Essentials for home recording

L

lorper

New member
So guys I'm working away and currently racking up gear that I think I will need for a home studio. I've been purchasing for the last few months. When I see a deal I jump at it and eventually I hope to have the time to be able to use it all ?.

I currently have

A desk with monitor wings
Tascam US1800 interface
Line 6 tone port UX2
An apex mic kit that comes with one condenser and two directional Mics. ( cheap set)
I have access to many expensive and inexpensive Mics for use anytime.
Presonus 5" monitors
MacBook Pro with Logic Pro X
EZ drummer 2
Multiple high end guitars
Tama silver star drums

I think that's all I need to get me started. The one thing I feel I may want is a midi keyboard. I don't want to ask stupid questions but I'm new to digital recording so what kind of uses could I get out of a midi keyboard? I see them at long n mcquade from $80 and up. Is there a certain one that is recommended. I'd like to stay on the low end of price for sure.
 
Can you PLAY a keyboard? If so, no brainer, get a 49 (better 61) keys kbd. Even if you are not grade 8 jo' a small keyboard controller would still be useful IMHO. Something with a few pads to smack would make recording drum sounds* easier. You can also play in basic bass lines (or any other instrument you can think of!) .

But! FFS get a kbd/controller with AT LEAST MIDI DIN out and preferably MIDI in as well (tho' the latter is getting ever rarer these days).

*Yeah, I know you have a drum kit! Bet it will be quite some time before you can make decent recordings of that!

Dave.
 
I use my small midi controller for composing drums (and of course synth parts). Obviously makes fiddling with and composing synth parts easier than writing notes on a piano roll. The midi controller is as important to me as a keyboard/mouse, even if I use it much less often. 6 years ago I didn't even own one. Now it's indispensable.

I only have a small 25 key controller. If you're tight on space this is a viable solution. It just sits on top of one of my monitors. I don't play keys formally, so I don't need to be able to play more than one hand worth of notes at a time. [e-mu Xboard25 if you're curious]

Controllers are a common used item, so check eBay / aftermarket. I think I paid only $50 for mine, have had it for several years now, and it's full touch sensitive. The idea of having pads on the keyboard is nice but not critical, most virtual drum apps can be mapped to the keys and they're obviously plenty sensitive for doing drum parts. Because of size limitation the pads tend to be no larger than the keys anyway so their benefit from a playing point of view is a wash. There's good, dedicated usb/midi drum pads that can be purchased if there's really a need to play the drum parts with sticks and larger pads. And full electronic drum kits, which have a relatively steep entry cost but have come very far in the past 10 years in terms of quality. If I were going to get a kit, it would be electronic.

I agree with Dave regarding micing the drum kit - takes a lot of practice, time, proper recording space, and appropriate mics to get a good "studio quality" capture of an acoustic kit. Having the flexibility of sequencing drums digitally while you learn is certainly another bonus of having a midi controller.
 
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The 5" monitors won't give you much low end. There's ways to route the signal to a sub as well, which would round out your sound. Otherwise you'll be shuffling your mixes off to a stereo system with a sub often to check levels, etc.
 
I noticed the 5" monitors don't have much bass. Either way the sound is pretty good for me at the moment. When it comes down to final mixing I was thinking I could always use headphones or is that a bad idea as well?

As for recording drums, I realise that it is a hard task and requires more than just a kit and a couple Mics so I'm tapping out of that option for now. I purchased EZ Drummer to give me a bank of drum beats to work with which is pretty much all I want at the moment. Once I figure out the software a bit more I may get more into programming drums but that's not quite what I'm looking for at the moment.

I'm gonna go ahead and grab the midi keyboard. I'm not a piano player but I've self taught myself multiple instruments so far so I'm sure I could have fun with it and find uses for it with orchestral sounds, and cinematic or effects sounds. The uses seem pretty limitless and I like playing with sounds so it should be a good investment.

What would I need to hook a sub into those 5" monitors ?
 
Headphones are not really good for final mixing, but can be used like any other tool. I don't see acoustic treatment for you tracking/mixing room listed. That should be your next investment.
 
"What would I need to hook a sub into those 5" monitors ?"

Unless Presonus do a sub that compliments* those monitors I would not go that route. Subs are said to be bad news in small rooms and especially ones that are not "trapped to buggery". If those 5inchers are anything like my Tannoy 5As they will give better bass quality than 99% of the kit upon which your stuff is listened. Yes, you can use headphones to check deep bass. Where cans fall down mostly is in judging panned sound and general stereo properties, i.e. they do not translate well to how it will sound on speakers.

