muchas problemas (a lot of problems)

[GrungeXGuitaris]

I'm having a really really hard time getting my little recording studio set-up off the ground. All I wanted was to record a little acoustic rock. I can record some great sounding (well in my opinion) acoustic guitar parts by having a condenser mic at the 12th fret recording the left channel and my acoustic electric plugged directly into my preamp recording the right channel but that seems to be the only thing I got working so far. I have a lot of problems and if I typed them all out it was just be a confusing mess. So I'll break them into groups so they are slightly organized groups of confusing mess.

Problems:
1) I own an m-audio mobile pre, which I use with one of those mxl condensers (the 60 dollar one) and an acoustic guitar. I also have copies of Sound Forge 6, Acid Loops 4, and Magix Music Studio 2004...illegal copies ...but im looking to go legit. My favorite used to be Magix but with my mobile-pre it just randomly restarts my computer and frustrates me. Sound Forge and Acid Loops work well but dont support VST plug-ins and they don't have a cool, effective mixer like Magix does. I was thinking of buying Magix Music Studio 2005 but I'm afraid the restarting will continue (although I'm just hoping its because the copy isn't legit...serves me right) and you can't edit the clips as indepth as in Sound Forge. My buget is only 100 dollars and i need a good sequencer/editer with vst support and was leaning toward Magix but am open to alternatives. So that was my first problem...

2) I don't own any kind of compressor but I really think it would help when I record my vocals and acoustic guitar. Does using a computer plugin after the sound is recorded help or do you need to buy a seperate compressor box? Or is there like an alternative real-time compressor you can download on your computer or something?

3) My vocal recordings don’t sound very musical. The singing is pretty decent but it just sounds blah even with reverb and delay and stuff. I need some help with that.

Wow that only boiled down into three problems...I thought I was more messed up than that. Anyways, if you're still reading this I thank you deeply and hope you can guide me along my path to recording good sounding acoustic rock. I will now go to sleep and check if I have any replys in my Internet and Business Technologies class (*yawn*) tomorrow. Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[Tifstorey]

Right, sounds like you just need to find what works for you to be honest. I've got to say the amount of time i have just played around with EQ settings, compressors, reverb, distortion etc etc must be running into a good hundred hours at least. I would suggest before spending loads on a new compressor, stick with what you have for now and just play around with it.

Regarding the software (Problem No. 2) Why dont you buy a LEGIT Cubase SE? under 100 dollars and its a great bit of software which supports VST. I personally use it, so obviously im going to recommend it!

Erm...Problem number 3 (dont ask why i answered 2 - 1 - 3...) What microphone are you using? Are you using a pre amp? are you using a pop shield? Again, if your using all of those, you might just want to try different places to get good reverb and nice sounding recordings. I use a little utility room to record my vocals!

Dont know if any of that helped, but im sure you will sort it out soon enough. Good luck!!

Peace

 

[GrungeXGuitaris]

Thanks for the help, but I still have a few problems. I looked into Cubase SE and it doesn't say its Windows 98 compatible and my computer barely runs 500 mhz. And regarding vocals I use one of those $60 mxl condenser mics that sold on musiciansfriend.com like hot cakes and an m-audio mobile-pre (i also use a CAD pop filter) but my vocals don't sound...good...I don't know how to explain it. They just kind of sound out of place. I'm also still wondering if I should to buy a stand-alone compressor or if I can just use a computer plugin or download some type of real-time compressor on my computer (if those even exist). Thanks for the help so far...

 

[Dogman]

What I have done on my vocals, and by no means are they great, is to double track them, then compress one quite a bit, and use them both. Pan one a little left, and one right. Not much, just a bit.

Go here for some plugins. http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95/PLUGINS_VST/

I've used quite a few from here, and had decent results. The Classic gruop is free, and works well. You just have to try some and see what works for you.

Buy a good mic and pre amp when you can afford one. Till then, just do your best.
For programs, you might try N-track. I have never used it, but see other people here do. You can download a trial of Adobe Audition, but it will expire after 30 days. Might try it though.

Good luck.
Ed