Need helping getting started doing home recording

[davembfan85]

Okay so here's a small clip that gives an example of things that I can't seem to fix in my recording... (Please note that I have absolutely NO knowledge of recording and what terms mean... I know like TrackEQ means Track Equalizer, but I have no idea what it does etc.)

www.purevolume.com/bryangoetze

I am recording through my MobilePre USB device into my computer. I have a Fishman Matrix II Natural pickup/preamp, and I play a Martin D-28. My microphone is a Shure PG58. And when recording 2nd & 3rd tracks, I'm listening to it through headphones plugged into the back of my computer.

Basically this is what I find wrong with it...

1st... there's a lot of background static... the more tracks I record, the louder the background noise gets.
2nd... the delays... my guitar 1 & 2 synchronization is consitently off...
3rd... nothing seems to have a clear ring like I would hear on a studio quality recording...
4th... it only records into my left speaker.... when I wear headphones, NOTHING comes out of the right speaker... and it doesn't matter which pair of headphones I'm wearing.

Those are the 3 main things... someone with more experienced ears might find other things I can fix..

Please note that I just woke up, and drank a lot last night... vocal quality is not of concern here (many people have complimented me on my voice)... Anyway sorry about that...

Soooo any help would be great!!!

 

[davembfan85]

Please help me out

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

(Please note that I have absolutely NO knowledge of recording and what terms mean... I know like TrackEQ means Track Equalizer, but I have no idea what it does etc.)

Probably one of the reasons you're having a hard time getting anyone to respond to you is that you have not yet picked up enough knowledge for us to even be able to answer. If you don't know what "track equalization" actually means, it's not going to help you if we tell you that you need to equalize your tracks . That said, however, I'm goingto give some basic answers to your 4 questions. If you can't understand the answers, pick up (seriously) a copy of "Home Recording for Dummies" at Amazon, Border's or possibly your library and translate the answers with that.

1st... there's a lot of background static... the more tracks I record, the louder the background noise gets.

Put simply, either your room or your recording chain (or both) are too noisy.

Record as far away from your PC as possible to eliminate fan noise and make sure all fans, A/C, electrical appliances, etc. in the room are turned off first before you record. Put any posible sources of noise like your computer behind your PG58 so that it will pick up as little of the noise as possible.

Second, watch the gain staging in your signal chain. You might have the preamps in the M-Audio turned up too high, which can both boost the room noise and cause clipping distortion when recording on the conputer (you didn't mention which recording software you're using).

2nd... the delays... my guitar 1 & 2 synchronization is consitently off...

Try plugging your headphones into the MobilePre instead of the computer soundcard and that should ge rid of any delays caused by latency in your computer software.

3rd... nothing seems to have a clear ring like I would hear on a studio quality recording...

You have a looong way to go in learning technique before you can acheive that. You have to wax on/wax off before you can do the Flying Crane . But a big part of it also besides technique is that while the PG58 is not a bad microphone, it's not of the type typically used to capture great acoustic guitar sounds. After you get the other problems fairly well ironed out, look into buying (or renting for a few bucks a day) a nice condenser microphone for your guitar and maybe even your vocals. More info on this can be found by searching the Microphones forum on this board.

4th... it only records into my left speaker.... when I wear headphones, NOTHING comes out of the right speaker... and it doesn't matter which pair of headphones I'm wearing.

If you're plugging your headphones into your soundcard and using a 1/4"-miniplug adapter to get the plug to fit, if that is not a stereo adapter, you will indeed get only left-channel sound. Moving the headphone to the Mobile Pre headphone jack and getting rid of said adapter will get rid of that.

But since your recording was left channel only, I'd have to say that whatever recording software you're using might be mis-set. You need to a) use your pan controls to move the tracks to anywhere in the stereo soundfield you wish and b) save your recordings as stereo wav files and not as mono-left channel only wav files.

G.

 

[davembfan85]

Well, I understood everything you said just fine... thanks a bunch for your help, and I will certainly go pick up the said reading material.

Thanks for taking the time to help me get started