*By that I mean the turnover frequency must be close to the natural fall off of the wee 'uns. That can only happen if the maker of the sub KNOWS the characteristics of the monitors in question.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
*By that I mean the turnover frequency must be close to the natural fall off of the wee 'uns. That can only happen if the maker of the sub KNOWS the characteristics of the monitors in question.

Dave.
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You just set the crossover on the sub using test tones to figure out where the 5" monitors drop off in the lower end.
 
No acoustic treatment yet because my house is going up for sale so until I setup a permanent home I won't begin that .

The room I'm currently in is about 15'X20'. So it's big and fairly open. The only thing I'd be recording that isn't digital would be my vocals. Everything else will be internal.
 
lorper said:
No acoustic treatment yet because my house is going up for sale so until I setup a permanent home I won't begin that .

The room I'm currently in is about 15'X20'. So it's big and fairly open. The only thing I'd be recording that isn't digital would be my vocals. Everything else will be internal.
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For mixing, you're going to want to put 4" thick bass traps and/or superchunks in the corners, 2" (minimum) traps on the side walls and ceiling. Start making them now, you can take them with you when you move.
 
Can someone post a pic of there studio and acoustic treatment. I feel the mixing is going to be a huge educating experience. I have little to no knowledge as of now. I'm a musician so the recording and producing side is all new and exciting to me.

To be honest I was just thinking this was gonna be as simple as recording the different instruments, picking my drum beats from EZ drummer, and recording vocals. I think playing with the sounds and mixing will be fun. Is there any essential guides I should read online for this ?
 
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ecc83 said:
?! Novice noobs doing room/speaker EQ? Sounds fraught to me.

Dave.
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But expending time/effort on sound treatment for nominal (or possibly no) gains isn't? ;)

Running a few test tones in the 30-80hz range to find where the sounds are/are not being produced isn't something only trained sound engineers can do. Car stereo installers do this everyday to set crossovers on subs. The only hurtle is figuring out the best way to get the signal to the sub without affecting the signal going to the monitors. I use a headphone amp with 4 outputs, two for my headphones, one for my monitors, one for my sub. Works great. YMMV. I'm not a sound engineer, just another HR.com guy learning as he goes, and I managed to figure this out.
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I have zero sound treatment in my recording space. The room is full of various things which helps deaden any undesirable reverb properties, and I mic very close to the acoustic. As for vocals, it's a matter of finding the sweet spot where your voice is loud but not clipping/peaking, but not so soft the room's personality (or lack thereof) is being captured (ie - crappy room reverb). In other words - capture as dry as possible with the mic. Then add reverb using plugins/effects after.

If you were micing the drum kit, then I would urge you to invest in some treatments. It's extremely difficult to make a drum kit sound professional without (IMHO). But you've already indicated that wasn't being pursued at this time.

Make do with what you have, then as you refine your skills you'll discover areas for improvement -- whether than means software, better monitors/sub, or room treatment.

I use headphones for a majority of my mixing, then run the mix through the monitors as the final step(s). After a few mixes you'll get an idea where the headphones are failing you and can adapt to adjust things before even listening with the monitors. My last mix was almost perfect using just my tracking headphones.

There's many tutorials on youtube and some music software company websites. Exactly what are you looking to learn at this stage?

IMO this thread has a lot of important info for beginners: https://homerecording.com/bbs/gener...sting-read-ultimate-newbie-faq-thread-282550/

Understanding EQ and compression is critical.

"Books" are very 1998, so I would steer you towards online tutorials (free and visually helpful showing the processes in a DAW). Have you searched youtube yet for different music topics? It's hard for me to believe you can't find results rather easily with the amount of stuff I've only stumbled on in the past couple years.
 
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For mixing, what MJ stated. For tracking sound treatment may or may not be needed. Goes to Pinky's comments, find the spot that sound the best. Even in a treated room, finding the right spot is an experiment.

For getting started, my two cents:

First focus on recording and getting a good sound. So much to learn on this front alone. Getting a good recordings/track is really your first objective. Get that right, mixing is much easier. When tracking, focus on your timing, good performance, and sound. Either use EZD for your timing or a metronome. It is really important especially when you want to edit later (Like when you flub up part of your track and want to replace it with a better part of the same performance).

Your equipment list looks pretty good for starting out. Seems like you are set there. Once you get a good arrangement, good tracking and you feel the song is all set, then you will start mixing. Then EQ'ing, compression, reverb, etc. starts getting into the picture.

