first time recording.. need major help.

[mancruel]

i am VERY new to recording. i play in a band and i am trying to record diy. i have played in bands that have been recorded before, but i unforunately never paid too much attention to how stuff worked, and now i am stuck not knowing what i am doing.

the technique my friends and i used before was using an auxilary chord, plugging it into the microphone input of a laptop, then using an adapter and plugging the auxilary chord into the mixer. we'd then plug a microphone into one of the inputs on the mixer, and mic each instrument that we recorded (guitar drums bass vocals) separately, all the while using the mixer, trying to make it not sound completely horrible. we would use a recording program on a laptop to record what we were playing. we had some semi-decent sounding recordings come out after mastering and everything.. but now i am stuck.

i recently bought a really old mixer off of craigslist (a peavey MR-7). i know that it works because i have seen it used. i am trying to do the same thing that my friends and i did before, simply because it seems like the easiest way to record.

while trying to record, i plugged the microphone into every single channel on the mixer, switched every knob, tried everything i could to get some sort of sound to go through the microphone, into the mixer and to the laptop. i had no luck. i checked to see if the microphone jack on the laptop is being recognized as the jack that is being used, and it was. i tried literally everything. i have no idea why it was not working.

if there are any other easier techniques, any suggestions, any feedback, any help you can provide it will be greatly appreciated. thanks.

 

[mjbphotos]

There is a lot of reading you can do here at these forms to answer some basic questions.

First on the no-sound - are you sure the mic is working? Is the phantom power of the mixer turned on, if your mic needs it?

The technique you are trying to use is ok if you want to record a 'live performance' . You'll need to be more specific on what type of music you are trying to record, how many voices/instruments at the same time, what you want to do with the recordings. There's lots of options.

 

[mancruel]

The technique you are trying to use is ok if you want to record a 'live performance' . You'll need to be more specific on what type of music you are trying to record, how many voices/instruments at the same time, what you want to do with the recordings. There's lots of options.

i'm trying to record noisy hardcore punk. we don't really need it to be mastered perfectly considering the ridiculous amount of distortion we use haha. i mean, i don't want it to sound like total crap but it doesn't have to have the mastering of nickleback.

we're recording one instrument per track.. vocals for one track. guitar for another.. etc. there is only one voice we are recording, and we only record one instrument per track. we're trying to release a cassette tape. i have a friend who does all the dubbing and everything for the tapes so i don't have to worry about that much.

thank you for your input.

 

[johnsuitcase]

Here's the page where you can find the manual, if you don't have it:

http://www.peavey.com/support/searchmanuals/archived.cfm?page=M

Page 7 has a good step-by-step initial set-up routine.

Try that and let us know if you're getting anywhere!

 

[bunt]

Here's the page where you can find the manual, if you don't have it:

http://www.peavey.com/support/searchmanuals/archived.cfm?page=M

Page 7 has a good step-by-step initial set-up routine.

Try that and let us know if you're getting anywhere!

yeah, I googled this thing yesterday and couldn't find a single switch on it, so it seems pretty straight forward. I did notice it has only one high z input and no mention of phantom power, so maybe that's it presuming you have chosen the right output path.

 

[Jim Lad]

I'd suggest trying a stand alone recorder. It will also serve as a mixer.
You can then transfer all of your raw files int a computer for final mixing and editing.
Look at Korg, Tascam, Yamaha & Roland in that order.

 

[johnsuitcase]

What kind of mic are you using?

 

[mancruel]

yeah, apparently the mixer i got is pretty uncommon. it's not new by any means, but i usually prefer using older equipment over newer stuff anyways. and whenever i saw the seven channel MR-7 on craigslist for $30 i had to get it.

i checked out the manual online and didn't have any luck with what it said. i switched all of the knobs to the settings that it asks you to in the instructions, but none of it worked unfortunately.

What kind of mic are you using?

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Marshall-V67G-Condenser-Microphone?sku=273152

that mic and another mic similar to that one. we are all on a strict budget.. i checked out the korg stuff on musiciansfriend, but it was way out of my price range ($900+)

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.co...k-Digital-Multitrack-Recorder?sku=250011#used

how does this look? could this do what i'm trying to do? i would really not like to purchase anything else but if this is what i have to do then i guess i have no choice.

again, i cannot thank you all enough for your help.

