Noob - What should i be doing?

T

TheMorningRain

New member
Hi there,

So ive been playing guitar and such for years now, but i have only really started recording in the last year or so, i started of in mixcraft and im now using reaper.

Basically all i have is a C1-U usb condensore mic, a mic stand, a pair of cheap sony MDR V150 headphones, a guitar link interface and reaper.

I know im never going to get anything sounding perfect with this setup, but what can i do to get started. I downloaded a few project tracks of line to have a go at mixing, but as you can see not much good.

http://soundcloud.com/chris-music-53/rough-band-mix

Where did you start your home recording journey? Should i be practicing mixes? Recording my own, bad quality tracks or what? Any posts on here that would help me get started?

Thanks in advance,

Chris.
 
Not sure which of those tracks/mixes are your own recordings and which are tracks you downloaded to practice mixing...but after listening to a few of them...I would start with a tuner. :)

After that...decide what you want to do with recording. If you want to write/record your own music, then start writing & recording your own music. ;)
Also...I would not practice mixing ahead of recording. Yeah, you can download other people's tracks and just mess around with mixes, but there's a lot of foundation to be learned/gained from the actual recording/tracking process that ties directly into the mixing stage.
 
TheMorningRain said:
Where did you start your home recording journey? Should i be practicing mixes? Recording my own, bad quality tracks or what? Any posts on here that would help me get started?

Thanks in advance,

Chris.
Click to expand...

I would start as simple as a live recording of your guitar or singing performance (if you can sing). Recording as what miroslav says, is a very important skill to any home-based musician. Once you learn the art and science of proper tracking/recording, mixing will look easier. It is because you cannot properly mix tracks if they are not properly recorded. Its like the "garbage in-garbage out" analogy.

If I were you, I would try learning how to use microphones and aiming it to your instrument, whether it will be guitar amps or your voice. Then I would try to learn how to capture the sound perfectly without any noise and with all that clarity and response. This is where you should start. You can record a sample of your live guitar performance and see if it sounds great or not. I see that you are not using a quality studio monitors, you should get one. Don't assess the overall quality of your recordings using headphones.

Read and experiment. Try to find out what things work and what sounds good to you. Don't blame your gears first if your recording does not sound nice. Instead ask yourself if you are recording it properly. Put more emphasis in developing your recording skills than putting more money on gears to improve the quality of your work.

Search this forum for some recording tips or some other music production websites. Once you are confident of your recordings, you can start practicing mixes. Audio mixing is another complex topic, but you will find out soon that your mixes would easily sound good if they are properly recorded.
 
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