretty good trainer, so I can probable help patch up whatever's left of you the next day. I actually have an advantage helping beginners, It is that I am *not* a great engineer. I'm just an old psychedelic rock-folkie that has dedicated the last 3 1/2 years of my life to this insane hobby, and a world class coach. What that means is that I don't have enough technical knowledge to confuse people. I have boiled it down to the basics, though, so I can get it straight. What I posted above is simply the most important stuff I learned spending 2 years making an album. I learned that it is simply easier to make good tracks sound good than to make bad tracks sound good, so my whole focus is getting the best track I can, rather than how to process bullshit to try and hide the fact that it sucks. I'm in Binghamton, N.Y. fairly often. Send me a PM or an email and tell me what part of upstate you're in.-Richie