My Home Studio.

[pandamonk]

Thanks for the suggestions on the mics panda.

I'm in kind of a small room which is why i worry (but dont really know) about using an overhead mic. Secondly, I hate to admit it but money is definitely an issue as I took out a guitar center credit card to get the majority of the gear i have: digital reference drum mics, digital reference dynamic mic, 10 ch yamaha mixer, m-audio monitors, and cables(but its one year no payments and no interest so i have been chipping away at that one and it should be $0 in 4 months)...not to mention the two inspires that I got for $85 each (which about the best deal for that kind of money i think)

The point: can i get lower end mics? can you suggest any?

The way I look at it is unless everything i have is high quality, I am wasting my time with just a few expensive pieces of equipment. ie: having really good mics without buying the $40 monster cables for each of them....

I would be willing to spend about $100 more dollars...i know thats pitiful but its tight right now...probubly used would be the way to go correct?

I'm sure there are mics that would do the job, and if you were in the UK i could dfinitely remmond a few, but I'm not really sure what to recommend.

Yeh the condenser overhead would pick up more of ther room sound, which is bad when it's small. But most people tend to want an overhead mic(s) to pick up and overall sound of the drums, AND cymbals. If you can get enough of the cymbals with the dynamics closemiked on the drums, then don't bother, but i'm quite sure you'll need an overhead, esp if you want the cymbals to sound good. The mics I recommended aren't really "expensive pieces of equipment". The SP B1 is a good BUDGET mic. There are much better, and more expensive mics out there. And i'd say cables are probably the last thing you'll need to upgrade. This is my order of importance for recording:

• Music(the song has to sound good)
• Experience(you need to know what you're doing)
• instruments(need to sound good)
• acoustics(the room needs to sound good, and control room needs to be as flat as possible to hear what you've recorded)
• monitors(need to be able to hear what you've recorded)
• mic(need to be of decent quality to pick up the sound well)
• mic pre(needs to amplify the signal well)
• convertion(needs to convert well)
• cables

They obviously need to all be of decent quality, but if i had everything and had to upgrade, that is the order i'd do it. I think it's an order of what makes the most difference to a recording. Cables make only the very slightest of difference, if any(inaudible). The difference between 24-bit 48kHz and 24-bit 192kHz, is almost inaudible, only to the top engineers. The difference between pres is audible, but not hugely. Mics have quite major differences... and so on...

 

[Lepricoin]

I'm going to start shopping for a used or new SM57 as well as a condenser mic.

Thank you for all of the help!

 

[pandamonk]

I'm going to start shopping for a used or new SM57 as well as a condenser mic.

Thank you for all of the help!

Hope everything goes well, and let us hear the results.

 

[Mr. Antrobus]

As far as lower end mics for drum oh's (assuming the room isn't too bad), I keep hearing good things about the $25 ea naiant msh-1.

They're small electret condensor mics with an omni capsule (panasonic?) that's actually quite decent. to get better you'd have to spend 10x as much, easy.

 

[pandamonk]

As far as lower end mics for drum oh's (assuming the room isn't too bad), I keep hearing good things about the $25 ea naiant msh-1.

They're small electret condensor mics with an omni capsule (panasonic?) that's actually quite decent. to get better you'd have to spend 10x as much, easy.

They're only $25?!!!

 

[Lepricoin]

Well I posed another song that I just recorded....

There should be about five disclaimers for this little track...

1) It's me being a complete fool

2) It is out of time becaue what i have been doing is saving snipits of riffs that I like on my loop station so in effect it is out of time because I didnt feel like playing it again, it was really hard to follow on drums because of the random time switches when I was playing guitar (looking back I should have just re-played it with the *click*

3) It's a song about my car breaking down on the way to a gig in rochester last night so....enjoy

purevolume.com/neutralmachine It's called "head gasket"

 

[danny.guitar]

I think there is a lot of room for improvement there...not trying to be mean but that's my honest opinion...

 

[Lepricoin]

No, I completely agree with you!

That was the second "song" if you will that I recorded to completion. I am completely aware that it isn't good (that I can't sing) and that there is room for improvement.

I just need to keep recording and keep recording and keep taking suggestions and then record some more!!

Any thing obvious would be helpful...

I think that is an improvement from the first recording except that the first recording was in time......

