Mediocre recording equipment.

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aposynthesi

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Well, I'm hoping you guy's / girl's can help me out with this, as I know a small amount about recording, and I want some decent equipment to experiment on.

I am going to cover guitar ( including bass), drums and vocals.

I'm not sure if this will matter, but I'll be recording stuff such as The Cure and Morrissey to extremely melodic, progressive, black, doom metal, like Opeth and all of Dan Swanö's work.

My buddy Matt recommended these prices for equipment earlier...

fattmusiek: audio interface ( what connects your music tro your computer ) cost around $800-2000 for 10 or so in/outs
fattmusiek: mixer will cost around $1000
fattmusiek: maybe less
fattmusiek: $600-1000
fattmusiek: and mics will cost around $1000-1500

My drums are the main focus...picture

I'll be adding and replacing a few cymbals in the near future, and I'll also be adding a 8" and 10" tom, and replacing the 13" with a 14"...

Could you also recommend a place or a few to purchase the equipment?

Thanks for your help everyone...
 
I think he means Fartmuzik, the new self-contained all-in-one recording system powered by methane gas. The recording quality is suppposed to be really rich and warm--almost fragrant. It's an amazing box, but how it works is still a mystery 'cause everyone's afraid to crack open the box to take a peek.

Pull my finger. :D
 
Give a budget and what he's going to do with his recording setup. How many things does he plan on recording? I know he says his drums, but is that it? Will you overdub everything after you record the drums? Will you record everything at once?

More info, yo.
 
Chris Fallen said:
Give a budget and what he's going to do with his recording setup. How many things does he plan on recording? I know he says his drums, but is that it? Will you overdub everything after you record the drums? Will you record everything at once?

More info, yo.
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Within the prices that Matt gave - probably $3000-4000 total.

I plan on recording guitar, bass, vocals, and drums... everything separately... then overdub.
 
Okay, count up how many mics your drumset will need. Two for overheads, one snare, one kick, one for each tom (3?). That's 7. So pretty much round it off at 10.

You have a LOT of money to spend. That's a good thing.

Step one will be hanging around this website and figuring out WHY you need these things and what they do:

Preamp
ADC
Monitors

Those are the things that when I came here I knew nothing about. Read read read and then search and read some more. After you understand what everything does, then you can switch to 'buy' mode and pick up stuff that you'll understand.


If you have nothing (I'm assuming you have a computer?) then you'll need a decent ADC (analog to digital converter). Maybe a RME Multiface (I think around $900), preamps (the simple cheap way would be to go through a board, and with $1000 being your budget that'll probably be your best bet. I'd say spend $600 on a Soundcraft M12 and then the remaining on a FMR RNP or the like), and then another $5-700 on a nice pair of monitors. I don't know what a nice pair would be in those price ranges (tons of people love the Yorkville YSM1Ps).

Mics will come after. For a rock band, probably a sm57 for each guitar cab, sm57 for snare, each of the toms, some nice SD condensers for OHs, then a nice vocal mic (check out some BLUE Mics). Don't forget the kick mic and a bass mic or DI (or both!). Bare bones that's what you should be expecting. Each of the tom mics could be replaced with a Sennheiser 421. Maybe a 441 (can be used for vocals, too!) for the snare. There are endless amounts of upgrades and shit you can do for mics. Mostly it comes down to costs and such.


And by the way, make sure to double check everything I say with someone else. I don't even know what I'm talking about.


Oh, and let me chime in on some more things. Monitors are IMPORTANT.

Read that sentence again. No, your home stereo will not work. No, a pair of 'nice' headphones will not, either.


Do you plan on recording through your computer and then sending it back to the board to mix, or do you plan on mixing in the box? Either way you'll need a recording program. N-Track can be a start for you. It's free for the normal version (16-bit) and only like, $60 for the upgrade to 24-bit. Simple enough. If you want something more expensive you could go for Sonar or any of the other programs you can look up on this bbs.

You'll also want some effect and dynamics processing. Any of these can be plug-ins, I suggest you look at Waves plug ins if you choose to go that route.

For hardware compressors you should check out the FMR RNC. Really nice (pun intended) for the price. For reverb units I have no idea. I just have a Lexicon MPX1 and I can't really vouch for how well it works (it sounds fine to me, but I don't have that much experience).

Yeah.
 
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FattMusiek said:
:( Come on guys, he needs some help.
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Oh...sorry...I thought this was some sort of joke thread. :p

I think he needs to be a little more specific about what he wants to do, what he has now, and his recording environment.

How many instruments will be recorded at once?

Where will the recording be done?

Is the recording space acoustically prepared for recording multiple instruments?

What are the specs on your computer?

Will you be using any MIDI devices?

What will you monitor with?

Any idea of what types of software you will need: sequencer, editor, soft synth?
 
One instrument at a time...

Recording will be in an insulated garage... soon to be turned into a fully insulated room, with studio foam in it.

I have a 1.8Ghz Athlon XP, with 512MB DDR333 RAM, I don't belive any of the other specs are relevant, other than the CD-RW.

No MIDI devices.

I'll monitor with whatever monitors you guy's recommend.

I basically started this post because I need everything... I have nothing, except a budget for recording equipment, a room, and the instruments.

Thanks again...
 
Just remember that with all the gear in the world your recording will still sound like shit if you don't know how to use it.

Read read read. Once you understand what does what and why you need them then you can make your own shopping list instead of just buying according to some guy on a bbs.
 
My advice is to use the search function for each category you are looking for: mics, preamps, sound cards, software, etc. You will find a ton of information and opinions as these subjects have been covered in detail many times. The search function is your friend. Then, as you refine your questions and ask them in the specific forums, some of the more experienced folks on this board can give you their recommendations.
 
If you know you ve got x amount of money to spend you might just want to imitate someone who makes decent recordings with a studio about at your budget level. trying to research everything on your own and not buy redundant or overpriced or crap gear is going to be tough.

then allow yourself like 3-6 months just messing with the gear before you try to record something for real

47ronin
 
Hm, 3-6 months? He's kind of the computer saavy type, he'll catch on quickly.
 
the computer is the easiest part...
its the compression,eq,mic placement,noise reduction,etc etc etc that take time

is this for a band that actually has the songs all ready and rehearsed? that would make things a lot easier as the members will know what kind of sounds they need and you could pretty much just worrying about recording and not on effects and editing as much

in any rate good luck it sounds like an interesting band with those influences you said


47ronin
 
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