Newbie Help Please

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mykoolbuble

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Hi there

I want to record a few things for myself and just wondered if I could have some advice.
Professional recordings I have done at my friends studio, however I've moved recently so that's not an easy possibility.
So, if I tell you the equipment I have, could someone kindly tell me the best way of setting it up?

Allen & Heath Zed60 14fx Mixer with USB
Laptop with the usual connections
Audio Technica AE5400 Condensor Mic
Pop Shield
Mic Stand
2 x Mackie SRM450 V2 active speakers
Headphones
Cables etc
Tablet x 2


Basically, it's all set up in an outhouse etc but not sure how to connect it all up to record.
If you can tell me which software would work also, I have various programmes and I am not looking for an uber professional recording, just something I can play with and see what I can produce.

Many thanks, any questions please ask....

Cheers.

Tony.
 
Plug it in to the right slots until it works... ?

We don't know what your room is like but you're going to want to make sure the ROOM is treated right. Your speakers you can always shift around but I assume that you're not going to be knocking down the walls of your outhouse any time soon. You'll probably want to buy/build bass traps and/or foam. Somebody else here will know more about that than I do.
How large is this room? 15m^2? 100m^2?
 
Telling you how to 'hook everything up' won't teach you anything.

Get a basic recording book from Amazon and learn the basics...
 
Schwarzenyaeger said:
Plug it in to the right slots until it works... ?

We don't know what your room is like but you're going to want to make sure the ROOM is treated right. Your speakers you can always shift around but I assume that you're not going to be knocking down the walls of your outhouse any time soon. You'll probably want to buy/build bass traps and/or foam. Somebody else here will know more about that than I do.
How large is this room? 15m^2? 100m^2?
Click to expand...

Hi there

Thanks for your reply but I am not worried about the configuration of the room but how to connect the various bits of equipment up etc and programme to use, do I record the vocals and then sync up the backing track after ? etc etc, that's the kind of advice i'm looking for, step by step simple dummies guide lol - cheers.
 
Ok, so you really need to know the fundamentals.
Buy a book.
"Mixing Secrets for the Home Studio" by Mike Senior is a good one.
 
MIC > A+H
A+H USB > computer USB
Speakers > A+H main outputs
 
mykoolbuble said:
Hi there

I want to record a few things for myself and just wondered if I could have some advice.
Professional recordings I have done at my friends studio, however I've moved recently so that's not an easy possibility.
So, if I tell you the equipment I have, could someone kindly tell me the best way of setting it up?

Allen & Heath Zed60 14fx Mixer with USB
Laptop with the usual connections
Audio Technica AE5400 Condensor Mic
Pop Shield
Mic Stand
2 x Mackie SRM450 V2 active speakers
Headphones
Cables etc
Tablet x 2


Basically, it's all set up in an outhouse etc but not sure how to connect it all up to record.
If you can tell me which software would work also, I have various programmes and I am not looking for an uber professional recording, just something I can play with and see what I can produce.

Many thanks, any questions please ask....

Cheers.

Tony.
Click to expand...

So... that's quite a lot of equipment to stuff into an outhouse. doah.webpIs there still room to sit?

Did you inherit this stuff? The only reason I ask is because it seems odd to have all that, plus "various programmes" and not have a clue how to plug it in. Just looking for "the rest of the story".
 
I'll give you basic, cos I only know basic.

What instruments are you recording? Just voices? Or guitars etc. Too?

Nor sure about the mixer but you'll probably need a USB audio iinterface. Mine is old but the oat recommend one on here is the Komplete Audio 6. You plug your mic into this and it goes into the USB port.

You'll need some recording software (a DAW).your best starting point on this is REAPER. free to test and really good. I have been using it for years.

Now you're pretty much good to go!
 
Hi there

OK, I am a professional singer, hence having all the gear, the outhouse is huge, all I want to know is how to hook it up lol.
So, I am thinking PA system hooked up as normal but backing music played INTO the mixer (I presume from a separate source to the latop, maybe Tablet? as the laptop will be recording) via normal cables and use the USB cable to send the signal to my laptop? Should I have faders OFF and use headphones for the music (so that I can hear the song) and just record the vocals onto the laptop?
Do I need anything else or I can just record direct into something like Audacity or something like that? Presuming I need two wave forms, one for the backing music and one for the vocals?
That's all I'm looking to do, I'm not looking to do this professionally - or for a long period of time, just want to test it out and see what result I can get but don't really know where to start.

