Recording equipment needed for 4-piece band??

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frenchy10_1

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I am looking to start doing some home recording with my band and was wondering what equipment would be best.
I am the drummer and have an electronic drum kit that I wish to record with as oppose to micing up my acoustic kit. I want to be able to record vocals, guitar, bass and drums all at the same time, as if in a proper studio.
I am a complete newbie at recording so useful tips would be much appreciated.
Also I am not on unlimited budget.
Thanks
 
Ideally you want enough inputs to record as a band right? Are you interested in going the computer route or would a standalone mixer/recorder work for you (cheaper possibilities for simple results but limited in editing in ways a computer isnt).

Its helpful that he's using an electric kit if you are okay with that sound.. means he only needs 2 input channels (or one if you go in mono, but is best for stuff like that to be in stereo, either way its better than needing a half dozen mics at least)... so if you go electronic for drums:

To go along with a Vdrum (or whatever) is something I have messed with before but never for my own project.. I thought it would be cool for everyone to play together. If the drums are "V", the rest of the sounds may as well be "V" too - its not like you are looking to capture room nuances if you are working with electronic drums. ALL through emulators/cab simulators/line-out etc so the entire thing can be played together on separate tracks without any bleed from mics into any instrument. A virtual recording space that could be all in your head(phones)?

Most guitar or bass multi-pedals and modelling amps (like line 6 stuff or peavey vyper for instance) have a 'recording out' or 'cab emulator' or something similar you can plug right in with all of your virtual effects to go right along with the virtual drums, virtual bass effect pedal/amp line out... and the only live mics would be vocals. For playing together as a 4-piece you need 2 channels for each line out so everything is nice and in stereo. G/B/D/V = 6 channels in working at once, with 2 more for the vocals if you want to go all in together. The vocals you might want to record after, by themselves, as they need a lot more messing with than virtual instruments who are pretty much set up to sound the way you want them before they ever get to the track.

Look at the Zoom R16 or R24 as standalone recorders that can take in 8 channels at once to record, and also later on, if you want to edit on computers it acts as a DAW and interface for whatever software you want to run (it also comes with some software if you buy it new.. cubase i think)
 
Thanks for your reply.
This suggestion is a different way I thought to doing things so thanks for that. I was thinking of using my computer because of the possibilities there are.
Could it be done with using a USB audio interface instead, like one of the M-Audio products? Or is the R16 vitually the same thing?
You say each instrument will have 2 inputs in the R16, for stereo. How is this accomplished with the guitar and bass? Im guessing using a guitar effects pedal that has stereo out on it? Could it be done without an effects pedal, as im not sure our bassist uses one?
 
If you are using an interface, you can go with mono inputs for both bass and guitar unless you are using stereo effects pedals or amps with stereo outputs. So you need an interface with 4 ins/outs PLUS however many vocals you want to do. Of course to get complete isolation you might want to record the vocals tracks AFTER the instruments ... There are lots of options
 
frenchy10_1 said:
Thanks for your reply.
This suggestion is a different way I thought to doing things so thanks for that. I was thinking of using my computer because of the possibilities there are.
Could it be done with using a USB audio interface instead, like one of the M-Audio products? Or is the R16 vitually the same thing?
You say each instrument will have 2 inputs in the R16, for stereo. How is this accomplished with the guitar and bass? Im guessing using a guitar effects pedal that has stereo out on it? Could it be done without an effects pedal, as im not sure our bassist uses one?
Click to expand...

If I'm not just micing my cab (which is my current trend) I use my cheapo bass multipedal stereo out with a Y-cable, or a plain old DI for mono, it really depends on how you want the bass to sound but plenty of people I've seen post they just go straight from the bass into the board via an instrument jack on a recorder. Digitech and Zoom both make bass multipedals for around50 or 60 bucks. I think bass is less important to be in stereo than gtars - its nice for gtars to make them 'big' sounding without just being loud. I like everything in stereo if I can, if I'm micing my CAB I use 2 channels and 2 mics not just 1 in the middle. If you always record in mono you will notice the huge difference when you start going stereo. Everything has more room, more space to it and it just sounds fuller.

The R16 works as a standalone recorder and it's an 8 channel interface, and a DAW controller and its pretty darn cheap. I thought of it because you said you were on a budget. 300-400 bucks from most online places i've seen. many 8 channel interfaces alone cost about that sometimes more, but they might have better preamps or something. I know they aren't top-of-the-line pre's on the Zoom stuff but I've used a lot of their little toys before without worries, and I haven't really heard any complaints about the R16 or big brother R24 either, most people think it's pretty awesome for the price.

Those 8 channel in is what makes them so cool as most cheap stand-alone recorders use 2 or maybe 4, and an 8-channel interface by itself almost costs as much as this thing without the added bonus of being a mixing board, recorder, effect processor, etc. That's why I really like stand-alone recorders, plus I hate worrying about 'latency' issues that come up using solely a computer. what's cool also is that it can work with a computer, it just doesn't have to, you can do all your tracking on the recorder so you dont worry about latency, and then later edit on the computer using it just as a control surface.

Its one of the new 'hybrid' between DAW and standalone recorders, I'm sure there are other ones (I've seen a Roland VS-100 one dedicated for working with SONAR software too but its about twice the price, Zoom stuff is usually pretty cheap for all the gimmicks they throw in - that's their schtick)
 
Get a four channel interface with MIDI. Use the MIDI for your drums, one input each for vocals, left guitar, right guitar, and bass. Get yourself an sm57 and reamp guitars and bass later. You can use the sm57 for the vocals too, or if you wish you can get a condensor mic for that. If you want more options for drums sounds, there are a bunch of vst instruments for that such as Steven Slate, Superior Drummer, Addictive Drum.... so on and so forth.
 
Thanks for all your suggestions. Im now a bit undecided as to what option to go for. I like the idea of using MIDI on the drums as I have heard good things about it with electronic drums. I also like the idea of using a multitrack recorder, like the Zoom R16, that can be used with a DAW too.
Would having MIDI capabilities be a massive bonus or something I could do without? Both options sound very good and well within the price range i was thinking.
 
Knowing what your intent for the recordings would be helpful- for instance, low end would be just for self-critique, where recording quality would be less critical, high-end would be to produce your own demo discs and later CD's for sale at shows- recording quality would be much more important. Frankly, I think you are probably not ready to the later, and the Zoom R16 will, indeed, be fine for you. I have one of those, and I think it's boffo.

Spend some time getting your e-drum mix as good as you can get it, then send it to the 8-channel R16 in one or at most, two tracks. Then, one each for guitar, bass, other instrument (guitar? keys?) and vocals, using up 6 tracks. Assign the other two tracks as you wish- maybe one for back up vocals, and one for the room. Be prepared to track vocals again, which the R16's "second" 8 tracks can come in handy for.

I have never felt the need for MIDI capabilities, so IMO you don't need them, either. But that's just me.
 
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