RighteousRhythm
New member
Newbie here, I'm a muilti-instrumentalist who has been in and out of bands and want to record my own material as a result of lack of effort, and lack of chemistry with bandmates and my inability to find other players in a community which is an odd mix of an urban and rural environment.
My main instrument is guitar, I own two Fender Strats and a USA Hamer. I play them through the new Blackstar HT40 combo tube amp and own a digitech 500 multi effects pedal.
I own an Ibanez BTB 550 bass, and play it through a vintage 1972 Kustom 300 watt head and matching 4x12 cabinet.
I own a vintage 1979 super maple Tama Superstar with like 14-ply shells and high-end Sabian cymbals in great condition.
I'm identifying my gear leading up to my ultimate question as to if I have what I need to produce quality recordings. There's more.
I bought the Shure drum microphone kit with mounts and possess two of those mini overhead amps for cheap off of musicians friend, having eight total. I own a MXL condenser microphone for vocals with a pop filter and a shure sm57 for recording instruments. Do I have the equipment it takes for quality sounding recordings?
I own a 2010 macbook pro with OS x (10.6.8). My friend gave me a copy of Logic Pro on a flashdrive which appears to actually work and I have purchased Reaper as well. I had previously bought a Tascam - 1641 interface, but for some reason never worked despite my best efforts. I've heard the Tascam was a problem for macs, so I sold it.
Now, what I'm basically asking is if anyone has had experiences with the pro focusrite 40 firewire interface? I'm looking to buy an interface that WORKS with my Macbook/logic. How is the latency/connection? Or, if you have experiences with the Mackie onyx firewire interface, the presonus one, etc. I can't dish out more than 600 bucks for an interface, I still want to buy studio monitors a drum machine, a looper, and a sampler.
My final question is regarding my "studio". I live with my parents (I'm still in high school), all my gear is in the basement. My basement has concrete walls and is decent size, more on the smaller side though if anything. Under the staircase, I have built a vocal room, which I think is cool and I think will work. It's small and the walls out of wood under the staircase. Obviously I can't speak for the sound. Is there ANYTHING I can do to potentially improve the sound if it's a problem? The ceiling is somwhat low, I say it's about 8 feet high and is wooden without a concrete finish over it (I live in an older home). I've heard about the egg cartions and foam, but I'm not willing to pay the price for the amount of foam I would need and my mom refuses to let me try the egg cartions. And by the way, the floor is concrete but I have a those foam puzzle piece type things and then two huge carpets over them which covers the entire floor and where the instruments are played. So, I guess I'm also looking for input on an improvement of acoustics in my basement.
I know this is a lot to respond to, so if you want to only respond to one of my issues feel free. I appreciate any help that I receive and would like to thank anyone who provides input. By the way, I play anything from jazz to hard rock. I dig just about any type of rock music or anything blues. I love bands like The Beatles, Jimi, Led Zeppelin, CCR, the Stones, but also love me some 90s...Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Beck, RATM, etc.
My main instrument is guitar, I own two Fender Strats and a USA Hamer. I play them through the new Blackstar HT40 combo tube amp and own a digitech 500 multi effects pedal.
I own an Ibanez BTB 550 bass, and play it through a vintage 1972 Kustom 300 watt head and matching 4x12 cabinet.
I own a vintage 1979 super maple Tama Superstar with like 14-ply shells and high-end Sabian cymbals in great condition.
I'm identifying my gear leading up to my ultimate question as to if I have what I need to produce quality recordings. There's more.
I bought the Shure drum microphone kit with mounts and possess two of those mini overhead amps for cheap off of musicians friend, having eight total. I own a MXL condenser microphone for vocals with a pop filter and a shure sm57 for recording instruments. Do I have the equipment it takes for quality sounding recordings?
I own a 2010 macbook pro with OS x (10.6.8). My friend gave me a copy of Logic Pro on a flashdrive which appears to actually work and I have purchased Reaper as well. I had previously bought a Tascam - 1641 interface, but for some reason never worked despite my best efforts. I've heard the Tascam was a problem for macs, so I sold it.
Now, what I'm basically asking is if anyone has had experiences with the pro focusrite 40 firewire interface? I'm looking to buy an interface that WORKS with my Macbook/logic. How is the latency/connection? Or, if you have experiences with the Mackie onyx firewire interface, the presonus one, etc. I can't dish out more than 600 bucks for an interface, I still want to buy studio monitors a drum machine, a looper, and a sampler.
My final question is regarding my "studio". I live with my parents (I'm still in high school), all my gear is in the basement. My basement has concrete walls and is decent size, more on the smaller side though if anything. Under the staircase, I have built a vocal room, which I think is cool and I think will work. It's small and the walls out of wood under the staircase. Obviously I can't speak for the sound. Is there ANYTHING I can do to potentially improve the sound if it's a problem? The ceiling is somwhat low, I say it's about 8 feet high and is wooden without a concrete finish over it (I live in an older home). I've heard about the egg cartions and foam, but I'm not willing to pay the price for the amount of foam I would need and my mom refuses to let me try the egg cartions. And by the way, the floor is concrete but I have a those foam puzzle piece type things and then two huge carpets over them which covers the entire floor and where the instruments are played. So, I guess I'm also looking for input on an improvement of acoustics in my basement.
I know this is a lot to respond to, so if you want to only respond to one of my issues feel free. I appreciate any help that I receive and would like to thank anyone who provides input. By the way, I play anything from jazz to hard rock. I dig just about any type of rock music or anything blues. I love bands like The Beatles, Jimi, Led Zeppelin, CCR, the Stones, but also love me some 90s...Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Beck, RATM, etc.
