What is All this stuff?

[Sycal]

I look at posts and see all this stuff and dont know what any of it means. I read post and people list over 20 diffrent types of ampes,basses, mics, software. Is there one mic that you can use? Is there only one guitar that you need? I read guitar fourms and read about people having 21 guitars. I need some serious help on this.

 

[scrubs]

You might want to tell us what you are trying to do. Are you interested in getting into music recording at home? It's an expensive but fun hobby.

 

[amoeba]

What you need depends mostly on what you want to do. For many people, one guitar is enough. For nearly everyone, one accordion is too many.

You need a sound source, a microphone and mic preamp (if the sound source is acoustic rather than electronic), a recording/playback device, and some way of hearing what you've done. And, of course, cables to connect those things together. That would be the most basic, minimal recording setup.

Wanna record a drum kit? Then you'll need more microphones, a recording device with several inputs, and a mixer.

Need to do justice to a grand piano? You'll need a great-sounding room, a couple of small diaphragm condenser mics, and excellent preamps.

See what I'm getting at? Start small, and grow your gear collection over time.

As your skills improve, you'll discover that different pieces of equipment have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, a mic that sounds fantastic on your voice may sound simply horrible on your blues harp. At that point, you'll realise that you need another mic.

a.

 

[Dani Pace]

We all have to admitt, some of us are real gear sluts (the more gear we got, the better we like it) and some of us are collectors. As for myself, I like to keep the recording process as simple as possible, in order to do this I need a variety of guitars, each one has it's own sound and tone. There is only a certain amount of variety of sounds that any guitar can produce, for example there is just no way (at least none that I have found) to make a Les Paul sound like a Telecaster. Also when recording more than one guitar part for a song if two guitars which sound alike are used, one of them will get lost or covered up by the other. I also play (set in) with a variety of musicians with a variety of styles and certain guitars complement some styles but not others. Well, that's my reason for having a room full of guitars, it took me years to accumulate them all. http://www.jeffsounds.com/jeffsongs/guitars_01.jpg Not only did it take a while to collect all these, the line up gets changed from time to time.

 

[seismetr0n]

hey!!

whats with the accordion bashing!!!!

 

[bennychico11]

it's like the auto industry. yeah...all you really need is one car. A crappy 1987 Honda Civic hatchback (hey now, i had one and it was cool!) that cost you $400, has no side mirrors, rust all along the side of it, and a different colored drivers door than passenger door
Yep, this car will do just fine getting you to and from school or work. Heck, maybe even the girl you're dating won't mind riding in it from time to time.

The audio world is like that....but soon you get tired of your 20 year old car, and dream of buying a new Jag maybe. Perhaps even add on a motorcycle for weekend trips to the country. Then of course you'll need a minivan to drive the kids around to soccer practice, day care and to carry all the groceries home. And your best friend Chris has this great deal on a ATV. Then when you retire you start looking at RVs to take trips across the country with your wife.

And if you're a car collector it gets even worse. Think of audio guys like that car collector. We love toys. Of course, those of us who take it extremely seriously know that we get different desired results out of each different instrument...sort of like how you'd never use the mini-van to drive off road with, you'll use your ATV for that. Each microphone sounds different and works differently on different instruments. Guitars all sound different too. A hollow body electric might be preferable in a jazz setting but not in a heavy metal band. And you wouldn't play an electric at an acoustic show. Just like I wouldn't play my Casio MIDI keyboard at a piano recital....i'll use the Bosendorfer for that.

 

[bennychico11]

and some of us can't throw anything away, like Dani

 

[amoeba]

whats with the accordion bashing!!!!

All in fun. Didn't you notice the ""? In capable hands, the accordion is a wonderful instrument.

a. (resisting temptation to make jokes about "bashing")

 

[Sycal]

Thanx for the info I was just freaking out because i want to learn about music but when I saw that people were talking about so many different types, styles, etc i was having second thoughts. Im just going to start out with plain stuff and then learn from there.

 

[Massive Master]

Isn't accordion bashing against the terms?

O.T., Got a fantastic sound off an antique accordion over the weekend through an AKG C-391B...

 

[mshilarious]

Thanx for the info I was just freaking out because i want to learn about music but when I saw that people were talking about so many different types, styles, etc i was having second thoughts. Im just going to start out with plain stuff and then learn from there.

Don't get intimidated. It seems to me the board has moved upmarket a bit over the last couple of years . . . like the favorite mic thread, it seemed like everybody had a $1000 mic but me

Seriously, this is a home recording board so if all you have is a Radio Shack mic and a minidisc recorder, you can still learn how to get the most out of them.

I don't think I've ever listened to a song on the MP3 clinic and replied "your problem is you need much more expensive gear" because that is usually not the problem

 

[Dani Pace]

It sounds like you've got the right idea, start small then add as you have a need. I think most of us did it that way too. It dosen't take a lot of gear to get decent sounding recordings. Use what you have and figure out how to get the most from it, when you reach the limit of potential then add something else. It's fun when you add a new "toy" and discover a whole new batch of sounds that you didn't have before. Of course after a while you notice that you have a bunch of toys that you rarely play with any more, then you trade or sell them and get new toys.

 

[Track Rat]

What you need depends mostly on what you want to do. For many people, one guitar is enough. For nearly everyone, one accordion is too many.

You need a sound source, a microphone and mic preamp (if the sound source is acoustic rather than electronic), a recording/playback device, and some way of hearing what you've done. And, of course, cables to connect those things together. That would be the most basic, minimal recording setup.

Wanna record a drum kit? Then you'll need more microphones, a recording device with several inputs, and a mixer.

Need to do justice to a grand piano? You'll need a great-sounding room, a couple of small diaphragm condenser mics, and excellent preamps.

See what I'm getting at? Start small, and grow your gear collection over time.

As your skills improve, you'll discover that different pieces of equipment have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, a mic that sounds fantastic on your voice may sound simply horrible on your blues harp. At that point, you'll realise that you need another mic.

a.

This is a very good explaination and advice. It's hard to amplify on that.

 

[gordone]

Seriously, work on learning an instrument first. Guitar is a good one to learn on. Don't worry about recording until you are pretty good at that instrument. If you want to record your practicing, get a little radio shack tape recorder, or use a little headset mic into your PC's soundcard.

Too many people want to learn ALL about recording but can't play an instrument.

Regarding how many guitars you need, I would say just one (unless you have TOO much money to spend). As you learn more, you'll learn why you might want more than one guitar. I have six guitars and a banjo (http://www.evangordon.com/guitars.php), and it's taken me 15 years of playing to get to that point, so just concentrate on learning the instrument, rather than buying a bunch of stuff you don't understand/play.

Good luck!