...Home Recording - I've Tried this Before - and it wasn't pretty

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Ethan417

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Hi Everyone

my name is Ethan - i'm 61 - an amateur guitarist and i so want to record my acoustic and electric guitars and vocals.

i'm writing to share my uncertainty and doubt about my ability to successfully meet my modest home recording goals.

this is not my first time trying to do the home recording thing.

I've tried and failed at this twice in the past. It wasn't pretty.

i don't hang out with musicians and didn't have a support network to get me up and running.

my goals are to record my acoustic and electric guitars, voice and maybe if all goes well, use some of the magic (loops, library, etc) add in a few things to make it even more fun.

I'm very comfortable with the computer.

my problem is that i'm such a newbee to audio recording i was not able to locate the very basic building blocks - vocabulary, task knowledge, concepts, etc., to get comfortable and create a basic track.

the tutorials that i worked with during my previous attempts - all assumed a certain amount of knowledge and familiarity with the process. it was over my head.

i never got the traction i needed to get up and running.

both times - i put it aside and eventually sold off the equipment.

i realize that there are many more learning resources than there were previously, but the price tag - about $500 for audio interface, mic, DAW, and cables makes me a little gun shy.

so, i'm asking for your help - can i really do it this time?

suggestions?

also - equipment suggests would be greatly appreciated.

many thanks for your kindness and support - Ethan
 
You can start out for less than $500. Mic, cable, mic stand, interface - you can do all these with the lower-level choices for $250, there are even packages out there for this - here's one for $220, all you need to add is the stand. Then your DAW (which is probably where you're having 'start up' issues. Reaper is free to d/l the full version, $60 to register it. There is an extensive manual, avery good help forum, and tons of youtube videos to assist.
 
This book helped me learn the foundation of digital recording. I had already attempted some demos before reading it, sort of fumbling my way through tracking and mixing until I had usable results. However, the improvements in my recordings after reading this book are quite astounding. It answered questions I never thought to ask and gave me some insight to common practices that any recording engineer should be familiar with. It's also a quick read and really easy to understand!

The Everything Guide to Digital Home Recording: Tips, tools, and techniques for studio sound at home (Everything (Music)): Marc Schonbrun: Amazon.com: Books
 
Ethan, you're in the right place. We've got every level of user from those just starting out like you to a few real pros who like to help out. Everybody here has been through something like what you're about to do. If you find yourself at an obstacle just remember that thousands of people like you have overcome that obstacle, so it can be done.

In addition to mjb's list of gear you'll need a pair of closed-back headphones to monitor things while recording, and eventually you'll need a decent pair of monitor speakers to properly mix your recordings. That leads us to acoustic treatment of your space, because the room will affect your recordings and it will skew the way the speakers sound. If your monitoring isn't reasonably accurate your mixes won't translate well to other playback systems. The acoustic environment is one of the major hurdles to home recordists.

Definitely consider Reaper. It's a great DAW, free to try and affordable to buy. It's very comprehensive so it can be intimidating, but you really only need to learn a subset of its capabilities to record.

You're going to have to learn some technical jargon. We'll help you with that.
 
Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement and help!
 
Just take it one step at a time. All you need to know to get started is these things:

1. How to hook up the interface to the computer

2. How to hook the mic to the interface

3. How to set up the routing in the daw to record the signal from the mic.

4. Where to place the mic.

That seems like a lot, but it really isn't. The big trick is not getting sacked into effects, compression, eq, editing, etc... These are thing you will do later, but the first priority is to get the signal from the mic into the computer. If you do that well, you can always come back to it once you learn these other things.

Btw, the first 3 of those can be found in the quick start Guide of the interface and daw you choose.
 
Hi Ethan (who I shall hereinfter refer to as "The Kid" cos' I'm entitled!) I can't really add to the superb advice given so far but I have just one thing to say that might ease the process.

You want to record electric guitar? Do that first and do it by Direct Injection (first bit O jargon there!) into the Instrument, aka High Impedance (more J rap) input of your cheosen Audio Interface*. Why?

Well, it neatly avoids a lot of problems, Room effects (we ALL have bad rooms!) external noise and the whole WTF do I put the mic, which mic and how close, debacle. If your intention was to mic up an amp (best way when you get that far) it also avoids social noise issues and in any case, a (brief!) spell at the amp recording section will give you an idea of the pitfalls there) . DI'ng a guitar (or bass) gets you a nice clean signal "In The Box" which you can fool around with. The next step might be to try recording G with software effects and learn a bit about the perils of Latency.

I am here all the time for my sins so shoot about anything however basic (I don't DO much more than "basic" anyway!)

*Lots of these around but get a Steinberg UR22, best overall performance for the money IMHO.

Dave.
 
Just noticed Jay that I seem to be contradicting your excellent advice? Did not mean to (and @ TK, Jay has forgotten more about recording than I EVER knew!).

My aim was to get the guy easily into some sounds on his PC whch will prove that he has everytning setup correctly or not.

Dave.
 
Starting with the electric guitar is a good idea. Learn in small steps and then combine what you learn into more complicated tasks.
 
ecc83 said:
Just noticed Jay that I seem to be contradicting your excellent advice? Did not mean to (and @ TK, Jay has forgotten more about recording than I EVER knew!).

My aim was to get the guy easily into some sounds on his PC whch will prove that he has everytning setup correctly or not.

Dave.
Click to expand...

I think your advice made sense, but I can see going the mic route. Either way, the point was to start out simple.
 
ecc83 said:
Just noticed Jay that I seem to be contradicting your excellent advice? Did not mean to (and @ TK, Jay has forgotten more about recording than I EVER knew!).

My aim was to get the guy easily into some sounds on his PC whch will prove that he has everytning setup correctly or not.

Dave.
Click to expand...
The only thing that you are contradicting is #4. The other three will still be the same, but with the work 'mic' replaced by 'guitar'.

I do see your point, but then you are getting him into VST amp sims, etc... My whole point was just to get a usable sound (i.e. the one he wants) to the computer first, then start messing around with making it better.

Of course, if he has an acoustic with a pickup, your plan might be the easiest.
 
Just curious of what you mean by saying you've "failed" at this twice in the past. What seemed to be the biggest hurdle?

There's tons of really smart people who have lots of recording experience here, so ask away with any questions dude.
 
Ethan, what do you have already? In terms of gear? A space to work in? etc?

There always seems to be stumbling points in the technology that dissuades people from going further with home recording. The most gregarious seems to be connectivity issues with interfaces, assigning channels in software, and stuff along those lines. But stick with it. Get over those hurdles and get to the point where you don't have to think about the technology and you can concentrate on the creativity.

Welcome to the site.
 
Ethan, welcome to the forum, there are tons of people here who really know there stuff. if Interested, I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface I dont need anymore, PM me, you pay shipping and its yours. Reaper is a really good DAW. hang in there sir and ask lots of questions.:thumbs up:
 
Hi Ethan, welcome. You can do this. If you need help getting started pm me. Maybe we can skype if need be if you need help with set up. Also I can get you caught up to speed with terminology, and a basic knowledge of what you need to know. Again we can either skype or talk through email. I honestly love helping other people with recording, mixing, and creating albums. Pm me and I can give you my email address and we can start off there and maybe move to skype if you'd like.
 
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