 

[johnsuitcase]

A quick pass on the manual suggests that the MR-7 doesn't have phantom power, and thus won't work with your condenser mics.

You can go get some dynamic mics, or pick up a few phantom power supplies, like these: http://tinyurl.com/PhantomPower

 

[bunt]

yeah I agree. No phantom power, so to the original poster... that mic you have requires power to work... sorta like batteries not included, so when people talk about phantom power, they are talking about a power supply, typically 48 volts. $30-$40 will get you started. Most, if not all of the cheap preamps will have phantom power.

 

[mikeperalta]

The thing about using a mixer before your recording device is you're pretty much limited to the way it's all mixed. At best you can pan some instruments to the left and others to the right, but then when you record it you'll only get 2 tracks to manipulate.

Check out this product on sam ash: http://www.samash.com/p/Fast Track Ultra USB Audio Interface_-49983971

I know its a lot of money but it gives you 4 separate inputs. That means you can get more stuff recorded at the same time without doing multiple takes. And the more tracks you can record separately, the more control you'll have in your recording program after the fact.

For instance when I record myself playing acoustic guitar, I always use an interface with 2 inputs, and I pan my voice to the right and my guitar's output to the left, then I split the file from 1 stereo track into 2 mono tracks. Then WHAM, I'm able to compress, EQ, reverb, volume, whatever my voice individually from my guitar and I get a much better sound in the end.

If you had that 4 input thing you could do 1 mic on the vocals, 1 input on the distorted guitar, and 2 mics on the drumset (maybe 1 on the kick and 1 overhead?), leaving the bass off the recording and just playing it live for the 'feel' of it.... then do a second run where the bassist adds in his part after the fact while listening to the band's recording on headphones.

You'd have a ton of control if you did it that way and blow away what the last guy did.

Or if you just want to be cheap you can probably buy 2 of those m-audio interfaces that just have 1 input for mic and 1 for guitar. If you bought 2 and had them both running, you'd spend only like $200 depending on where you bought them and would have 2 mic inputs and 2 guitar inputs. You could use 1 mic on the singer, one mic on the overhead drums, 1 guitar on the guitar, and the other guitar with a cheap xlr converter to mic the kick drum. I say use the converted guitar input on the kick because the kick can be gated in your audio program and save you alot of noise that comes with converting stuff.

Anyway have fun, I hope it goes well.

 

[johnsuitcase]

I don't think there's anything wrong with using an old mixer to record in stereo. It might take a little longer to get the sounds, but I've done some recordings that way that came out very well. I used to use the built in inputs on my mac with a mixer, laying down the drums, then the guitars, bass, vocals. Yes, it's a little harder to get the drum blend just right, but he's doing punk, it's not like he's trying to make a Muse album.

Keep it cheap, learn everything you can, and don't buy more stuff until your skills outpace your existing gear.

You can spend a lot of money with this stuff, and fast.

Look around and see if you can't find some used dynamic mics (like the vocal mics for your PA, etc.) Borrow from some friends, I guarantee they're around...


Here's something I did about 15 years ago that way, before I got my rig together (drums via mixer in stereo, then added everything else):

 

[mancruel]

A quick pass on the manual suggests that the MR-7 doesn't have phantom power, and thus won't work with your condenser mics.

You can go get some dynamic mics, or pick up a few phantom power supplies, like these: http://tinyurl.com/PhantomPower

thanks so much for the help. i borrowed one of my friend's dynamic mics and it worked out fine. i had no idea what phantom power was until i read this post. without this i would probably still be cussing at my mixer. thank you for letting me know the difference between condensor mics and dynamic mics also. this has helped me out so much.

i am going to try to mess around with different techniques as time and money permits. i'm still new to recording and i am wanting to get the feel of things, different techniques, etc. before i invest anymore money into anything as being a college student with car payments and insurance gets pretty expensive. we recorded a couple of drum and guitar tracks, and they came out pretty decent. we'll have the final recordings done in about a month or two after we get everything down completely as our work schedules allow us to. i appreciate all of the feedback, and i will look into the different techniques that you all have posted.

thank you all again for your help.