Thanks
 
OK, OP - Let's just talk about some basic schtuff.

Let's start at the computer and work our way back to your voice. And this is where there is still a big question mark regarding your "setup". At the heart of the whole thing you need a software recording program. What are these "various programmes" to which you refer? Give us a short list. So let's assumes, just for now, that you have appropriate software. As mentioned above, REAPER is good example of the type of program you need (I happen to use REAPER). This is your DAW - Digital Audio Workstation. Basically it's a software version of a mixer and tape recorder.

You can connect your Allen & Heath to your PC via USB.

And forget all about the speakers for now. We're going to do this all with headphones. The process I describe below involves just 3 tracks - a stereo backing track and a mono vocal track.

OK, so now we've worked our way back to your mixer. There are a couple stereo inputs on it. I'm not sure what you're considering for your backing tracks, but you could plug a CD player into a stereo input on the mixer. Then you could record the CD into your DAW and have a stereo backing track. So now your backing tracks are recorded on the pc.

Once you're at this point, all you have to do is plug a microphone into your mixer, playback the recorded backing track that's now in your DAW while simultaneously recording your voice on another track in the DAW. Make sense?

Most of the confusion that you'll encounter is likely to be setting up the software "routing" between your mixer and your DAW, and between your DAW and your headphones. This can sometimes be a bear and most of us have torn out a few hairs trying to sort out our initial setups. Don't get frustrated - ask us.

Or you could maybe forget the mixer entirely, plug things in directly to your pc - headphones, mic, etc., and I THINK do this all in Audacity - not sure, but I THINK so.
 
Last edited:
bLUiVORY said:
OK, OP - Let's just talk about some basic schtuff.

Let's start at the computer and work our way back to your voice. And this is where there is still a big question mark regarding your "setup". At the heart of the whole thing you need a software recording program. What are these "various programmes" to which you refer? Give us a short list. So let's assumes, just for now, that you have appropriate software. As mentioned above, REAPER is good example of the type of program you need (I happen to use REAPER). This is your DAW - Digital Audio Workstation. Basically it's a software version of a mixer and tape recorder.

You can connect your Allen & Heath to your PC via USB.

And forget all about the speakers for now. We're going to do this all with headphones. The process I describe below involves just 3 tracks - a stereo backing track and a mono vocal track.

OK, so now we've worked our way back to your mixer. There are a couple stereo inputs on it. I'm not sure what you're considering for your backing tracks, but you could plug a CD player into a stereo input on the mixer. Then you could record the CD into your DAW and have a stereo backing track. So now your backing tracks are recorded on the pc.

Once you're at this point, all you have to do is plug a microphone into your mixer, playback the recorded backing track that's now in your DAW while simultaneously recording your voice on another track in the DAW. Make sense?

Most of the confusion that you'll encounter is likely to be setting up the software "routing" between your mixer and your DAW, and between your DAW and your headphones. This can sometimes be a bear and most of us have torn out a few hairs trying to sort out our initial setups. Don't get frustrated - ask us.

Or you could maybe forget the mixer entirely, plug things in directly to your pc - headphones, mic, etc., and I THINK do this all in Audacity - not sure, but I THINK so.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's exactly what I was looking for - it all makes sense now. I've got AISOforall which someone told me about so that I can do this, I don't have Reaper but if you use it and it works then I'll give it a go for sure. Now I understand - the recording the backing onto the lappy first was something I'd not thought of, and yes, I get what you mean about the routing when playing back and recording at the same time (for the vocal) - yup, speakers don't need to be on of course as it's coming through the headphones.
Brilliant, thanks so much, I'll give it a go in the week and post back and let you know how I got on :)

Very happy - thanks so much to everyone for replying :)

Have a great Sunday!
 
If you are in the US, most libraries have e-book loan program. Just went over a book, Recording For Dummies book. It will provide you a really good basic understanding at how to setup a home studio. Really good book that covers the full spectrum of recording at home.

If you don't have access to a library, then the book goes for about $20. Once you have the basics down (you can learn in a couple of weeks what will take several months to learn on your own), you can then work towards more advanced recording techniques.

Starting with good basics will really get you where you are aiming for fast.
 
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