Monitors and sound treatment are used as a tool for the mix to translate across multiple listening devices. The goal is to get the mix to sound good regardless of where or on what it is played. To me, that is the hard part. It is also subjective to some extent. But that will come later in the process.

The whole recording journey is a process. Just start walking through those processes and you will get there. Divide and conquer best way to go about it. It will take longer than a few weeks to get a decent recording/mix. Be patient.
 
" Car stereo installers do this everyday " Yeah and don't they make a dog's breakfast of it! Or have you never sat next to "Subaru Man" at the lights and his One Note Bass?

Installing bass traps is a subtractive process that can only ever flatten the room's response and that is only ever a good thing. (I also understand that good mixers rarely use boost when applying EQ?).

The temptation when setting up speaker EQ is to go for an impressive, overblown sound.

But, what the hey! It's Christmas so peace and love man!

Dave.
 
I was approaching this purely from a "5 inch woofers won't produce any bass below ##HZ". Subs fill in the gap where the small monitors fall short. How the home recorder tweaks things is up to them. Like you suggest, to each their own in that regard, but there's no issue with getting all the frequencies reproduced, especially when so much of the low end is completely missing on smaller 5" monitors. Bass traps can't do their job when the bass isn't even being produced by the speakers. Like taking a pain reliever for a headache you don't have. They can always be added later if there's problems.

Heck, I have 8" monitors and still have a small sub to help make up some of those lowest and poorest reproduced frequencies.
 
Pinky said:
I was approaching this purely from a "5 inch woofers won't produce any bass below ##HZ". Subs fill in the gap where the small monitors fall short. How the home recorder tweaks things is up to them. Like you suggest, to each their own in that regard, but there's no issue with getting all the frequencies reproduced, especially when so much of the low end is completely missing on smaller 5" monitors. Bass traps can't do their job when the bass isn't even being produced by the speakers. Like taking a pain reliever for a headache you don't have. They can always be added later if there's problems.

Heck, I have 8" monitors and still have a small sub to help make up some of those lowest and poorest reproduced frequencies.
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Yeah, I have never subscribed to the 'don't get a sub if you have a small room and no treatment' idea either. Granted I do now have a well treated mixing room and it is quite large but even before I moved to a bigger room and treated it, I had 5" monitors and needed the subwoofer.

And yes, the sound/translation of mixes got way way better after the treatment. But the original setup wasn't so bad that good things didn't happen. Rockit G2 5's were my first monitors and even with their hyped low end, mixes were better with the addition of an old 12" DCM home theater sub I had sitting around.

Seems the OP is setup for a good start. Time working in his room will show him what works for him and what he may need to change in the future.
 
Ok Jim, with over 16,000 posts I have to consider your experience valid.

It seems there is an Atlantic divide on this issue because the general advice over here is "no sub unless an integrated system and in an untreated room it will just make the response worse".

Bit like the decades old "Virtually Useless v PPM" debacle! (or PAL I v Never Twice Same Colour).

Rock on chaps.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Ok Jim, with over 16,000 posts I have to consider your experience valid.

It seems there is an Atlantic divide on this issue because the general advice over here is "no sub unless an integrated system and in an untreated room it will just make the response worse".

Bit like the decades old "Virtually Useless v PPM" debacle! (or PAL I v Never Twice Same Colour).

Rock on chaps.

Dave.
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Good lord! 16,000! :eek:

Well, I am not disagreeing that it can cause more issues. Only that it may not be clear what the issues are if a set of monitors does not even produce such frequencies. Some of that can depend more on the genre one is working with.

Not arguing that treatment, monitors, and what works in any room is not important. Actually I would absolutely never say anything like that because room treatment is likely the most important (and least expensive) investment anyone could ever make for the better of their mixing. But they all work together and deciding what is best for any given situation is impossible to judge without being in the room and doing tests or trial and error, or.....

I am just stating that in my past experience I had semi good results by adding a sub that produced the low frequencies. Better for me then-than just the 5" monitors that had limited frequency response. And of course then found that room treatment was needed and made it way better.

It is a fine line between telling someone what works best in their budget, and what they really need.


Rock on to you as well Dave! :)
 
You nailed it "It seems there is an Atlantic divide on this issue because the general advice over here is "no sub unless an integrated system and in an untreated room it will just make the response worse".

I say get ALWAYS have a sub available no matter how shit the room is - treated, untreated, makes no difference. Have a sub handy and it will help you spot soul destroying low end sludge.
 
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