What is a typical recording setup?

[jndietz]

What kind of setup do you typically see across the board for home recorders and recording engineers of the like? Mine simply consists of two microphones (nady powerstar and an SM57) running in my behringer mixer, which runs into my behringers audio interface, into adobe audition. i never have any problems or think it sounds bad or anything, but i don't have hundreds of dollars of equipment right here either. i don't even have a preamp (well the mixer has preamps, but i am sure they aren't of any sort of quality compared to standalone preamps). i am sure that some of your guys' setups are insane, but what is a typical setup usually look like? lets say to just record guitar and vocals.

 

[ssscientist]

What kind of setup do you typically see across the board for home recorders and recording engineers of the like? lets say to just record guitar and vocals.

I do a bunch of work with midi and to that end I have what I need and no more.

It sounds like you have what you need and no more too.

You could add a new microphone or a new preamp or new mixer or new software, but the change will be much less dramatic then you might imagine. It won't be a revelation a minute like when you first discovered the wonderful world of home recording.

If you are happy with the way your setup sounds now that's all that matters.


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[wx3]

You basically have exactly what most people will have, all you are missing are monitors. Monitors are speakers which have a supposedly flat response. They allow you to really hear what's actually going on in your mix.

 

[Ironklad Audio]

yea...there's no such thing as a "typical" setup...but the basics go:

mic-->preamp-->(converter/interface)-->recorder/HD-->speakers

 

[jndietz]

You basically have exactly what most people will have, all you are missing are monitors. Monitors are speakers which have a supposedly flat response. They allow you to really hear what's actually going on in your mix.

why don't headphones work just as well to mix? or do they work just as good?

 

[random.hero]

it depends, but generally i cannot tell much of a difference

 

[treymonfauntre]

headphones make it almost impossible to judge the soundstage

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

On the plus side, headphones are good for low-level detail work and doing soundstage panning. You also don't have to worry about bad room acoustics messing you up.

On the minus side (and it's a big minus side), headphones by their very nature tend to give you a false frequency response, especially in the bass frequencies. Unless you are very practiced in translating what's happening in your headphones to the real world, what sounds good in your phones is most likely not going to sound good elsewhere. Phones also give you no idea what the stereo image is actually going to sound like in an actual live room; setting the panning is one thing; hearing how the stereo image plays out in the air is something else altogether.

While not impossible to mix on phones alone, I certainly wouldn't recommend it, especially to a beginner such as yourself. In a pinch you can use them, but undertand that your results may be rather limited until you have a decent set of loudspeakers on which to do your mixing and mastering.

G.

 

[DrJones]

why don't headphones work just as well to mix? or do they work just as good?

Headphones are great for another source of reference.