Introduction and Some Quick Questions

[animemetalhead]

Well, I'm pretty much new to recording in general, and I figured it'd be best to get some of my major questions out of the way. I figure the most important thing is to tell you about my gear, so any answers you have can be as accurate as possible.

I'm a guitarist, and my main recording method is running my guitar through a Line 6 POD into the line in on my laptop. I'm running 32-bit Vista, and I alternate between using Reaper 3.14159 and Audacity 1.3 to record in. I use one of two methods for monitoring, depending on location. In my bedroom I use a set of Bose speakers, and around the house I use a set of Skull Candy headphones with a bass amp. If I can be loud, my friend and I have a Peavey PA system with 2 115s and a 118 sub. Unfortunately, that rig isn't in stereo.

Anyways, on to my questions:

1) In an attempt to figure out some cheap (i.e. free) drum machines, someone mentioned VST instruments. I'm a total newb, so that's the biggest question: what is a VST instrument?

2) I get a lot of lag using my Line 6 with a USB cable, and it often ends up skipping or randomly dropping part of the recording when I'm using it. To combat this, I started running it through a cable into the mic in port on my laptop. Is there a better way? I liked the quality of the USB but it was too hard to get a song done in one take, and for videos, that's not a good thing.

3) Some people have encouraged me to use pitch-shifted guitar for bass lines, but I feel it would sound better using an actual bass guitar. Is there any truth to what they're saying, or am I just be too picky?

Thanks for any help. I'm on an extremely limited budget now, thanks to the whole economy, so try to keep that in mind.

Oh, I also have Cubase 4, though I haven't used it for recording in a while. It came with one of my other audio interfaces.

 

[keithersgsx2003]

Well, I'm pretty much new to recording in general, and I figured it'd be best to get some of my major questions out of the way. I figure the most important thing is to tell you about my gear, so any answers you have can be as accurate as possible.

I'm a guitarist, and my main recording method is running my guitar through a Line 6 POD into the line in on my laptop. I'm running 32-bit Vista, and I alternate between using Reaper 3.14159 and Audacity 1.3 to record in. I use one of two methods for monitoring, depending on location. In my bedroom I use a set of Bose speakers, and around the house I use a set of Skull Candy headphones with a bass amp. If I can be loud, my friend and I have a Peavey PA system with 2 115s and a 118 sub. Unfortunately, that rig isn't in stereo.

Anyways, on to my questions:

1) In an attempt to figure out some cheap (i.e. free) drum machines, someone mentioned VST instruments. I'm a total newb, so that's the biggest question: what is a VST instrument?

2) I get a lot of lag using my Line 6 with a USB cable, and it often ends up skipping or randomly dropping part of the recording when I'm using it. To combat this, I started running it through a cable into the mic in port on my laptop. Is there a better way? I liked the quality of the USB but it was too hard to get a song done in one take, and for videos, that's not a good thing.

3) Some people have encouraged me to use pitch-shifted guitar for bass lines, but I feel it would sound better using an actual bass guitar. Is there any truth to what they're saying, or am I just be too picky?

Thanks for any help. I'm on an extremely limited budget now, thanks to the whole economy, so try to keep that in mind.

Oh, I also have Cubase 4, though I haven't used it for recording in a while. It came with one of my other audio interfaces.

It sounds like your computer is maybe just slow man.............

I don't think you need to plug anything into your line input on your laptop also........if I read correctly the POD has converters that will transimit your signal from analog to digital......where it is fed into your computer through your USB chord. When you open your sequencer program....ie....Audacity....Cubase...etc....just select that you want to record via the USB port......When you plug your POD into your computer via USB....go into CUBASE.....open up properties and see if you can find your POD.

I say CUBASE only because in my opinion it is a pretty good Sequencer program.

BUT........i think your computer is cutting out and skipping/droping out because it doesn't have a sufficient amount of "horsepower" or "memory" to keep up with the conversion process.

When recording its nice to have a BARE MINIMUM of 1. something gigahertz processor..................at LEAST one GIG of ram.

Also while recording..........while you are in CUBASE.....lol......or wherever......make sure you are recording your guitars at 44.1k.........this is CD quality and definetly good enough to do the job.

NEXT:

you can use pitch shift for bass lines in a song using a regular guitar......BUT..........when it comes time to play it on a stereo..........in my case anyway........it definetly lacks.........so i would suggest at least looking into a cheap bass.


NEXT:

for information on what VST's are check this out..........


http://www.tweakheadz.com/software_plugins.htm


ALSO i would highly reccomend checking this out in its entirety.......


http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm



OK.....Finally here is my reccomendation to you.......

You said earlier that you had an Audio Interface...........

A. Read the Tweakz guide on how these work

B. Buy a microphone.....the Shure SM57 is very good with electric guitars.

C. Use your POD in conjuction with a guitar amp

D. Plug your Microphone into your audio interface via an XLR cable

E. Plug your Audio interface into your computer via USB....or Firewire which ever it is......find it in your sequencer program and select it as the record/playback device.........it won't be worded exactley like that......but close.

F. Set the Microphone 2 to 3 inches from the center of the guitar amplifiers speaker cone.

G. Strum a few notes to ensure you aren't "clipping" ie....make sure the red light on your interface isn't illuminated.

H. Hit "record".......play a riff.........when done pan it all the way to the right.

I. Then select another track to record on...........hit "record" and record the EXACT same riff again.....this time pan all the way to the left.

J. and last but not least..............you said you have a PA system.....with that said your audio interface should have a set of Audio outs installed......the red and white connections like you see on all TV's etc......

Get an Audio chord that looks like that and plug the red and white dudes into the output on your audio interface........

Then plug the other end of those dudes into your audio inputs RED and WHITE....on your PA system........

WHAM!!!!!!! your ready to rock and roll my friend!!!!!!!!!


man...............ive been typing this for 30 minutes.....................im a loser