Hows my setup sound to you guys

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Rancor12

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So about a year or 2 ago, my buddy and I decided we wanted to get a bit of a home studio going. I play drums bass, he plays guitar, and we have been jamming for years. We always wanted to start a band, so we figured why not get recording.

Now, my setup (other than my computer) is probably less than pro level, but I was wondering if you guys could give me some advise on "general good practices" when it comes to home recording.

So location wise I'm in a brick basement with cement floors, no dividing walls, and brick/cement external walls. I realize this is probably not the best accoustic enviorment for clean recording.

For a PC we have my Alienware 17x laptop running a quad core Intel I9 overclocked at 3.45Ghz, 16GB or ram, a 1TB HDD, and a beastly dolby surroundsound audio card.

For an interface we have a M-Audio ProFire 2525.

For mics we have some guitar center starter set drum mics (rubish I'm sure).

So this is basically the flow: Mics/amps (were direct lining in due to lack of inputs for mics on the 2525) run into the 2525, which firewires into my laptop running cakewalk homestudio XL, returns out through the 2525, into an old radio system amplifier, and out to our monitors.

Some questions I have are: Which mics to buy, for which instruments. How to get more mic inputs since I'm pretty sure direct lining in guitar/bass is bad. How to improve the accoustics of the recording space. Mic placement. laslty, I don't much care for cakewalk, and was looking for something better. I read up on Reaper which sounds very good, but its not a big name brand. What would you guys suggest for a powerful yet simple DAW. Something without all the flashy bells and whistles.

O, I forgot, budget wise think a grand to start. Throw the most vital purchases at me first. Thanks :)
 
I think your biggest issue is going to be the room, that's a lot of hard surfaces in there.
Try this article, it has a few pointers as to how to improve a room. http://bit.ly/ePoy7k

Basically you want to get as much soft stuff in there are you can to absorb some of the reverb generated in the room.
 
Cement floor is a good thing. Cement all around not so much, but not as bad as you might think. Get rigid fibreglass panels in the corners for starters. If you can get some on the ceiling, even better. Furniture, like couches, etc....will help, too. No dividing walls is another good thing. A bigger room is always better than a smaller one, though you didn't give dimensions, I'm hoping it's a big basement. You're not as bad off as you think in that room. You might even get some GREAT drum tracks without even treating the room at all.

Recording bass direct is very common.

REAPER is as good, if not better, than any other DAW out there. What does "not a big name brand" mean? Just because it doesn't cost $600 doesn't make it worse than anything. It's a GREAT DAW.
 
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The M-Audio ProFire 2525 has 8 mic pre-amps, I'm guessing you really don't need more mic inputs at this time - record the drums separately from the other instruments and you won't need to worry about bleeding between mics.
 
agreed with recording drums seperately.

sm57s are a great mic for recording guitar amps and most other purposes (snares sound great)

vocal wise, you can either go ribbon or large diaphragm condenser, look around.

DAW wise, reaper is free to try and cheap to buy, no bells and whistles and simple. go for it, and if you don't like don't buy it and get something different.
 
Okay so I'm going to work on the room (it is basically one big basement. Trouble is, I'm in a corner of it.)

I am going to look into those mics. I'll continue to line in bass if thats the most common option.

Now, when you say record the drums seperately, you mean record the drums, then unplug the drum mics, plug in the guitar/vocal mics and then record them? I understand that everything should be recorded seperately to avoid bleed over, I always do that. What I was asking about "more inputs" was, the 2626 only has 8 mic inputs, and the drums take up 7.

REAPER is a go, I'll be messing around with it today and the rest of the week, and will probably be trying to record something over the weekend.
 
Cant you just unplug the drums while your recording something else?? 8 ins should be more than enough.

Drew
 
I can just unplug the drums and plug in the other mics, got it. I wasn't sure if thats what they meant though, thanks for clearing it up. Okay so:
1) record each track seperatly
2) hang some sheets and throw in a couch
3) grab a a couple SM57's for the guitar amps and a large diaphragm condensor for vocals.

Now heres a question that arrises from the whole mic unplugging/re-lugging thing. Say my drums are mic'd into inputs 2-8 and bass in direct lined into 1. When I go to record guitars/vocals, I'll be unplugging some of those drums to plug in the guitar/vocal mics. I will then have to adjust the mic gains everytime I swap mics, that will be time consuming, wont it.
 
If you think that will be too time consuming, you are in the wrong hobby lol
 
I don't mean I'm not more than happy to spend the 60 seconds per gain setting to get it dialed in, what I meant was thats what has to be done right? There isn't a faster trick or pro cheat that I don't know about. If no, and thats just what everyone does, then thats cool with me.

I like spending the time tuning everything in and getting everything to sound just right. The problem is, all that time has shown to be in vaine, as I never get good sounds. Thats why I'm here. To learn, or to be told where to look to learn.
 
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