Newbie recording and room questions

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BiggRedd2069

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Okay guys, came across the site today. Had to post and become an active member. I am 24, just bought a big house in Denver (aurora). My basement has a perfect spot for what I call my stage. Here is what I have.

Ibanez RG450 guitar
Yamaha RGZ321 guitar (not that great)
Fender DG11E acoustic/electric
Tanara guitar (cheap 1st model)
Ibanez half stack that I probably shouldn't have bought
Boss 505 effects pedal (need an upgrade bad)
Boss Br-532 4 track dig recorder (That I barely know how to use)
Kustom KP80 PA
couple of crappy mics
and some cool cheap lights setup for effect.
Drums coming soon (I don't play..yet)

I will post the pics as soon as I get a chance but what I want to do is minimize the sound in my basement but still keep it set up for live music with a small crowd. It would be hard to soundproof a whole basement (1100 sq ft) I want to try to keep the sound decent with eventual recording.

My questions about this are just in general as I don't really have any money (all $ going into fixing up the house in general, just here and there money for this). I want to start building up my arsenal of worthwhile equipment. I have read some other posts but with lack of money just want to get the essentials of what I would need for open basement live playing. example, I think I read something about a 57 mic? For now I need suggestions on two mics, one for vocals and one for the guitar cabin

1. What mic for vocals? What mic for the guitar cabinet?
2. Best, budget way to minimize sound to outside while improving overall tone?
3. With a laptop and Acidpro. Is a laptop an easy way to record? Should I use strictly my Boss recorder?
4. Anything I from what I said that are essentials I'm missing?

I've played guitar for quite a while but with out any friends into music the way I am it's hard to get an idea of what is good and not without reading on the web, not much real life experience with it all.

Sorry for the long, but first, post. Rock on
 
For Live Music:
Mikes: Sure SM 58s for vocals, no need to mike anything else in such a small space. Beta 58s are better if budget allows. There are other goods mikes by other mnfs in this same price range.

To minimize volume, you only can do two things:
1. Soundproof, the more the better.
Start with some thick carpet on the floor
Add 6" fiberglass batts to ceiling between floor joists.
Add soft material(thick foam best) to CORNERS where walls, floor, and ceiling meet, to round them out and minimize bad echoes.
Put thick curtains up opposite your stage wall an at windows.

and/or
2. Turn Down the Volume, you know, those knobs that go to eleven, try putting em at 4 or 5.

For recording:
Your Boss recorder should take you a long ways. Has direct rec. features for guitar and bass, some programmable drum tracks and some effects. To mike instr. cabs use SM 57s. These are also adequate for vocals, BTW. If your recorder can record at least 4 tracks at once, you should be able to get a decent live recording of a full band w/some experimenting.
 
Thanks for the update. I will start doing a few things starting tonight. I just bought a Pacific drum set last night. My first, not top of the line of course. The problem I was having with my boss before was that the drum machine is not easily programmable to me. It will play a looped track all day long but when I hit record the drum track will go through all of the changes, slow down, and then stick to a part of the track that I didn't want. It is extremely frustrating when I make a song with the drums and then I have to stop in the middle of the song to make changes on it. Damn annoying.

I will put a movers blanket on the opposite wall, that might be good.

I do have one area of concern that I need someones help on BIG TIME. My singers are poor and don't buy equipment so we have to use what we have. Whenever there are real drums and we turn the PA up to a matched level we get the most god awful screach/feedback.

Anybody. PLEASE help me find ideas of how to get rid of that squeal. It makes me almost just say sing without the PA.

Hoping to have pic's tonight or tomorrow, just lazy.
 
I'm fairly new to recording, but I've played a lot of live music in basements.
Things to try:
1.Make sure your mains are well in front of the mikes.
2.Angle the mains towards the opposite corners, not straight at opposing wall. Hang some blankets,foam, put a large puffy chair,etc. in those corners the mains are pointed towards. The Idea is to minimize bounce back/reflections comming back to the mikes. This is main souce of feedback and becomes a bigger problem the higher the system gain. It may be that your power amp just isn't powerful enough to give you sufficient headroom at the volume you need to be.
3. Try to do without monitors.
4.Fire the drum basher and get a drummer who is a musician. I know it sounds like an oxymoron but they do exist.

After all this, it may be that you will eventually have to invest in a more powerful system to get the necessary headroom to get the volume you need w/out feedback.

What is the power rating on your PA?
On the recording issue:
How many tracks will the Boss record at one time? I understand the more the better if you try to record drums.
 
Hey BigRed, welcome to the forum. A fellow coloradoan, can't have too many here :D

First thing to do here is identify the search button, upper right-hand of screen. Then read, read, read. There is a ton of info to be had. All very useful.

The studio building forum is a great place for questions on soundproofing and room treatment.

A good mic for rock vocals and micing guitar cabs is the SM57. Pretty much every studio in the world has at least two, so it's a good buy. You can use it on drums as well, particulary snare and toms.

As far as the squealing, whit has the right idea. The key is to keep the sound from the PA speakers from being picked up by the mic. Sometimes you just have to turn down the PA and tell everybody else to turn down as well.

Good luck. :D
 
I am the guitarist and the drum basher. I can't fire myself. I am trying to learn on these drums I bought. The recorder is a 4 track but I think for just starting out I am trying to just get the overall room sound so we can see where we are at. I do have some blankets that I can put here and there and will do that tonight. I'll start with the monitors being placed properly. The PA is 80 watts. I was hoping maybe their was a trick to it but i'll just continue to test it out. Many thanks.
 
Sorry BigRedd2069,
Didn't mean to insult your drumming, just poking a little fun at the drummer's expense you know. Please accept my apologies.
Try this to reduce drum volume.
stuff a pillow in the bass drum.
lay a piece of inner tube across aprox 1/4 of the snare.
try those bundled stick thingies and brushes too.

I uses to play a minimal kit, bass drum, HH, snare, 1 cymbal, 1 tom
in a bluegrass/newgrass/folk/country/rocknRoll Band. We had Acoustic guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, Harmonica, Electric Guitar, Steel Guitar, & Electric Bass. I found that the above worked pretty well to bring volume of drums down.

What kind of music are you writing?
 
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