New home studio project

[verbity]

I'm trying to record a album totally at home. I'm deciding between going with something like Line 6's pod live x3 for guitars and bass. Or going with my regular amp and mic'ing it up.

I'm running through Acid Pro. I guess I know what's up with Line 6 but what hardware interface would I use to record if I was running off a Bugera amplifier into a Shure 57?? I have no idea what comes after the mic then the cord!!

If anyone thinks running the line 6 direct would good please lemme know cause I wouldn't mind saving myself the $600.

 

[chamelious]

Yeah you need a soundcard/interface. Have a look at M-Audio's delta 44, simple solid way to get 4 balanced ins and outs.

What else do you need to record?

Look into behringers V-Amp as an alternative to the POD, a load cheaper.

 

[Bomer]

I'm relatively new to home recording but I actually use a Line 6 Pod X3 for recording with Acid Pro (I have friends who work for Sony). I really like it, though my ear is probably not as good as most people's here. Later, I will post a link to something I recorded for a friend of mine and you can get the idea, if you want.

 

[Neeps]

It goes like this...

Your Recording Space >> Your Source (e.g. your amp) > > Your Mic (e.g. your shure sm57) > > Your Mic preamp >> Your AD converter (e.g. a soundcard/audio interface) >> Your software (e.g. cubase) >> Your DA converter (your soundcard again) >> Your monitor speakers >> Your Room >> Your Ears >> Bada bada bing and you hear your recording.

Some Audio interfaces have built in mic preamps. You could record direct with a pod it depends on what your aiming for. Depends how good your amp sounds. The real thing is still considered better than modelled amps.

My take on the chain is that things are more important the further away you are from the center of it i.e. your software. The source, the room and your ears are the most important things.

Which audio interface you require depends (amongst other things) on how many channels you need to record simultaneously. Also I find the direct monitoring on my latest interface very useful.

 

[chamelious]

It goes like this...

could record direct with a pod it depends on what your aiming for. Depends how good your amp sounds. The real thing is still considered better than modelled amps.

QUOTE]


Some very good points made here but i disagree with this, or rather maintain that its highly subjective. If you have a very expensive amp and a mic that will do it justice (not nessiscarily an expensive part), the room to record it in and the skills to mic it correctly, its likely the amp will yield better results.

A POD/V-Amp will give you a lot of usable sounds which take no time at all to set up for recording.

I believe the guitarists from evanescence use Line6 stuff. You might not like them, you might not like their tone, but they're releasing records with it on and making plenty of money out of it.

 

[Bomer]

It goes like this...

could record direct with a pod it depends on what your aiming for. Depends how good your amp sounds. The real thing is still considered better than modelled amps.

QUOTE]


Some very good points made here but i disagree with this, or rather maintain that its highly subjective. If you have a very expensive amp and a mic that will do it justice (not nessiscarily an expensive part), the room to record it in and the skills to mic it correctly, its likely the amp will yield better results.

A POD/V-Amp will give you a lot of usable sounds which take no time at all to set up for recording.

I believe the guitarists from evanescence use Line6 stuff. You might not like them, you might not like their tone, but they're releasing records with it on and making plenty of money out of it.

As a user of a Line 6 product, I completely agree with this. Line 6 bases most of their tones on other tones. They do a good job I think but under ideal circumstances the real thing will almost certainly win out. The question is, can you create those ideal circumstances on your own? I know I can't yet but I can certainly get acceptable sounds from my POD without really even trying.

Here is a link to something that was recorded in my tiny apartment using only my POD X3 and my laptop running Acid Pro 6:
http://www.myspace.com/thesynthesissyndicate

 

[verbity]

Yes I agree...a lot of metal guys use Line 6 stuff. Messhugah, Dave Mustaine, that guy from six am. The key (which I don't know yet) is how to get the fuzz or "drone" out of the low end....so, if you a guitarist and you start chugging on your low E, D, C, B whatever you have it tuned to...it doesn't just fuzz together. I'm happy with the middle to top end on line 6 but I'm working on getting than clean, crisp, distinct chug for my music which is essential cause I play all grind core/ metal core stuff ..... if you got any ideas how to pull that out lemme know that would be awesome....

 

[Neeps]

If you have a very expensive amp and a mic that will do it justice (not nessiscarily an expensive part), the room to record it in and the skills to mic it correctly, its likely the amp will yield better results.

A POD/V-Amp will give you a lot of usable sounds which take no time at all to set up for recording.

That's what I meant to say... it depends on how good your amps sounds. If the pod sounds better use the pod. My amps doesn't make a sound anymore... it was shit so i ripped the insides out and converted it into a lamp for the studio. Waves GTR on the computers sounded way better. If on the other hand I actually owned an amp as good as the ones they modelled then the real amp would probably sound better than the model. But then i'd need to buy lots of expensive amps.

 

[roryo]

hi a friend of mine swears by his pod xt live for recording. now myself i am a live cabnet recording kinda guy, i find you get a much realistc tone and you really get what you want. you also find you different tones by mic placement, give your recording an all round versitility. i done a small home set up which done me great for less than 300GBP which would be around $500-$600 and that was a 10 channel analogue mixer, rode NT-1 mic and cables all going in to the computers standard sound card. it worked great for me and i got real nice tone.

http://www.bebo.com/recording-revolution

all the tracks here where recorded with that set up. im not saying the mastering or anything was good but you get the quality factor from the mic and set up. you can use your sm57 in the set up instead of the rode nt-1.

hope this might have helped

 

[chamelious]

Yes I agree...a lot of metal guys use Line 6 stuff. Messhugah, Dave Mustaine, that guy from six am. The key (which I don't know yet) is how to get the fuzz or "drone" out of the low end....so, if you a guitarist and you start chugging on your low E, D, C, B whatever you have it tuned to...it doesn't just fuzz together. I'm happy with the middle to top end on line 6 but I'm working on getting than clean, crisp, distinct chug for my music which is essential cause I play all grind core/ metal core stuff ..... if you got any ideas how to pull that out lemme know that would be awesome....

I play similer stuff. You mention low end fuzzing together, this sounds like bad pickups. What kind of pickups are you using? I recently replaced a stock bridge pickup with an EMG 81 and noticed a large improvment in the clarity of the low end.

 

[verbity]

Re: recording setup

I play similer stuff. You mention low end fuzzing together, this sounds like bad pickups. What kind of pickups are you using? I recently replaced a stock bridge pickup with an EMG 81 and noticed a large improvment in the clarity of the low end.

I'm using 85n 81B...I messed around with it and realized there was tooo much driver.... Well...I'm at a loss for what to do...I think I will give the Line 6 a shot and then I will go ahead and use the bugera 6262 and see how that works and go from there....but it would be cool if I could actually mic up the Line 6....get a little ambience ya know...I know you can mess with the room and mic settings but I think it would sound different if it were actually mic'd up through a pa ... maybe I don't really know what the hell I'm talking about either and should be quiet.....

 

[chamelious]

I'm using 85n 81B...I messed around with it and realized there was tooo much driver.... Well...I'm at a loss for what to do...I think I will give the Line 6 a shot and then I will go ahead and use the bugera 6262 and see how that works and go from there....but it would be cool if I could actually mic up the Line 6....get a little ambience ya know...I know you can mess with the room and mic settings but I think it would sound different if it were actually mic'd up through a pa ... maybe I don't really know what the hell I'm talking about either and should be quiet.....

I dunno, i mean i play in drop B and dont notice any clarity problems with the low end.