THE best piece of advice

S

Satelliterob

New member
I'm about to (try my very best) start out recording at home, my mind's made up on a "start out package" if you like, my friend gave me some good advice and i feel i'm ready to go, (when i say go, i mean try my best to set this stuff up and work out where to begin) anyway, i'm a singer accoustic solo person, my plans are simple, I want to capture some sweet acoustic and vox. I'm in no illusiuon, i don't expect to plug in, record and all be superb, so anyway, if you could give me or any first timer in home recording your best piece of advice what would be the top of your list. Bare in mind i have never used any recording software or recorded my songs anyware other than on my phone. I'm a bright person with a good ear and a good mind .. Love the site .. rock and roll
 
Lets see ....Down load reaper and get to understand how it works and then get good at it while all along listening on nice monitors to your work in a really great space that you have acoustically tune.

I assume that your friend is providing the analog to digital converters, computer, all wiring, and the microphones that you will need?







:cool:
 
What "start out package" did you get?

I think my advice would be to not take specifics too seriously at first and just have fun. Feel free to experiment with different techniques and do as much reading and learning about recording as you can. Also, don't rush recording. Sometimes it takes a while to get that "perfect take" or the "perfect mix", but when you finally get it you'll be glad you took the time to do so.

Good luck dude!
 
Thanks guys, to the first response, i live in usa now, i am English and originaly from Leeds England, My friend is there right now, he saw the link below and said for what i want on my low budget would work for me, for vox and accoustic for a first timer, i did say i have only recorded me and my ideas on my phone so please bare with me, i'm here to meet like minded people and friends .....rock and roll .. thanks all

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/PreSonus-Audiobox-USB-Recording-Package?sku=243008
 
You might do better than that, the MXL990 isn't my cup of tea and I'm not to sure about the fostex monitors either. Shop around a bit more.







:cool:
 
Ignore grimtraveller's advice !

The best advice I can give would be "Never mud wrestle with alligators".
Next up would be "Listen to all the advice you get here but bear in mind there's many roads to the airport and any one piece of advice can be right......until you get another".
Then I'd top and tail that with "Keep trying until the day you give up. Then try again".
 
grimtraveller said:
The best advice I can give would be "Never mud wrestle with alligators".
Click to expand...

Words to live by, those are, mate.

I'd say keep it fun. Digital has made the phrase nothing to lose a truism. Digital recording is like digital photography, you see a subject you like, don't spend all fuckin' day beating the shit out of the compositing, take 50 pictures, something will be great. Same thing with recording. Try any and everything. Hell I'm turning one of my brother's songs into a power ballad (he don't know it yet) but it don't matter. You can have 10 versions of every song, shit a 100 music quality CDR's cost me 23 bucks at Costco. That's 23 cents per disc.
 
Like the best fo us, we were on this boat once.

And even thou i could give an advice that could save you a
lifetime... i know you'll end up crossing the same rivers anyway,
cause the quest for your own conclusions will force you to do it.

No matter what our conclusions are, you will get to your own.
You will throw all your money like a nuts, and then...
In ten years from now, you'll realize:

That you should've never bought into the hype:

"yadda yadda equipment will make you shine".
"yadda yadda equipment will rise the value of your work".
"yadda yadda plugin or microphone, will make you sound like a beast"
"yadda yadda interface is the most versatil gear ever created"
"yadda yadda DAW is the industry standard"
"yadda yadda yadda is the BOMB".


Gear can affect clarity, sharpness, character, and definition of your captures.
Gear will not define the VALUE of your work.
Gear will not make your music or your songs Pro or amateur.

This may not be your conclusion. But you'll get to the same anyway.


----- MY ADVICE:
----- NEVER BUY INTO THOSE HYPES.

Just choose a package that best fits your budget,
and start materializing your ideas.

If you're meant to get a grammy nomination, you'll get it.
 
Advice: READ. Learn. Dont buy until you know some basics so you dont waste money.
Every bookstore has lots of basic books you NEED to read.

----------------------------------------------------------

My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies that I keep in Wordpad so this is just a paste (I don't want to re-type this all the time):

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...mp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470385421
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)
You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Gui...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1
(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!)

And you can get a FREE subscription to TapeOp magazine at www.tapeop.com

Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!!

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics and have good tips:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs
http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig: http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books: http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) and NOT quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Here's a good guide and user-tested suggestions that work: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm
(you'll want to bookmark and read through all of Tweak's Guide while you're there...)
Another good article: Choosing an audio interface - http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/audiointerfaces.htm


Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

Sony ACID Express (free 10-track sequencer): http://www.acidplanet.com/downloads/xpress/
Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)
Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\
Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com/smm

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)
I use Reaper and highly reccomend it...

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($25) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full FREE studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they gave away SamplitudeV9SE and July 2009 issue they put out Samplitude10SE. FREE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)

'Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat forever...'
 
My advice is: "Run! Find a cheaper, less time-consuming hobby. The rest of us are already trapped, but it's not too late to save yourself!"

:D

Seriously though, read a lot; try a bunch of things; revisit your old stuff and seek ways to improve; practice, practice, practice. At the base level, the same advice you apply to most any skill applies to the recording process.
 
1. Learn to play what you want to record really, really, really, really well BEFORE you hit RECORD
2. Learn how not to breathe heavily into the microphone whilst you are recording acoustic guitar (harder than it sounds...)
3. Don't get your guitar too close to the microphone, you need less signal than you think
4. Record a line out of your pickup (assuming it has one) at the same time - it can come in handy in ways you'll work out as part of your journey
5. Be open minded as to where you place your microphone in respect to your acoustic guitar - all the 'standard' positions may not work for your particular combination of guitar / strings / hands / material
6. Learn not to tap the floor with your foot whilst tracking

Acoustic guitar is not the easiest thing to record. Have patience and try stuff.

Good luck...:drunk:
 
Armistice said:
1. Learn to play what you want to record really, really, really, really well BEFORE you hit RECORD
2. Learn how not to breathe heavily into the microphone whilst you are recording acoustic guitar (harder than it sounds...)
3. Don't get your guitar too close to the microphone, you need less signal than you think
4. Record a line out of your pickup (assuming it has one) at the same time - it can come in handy in ways you'll work out as part of your journey
5. Be open minded as to where you place your microphone in respect to your acoustic guitar - all the 'standard' positions may not work for your particular combination of guitar / strings / hands / material
6. Learn not to tap the floor with your foot whilst tracking

Acoustic guitar is not the easiest thing to record. Have patience and try stuff.

Good luck...:drunk:
Click to expand...

Michael Jackson's worst habit!!!!! well it use to be. :D








:cool:
 
Many years ago, I read a book called Music Synthesizers: A Manual of Design and Construction by Delton T. Horn. In that book, Horn said you can never have too many mixers in a synth rig. That advice stuck with me all these years until I decided to have a go at home recording. He was referring to old school modular analog synths when he wrote that, but it holds true for a roomful of self-contained digital synths as well.
 
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