Virgin PC recording.

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Foz

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Hi All!, this is my first ever post on these boards, ive been looking all over the internet for a place to find out about this and i think this is it. I manage a website for a band i know, check it out www.inducemusic.com heh, sorry about the plug. Anyway what im trying to find out is can i reproduce a recording studio on my home PC for us to create decent enough tracks instead of going into a studio and paying out quite a lot of money. There are four in the band, vocals, bass, guitar and drums. If it can be done then what software will i need and what equipment. My PC at the mo is Ath 1.0 gig, SB Live soundcard full version, 1.0 gig memory. Forgive me if im asking silly questions but im not sure on how to achieve what im after if i can at all that is! Thanks for your help!
 
Well your going to need a little money. In my opinion the most difficult part would be recording the drums... Is the computer in a place where you can set up a drumset? If not can you move the computer?. Do you have access to a 4 track to possibly take to the drums.

What equipment do you have already that you can use... You'll probably need a preamp that you can get for $100+ ..

My setup is as follows.

I have my mics going through my preamp. From the preamp to my compressor. From the compressor to a 4 track and from the 4 track to the soundcard. (Im using the 4 track as a mixer) .

The whole setup is worth about $500 (not including the computer of course) and then theirs my monitors. Im using the Studiophile SP-5B's for $299 (hey... its better than my Sony Vaio Desktop Speakers)

You'll also need recording software which can vary in price according to the features that you'll need... I prefer CoolEdit.

Something like that would do you nicely, and end up cheaper than a week in the studio!
 
If your looking for the best value to record one demo or EP then the studio is the best way to go. It's easier to get everyone in a band to pitch in for that then it is to aquire all the neccessary gear.

Expect to spend around $200-400 per song in a pretty decent studio. Compare that to the $3000-5000 you would have to spend to put together a recording setup that would still be pretty mediocre.

If you really want to get into recording than go for it. But don't kid yourself into thinking it is a cheap way to record a great album unless you have a year or two to work on it.
 
Tex is right, it depends on your goal. If you want an album and want it to sound great and that's that, then buy the studio time and let some real engineers handle your produciton. But if this is for a more permanent recording solution (long term) you may want to buils a system, it will pay off OVER TIME. But that's not to mention the learning curves associated with the audio software and using the audio hardware, mixing and mastering and so on. If you and your band members want to concentrate on playing the music and being the musicians, you may want to leave the recording and mastering up to the pros :D

BTW, welcome to the board!
 
Welcome Foz!

The other guys have pretty much told you what you need to know right now. Your PC is certainly capable enough, but you will have to make some decisions about what you want to do, and how much you want to spend.

One thing I will add- if by chance you already have mics and a mixer for doing live gigs, or can borrow one, then you can experiment is doing a "live" basement recording and patching the mixer into your SoundBlaster card. Your results are not going to be very good, but hey it's a place to start...
 
i think i may try anyway.

Thanks a lot for the info guys, if the startup is approx $500 then thats fine, im in the UK by the way!, thats not too bad at all really. Its more of id like to try and the band wouldnt mind giving me the time as theyve only been in the studio once and they're struggling to go in again because of the cost. At the moment its not too serious, the band are going local gigs around the area, last week they supported Diamond Head in Sheffield! top gig. So anyway im really into IT, its my job so i dont mind messing around for hours geting things right, i also love to play with music, web sites etc, so the time and patience is there oh and also the band have a little pratice room where i could take my PC to. So i still want to try, the next question is where do i start? like i said im quite familiar with technology but not recording on PC's, can you guys help me at all? Oh and to compare what quality i could get on a PC to the bands studio efforts goto their website and compare the quality of the songs on there and tell me if i could do better on a home PC than they got from the studio as these songs were recorded in the studio, the websites www.inducemusic.com goto songs on the left and download any of those, i recommend Reflection or Stoned & Dethroned to be honest. I really want to get this thing together for my benefit of knowing more about how these things work but to also help the band too, im purely relying on your guys experience, thanks a lot you lot for replying above i really appreciate it!!!
 
What the hell does this have to do with recording virgins???

:rolleyes: UhOh... This isn't the cave is it...
 
Foz,

I checked out the tunes on the website. They are pretty nice recordings, but by no means out of reach IMHO. I've definitely heard recordings that I personally liked better in the clinic. The drums in particular didn't seem to come out like I would expect on a professional production. And the engineer seemed to like that airy reverb.
I think a PC is able to do comprable recording, but it's not just the PC. Your knowledge, experience and ear are going to determine what comes out of the end. So you won't just start digital recording and come out with stuff that's right, there are learning curves. And of course upgrades will be in order for this kind of quality. You would need a better soundcard I think and I don't know your micing situation, but good quality mics and pres make life a bit easier. Ihope this helps some

Good songs by the way, very radio ready with some better mastering I think :D
 
So what next then?

thats great advice Barometer, so wot next then? Id love to give it a go with the band, and so i want to know what i need to do first, is is possible you can tell me what equipment i need to start and ill do the rest, what souncard, mikes etc do you recommend for a budget of approx $500? i appreciate your help with all of this, i know i must sound like i dont know what im doing and youre probably right but ill get there after a while im sure. We all have to start somewhere and i think this may be my first step!

On another note, whats the situation like in USA to get your songs on air? Here in the UK its very difficult but in the USA i imagine its easier but theres a lot of bands doing the same? im not sure? Are there any easey steps to get your songs heard by as many people as possible apart from marketing the band yourself vis a website or something? ok ill stop now before my fingers blister!
 
Hey Foz,

These are pretty heavy questions for me, I'm probably not far from you as experience goes.
Addressing your first question, go through the forums herre and do some searches on sound cards, software and other necessities, like mixers and microphones. There have been a wealth of questions similar to yours and some previous answers might hook you up as well, and the forums are categorized very nicely for your specific needs. I'm sure you've got some of this stuff already, you may want to list all your equipment here in detail to get some more specific help. From you post so far it sounds to me like you could do stereo type recordings into your PC pretty quickly if you have a mixer with mic preamps that can either handle the entire band to mix down or track one at a time to the Soundblaster, (I'm not familiar with the capabilities of an SB Live, sorry). Of course for studio multitracking (the band at once) you would want a card with more I/O. Software is a big issue, there are so many to chose from and they all have their strengths. I use Sonar and am quite happy with it. Again check the forums for probably an overload of info. Actually there is a nice thread here that lists everyones computer and equipment, you may want to check that out.
I know nothing about how to get a song on the radio, but I'm sure it's not easy. There's alot of politics and crap in the way, but someone else may have some ideas for you. Good luck and feel free to PM me if you want to talk about this stuff :D
 
thats great thanks a lot for the advice ill chase itup and see what i can come up with, fingers crossed! thanks again to all!
 
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