I'm still looking for a chep condenser mic for vocals because that was recorded with a 7 dollar eBay mic

 

[rayc]

Why not post this in the songwriting forum for comments recco's about the song, structure etc or in the MP3 clinic for the same regarding the recording & mix?
Oh, & when you do set the link up so that it will link & not need to be copied & pasted into an address line.
Plenty of helpful assistance in those areas and, if you're willing to heed it, small step to improvement can be had.

 

[Lepricoin]

Why not post this in the songwriting forum for comments recco's about the song, structure etc or in the MP3 clinic for the same regarding the recording & mix?
Oh, & when you do set the link up so that it will link & not need to be copied & pasted into an address line.
Plenty of helpful assistance in those areas and, if you're willing to heed it, small step to improvement can be had.

thanks for the suggestion, I originally posed it here because I thought of it as a continuation of my prior discussion with panda and the like but will do!

 

[danny.guitar]

No, I completely agree with you!

That was the second "song" if you will that I recorded to completion. I am completely aware that it isn't good (that I can't sing) and that there is room for improvement.

I just need to keep recording and keep recording and keep taking suggestions and then record some more!!

Any thing obvious would be helpful...

I think that is an improvement from the first recording except that the first recording was in time......

I'm still looking for a chep condenser mic for vocals because that was recorded with a 7 dollar eBay mic

Someone suggested the Naiant MSH microphones. They're about $20-$25 and they are all I use. They are perfectly capable of good, clean, recordings. The drums sound pretty bad, the whole thing sounded like it was recorded in a bedroom (for obvious reasons). But there are some things you can do to help that.

Most people wouldn't recommend the MSH mic for vocals. There are better ones out there (typically you want a directional mic like a cardioid). But my friend has gotten good sounding vocals with the MSH omni mics so I don't know...

I think better mic placement on the drums would help a shitload. Better singing would be the biggest improvement.

But yeah, keep at it and you'll get better. You can read all the info on here all day long but it really takes experience for it to kick in.

 

[pandamonk]

The guitar and drums sound very dull, if you get what I mean, and very roomy(like it's recorded in a bedroom). The drums sound much better than they did(still not great), but the guitar doesn't, imo. I think the amp might actually have been too quiet when it was recorded, or it's been badly EQ'd. Also experiment with mic placement.

 

[Lepricoin]

Well I put together another track just before work....no vox though....

it took me about an hour....this time I adjusted the eq settings for the drums...but i still didnt mess with eq for guitar....

the drums are recorded completely on improve and i just kind of figured out what to do on guitar overtop as I went along...

again its not perfectly in time becaue well I dont have all day to spend on this!!!

http://purevolume.com/neutralmachine

 

[Lepricoin]

Double post

 

[pandamonk]

Well I put together another track just before work....no vox though....

it took me about an hour....this time I adjusted the eq settings for the drums...but i still didnt mess with eq for guitar....

the drums are recorded completely on improve and i just kind of figured out what to do on guitar overtop as I went along...

again its not perfectly in time becaue well I dont have all day to spend on this!!!

http://purevolume.com/neutralmachine

I actually meant the EQ on the guitar amp. I'll give that a listen though.

 

[pandamonk]

Right. The toms are way loud, the snare is quiet in comparison, as though it's not miked. The guitar sounds like the mid's be put way up, and treble and bass have been reduced. The distortion doesn't sound too nice either...

But it's getting better as a whole i think.

 

[Lepricoin]

thanks for the comments!

ill just keep at it

 

[Lepricoin]

Finally a new track just did it today in about six hours.....well enjoi!!

New Song!

 

[pandamonk]

I'm a little drunk, but that sounds better. The vocals sound quite distant though. Maybe singing closer to the mic, absorption, and louder would make it sound better.

Sounded like some pretty bad clipping with the first cymbal/kick.

I think drums could do with being a little clearer. Maybe overheads would add this... A little louder also, but i'm a drummer, so i would say that.

Everything sounds better. It just needs to all bind together.

 

[Lepricoin]

I'm a little drunk, but that sounds better. The vocals sound quite distant though. Maybe singing closer to the mic, absorption, and louder would make it sound better.

Sounded like some pretty bad clipping with the first cymbal/kick.

I think drums could do with being a little clearer. Maybe overheads would add this... A little louder also, but i'm a drummer, so i would say that.

Everything sounds better. It just needs to all bind together.

Thanks man i will always keep trying/improving helpfully

thanks for all your help!!!

...just so happens i just poured myslef a white russian so CHEERS!

thanks again...