What's wrong with my set up/technique?

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misanthropy26

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Greetings,

I have been doing home recording for about a year now and my technique still has some "bugs" but I just don't know what they are! First of all, let me give you a description of my recording set up (its very primative so please don't laugh).

I use a 4 channel mixer to run all of my mics into and out to the cassette deck.

I use 4 multi-purpose mics to mic the drums.

I record the bass, guitar and vocals all through line inputs.

I use 2 cassette decks for over-dubbing.

I use the equalizer on my guitar effects processor to adjust the final EQ of the song I have recorded.

I have also started to use my guitar processor to add effects to the drums, but lets not get into that now.

Now, I will describe my technique.

First, I record drums on one of the cassette decks. Then, I play the previously recorded cassette through the mixer and into the other cassette deck while my bass player lays down the bass track(s). when he's done, I follow the same process and record the guitar track(s). When that's done, I record the vocal track(s). and when all of that is complete, I play the finished song into my guitar processor's EQ and adjust the "whole" sound. After all of this is done, I plug the cassette deck into the mic input on my computer and record the song as a WAV file, then burn it onto a CD-RW. After they're on the CD-RW, I extract them into the computer again as an mp3.

I only use new cassette tapes and somewhere in this whole process, the song gets this horrid "staticy" and "hissy" sound. I would like to know what's going on and what can be changed to make it sound a little more professional. Please keep in mind that we are a struggling band and cannot afford, well, pretty much anything. What am I doing wrong? Please Help!
 
Try using the Line-in input on the soundcard rather than the mic input. Many people have reported having this problem. It's because the mic input is designed for use with cheap computer mics. The Line-in on a soundcard is usually a stereo input.
 
This is the sound-on-sound technique that Les Paul started with years ago (and the motivation for him inventing the idea of multi-track recording)....

When I was 16 that was how I got my feet wet recording as well!

The problem is that every bounce degrades the signal quality, and by the end of a couple of bounces noise and audio degradation will be significant. So by the time you're doing your guitars the drums will have been bounced 3 times.... 5 times by the time it gets to CD......

So in short, there's nothing wrong with your technique, only that you're running up against the limitations of your gear -- an upgrade even to the budget digital multi-track will give you MUCH better results than what you're getting now I'm afraid.....

Save your pennies!

Bruce
 
I would try leaving the taperecorder out of it!

Do some reading on multitrack recording and the possibilities of it. With a small investement in a software package, you can start using your pc and your soundcard. This would be about the same as you do now, but instead of directly recording your new signal in the mix, you can record it as a seperate track, and mix it afterwards.

You'll also loose the degrading steps of re-recording what you recorded first since it stays in your pc...

I'd also use the line input, mic to your mixer to your line input, that is....
 
That's a good point. For as little as $50, or even less, you can turn your PC into a powerful multitrack recorder. e.g. n-Track Studio, available here:

http://www.fasoft.com
 
If N-track sounds like forking out too much money, try Powertracks, at $25 it's a breeze to learn and you don't need the fastest computer to run it.
Read more about it here:
http://www.pgmusic.com/index.html
Cheapest price I've found:
http://www.proaudiomusic.com/PG music/power_tracks.htm
Regardless of which software you use, I guarantee you'll have much, much, better results than using tape recorders. You already have a mixer, some mics and a computer, use them to their full potential. Good luck!
 
To be honest- Your entire technique and process sent shivers down my spine. I would imagine your stuff is noisy, hissy and distant sounding. I'm surprised Blue Bear was so forgiving because practically everything you listed had at least one thing very wrong it.

I'm not trying to be a dick. I will be glad to give you some pointers because we have all been there. You are trying to get a big production sound with a very limited system.

In general-
Know your limitations and try to overcome them with creative solutions.
If you only have a 4 track casette than limit yourself to 4 tracks with no bouncing to other casettes if you want any kind of fidelity.
Dont EQ your entire mix through an effects processor.
Use line level inputs for line level.
Use mic level inputs for mics.
Your computer will record 10x better than the casette deck.
If you want a good mix you need good sounding tracks.
If you want good tracks you need a good performance, good mics and a clean signal path.
 
TexRoadkill said:
I'm surprised Blue Bear was so forgiving because practically everything you listed had at least one thing very wrong it.
Click to expand...

Yea, Bluebear must be in a really good mood. I was squirming in my chair while reading that . . . I figured this guy is Goldilox with a big sign on his back that says "Bear food - yummy."
 
Heh-heh... well - nice to know I strike the-fear-of-BEAR in you!!! ;)

In fact, I didn't comment on specifics of his technique because the entire technique gives only mediocre results anyways - even if you paid attention to all the details of signal chain and used the best pres and mics in the world, the generation loss from bounce to bounce completely obliterates any advantage good technique and signal chain would have given...... ok - maybe he could have squeezed-in an extra bounce but the end result would still be noisy, distant, murky, etc, anyway....!

As I said, that sound-on-sound technique is what I did when I was a teen (we didn't have those fancy multi-track portastudios - AND WE LIKED IT!)... and I experienced those same symptoms he describes first-hand... I didn't know what the problem was at the time, other than to realize that the technique isn't really all that gratifying in the end!

Bruce
 
That's very similar to how I recorded my first recording, except I didn't even have a mixer, haha.... I recorded midi out of my computer onto tape deck while combining it with a guitar that went into the line in of the soundcard..... then played that to a VHS tape, then played that VHS tape back to the computer and add vocals at the same time. I think the whole recording ended up being mono :)

Then I "upgraded" and got me Magix Studio Deluxe.... which was like 30 or 40 bucks, but I actually got some mileage out of it, and made slightly better recordings using that... though they were bass-heavy as hell........ yeah. Those were the days.
 
My very first recordings were on a casette 4 track but I would use our church's Fostex mixer and Nakamichi casette deck for the mixdown. I did a bunch of short film soundtracks on a Korg M1 and a Mackie 1202. Any overdubs were done live to tape with the sequences playing. I actually got better results with that than the 4 track.
 
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