I
Invader3k
New member
Hi all. I'm new here. Hope you can all help me out with this.
Our band (Total Posers) is trying to put together a demo tape to give to bars/venues to try and get some gigs in our area. We aren't looking to do anything super fancy, just something decent enough to give out to people so they can hear what we sound like. We are planning on probably putting 5-10 cover songs we do on the cassette. I may edit the tape down to only having 1 or 2 minutes of each song segueing to the next, if you all think this is a good idea.
We started this past Sunday, and things are going ok. We are doing the recording in our guitarist's basement (our usual practice space). We are using a Yamaha four track cassette recorder. I have a few questions.
1) My bass sounds a little bit distorted on the recording. We decided to go with a direct insertion method, running an instrument cable from the pre-amp out to one of the inputs on the Yamaha 4 track. Sounds fine coming out of my amp, but ends up sounding weird on the cassette. Do I just need to play with the EQ on the 4 track some more?
2) What type of cassette should I use, and what speed? Should I use a type II cassette? High speed recording? I can't remember from my audio class days in college anymore
3) What kind of quality should I be looking for? I know this is never going to be audiophile quality, but what do bar owners, etc, look for when they listen to a demo tape? Is it OK for the sound to be a little "rough", or will this result in our tape getting tossed in the trash can?
4) Panning... At first the recording we did sounded really muddy, but then I figured out that all the tracks were not panned...just set dead middle. I panned the guitar far left and the bass far right, leaving the drums and vocals in the middle, figuring that is as close as possible to our live set-up. Any thoughts on this?
5) Dunno if anyone can help with this problem...our guitarist uses a decent amount of effect pedals. When he plays clean on the recordings, the volume is fine, but when he uses any of his pedals, the volume all but disappears on the recording. This was when we were doing it Direct insertion from his amp, but when we miked his amp, it was fine, of course. Any reason the DI method didn't work?
Any and all tips would be appreciated. Surprisingly the acoustics of the room haven't _seemed_ to have been a huge problem thus far, even though we are playing in small area with cement walls. We might try to isolate the amps from the drums a little though, if this is recommended?
Thanks in advance.
Our band (Total Posers) is trying to put together a demo tape to give to bars/venues to try and get some gigs in our area. We aren't looking to do anything super fancy, just something decent enough to give out to people so they can hear what we sound like. We are planning on probably putting 5-10 cover songs we do on the cassette. I may edit the tape down to only having 1 or 2 minutes of each song segueing to the next, if you all think this is a good idea.
We started this past Sunday, and things are going ok. We are doing the recording in our guitarist's basement (our usual practice space). We are using a Yamaha four track cassette recorder. I have a few questions.
1) My bass sounds a little bit distorted on the recording. We decided to go with a direct insertion method, running an instrument cable from the pre-amp out to one of the inputs on the Yamaha 4 track. Sounds fine coming out of my amp, but ends up sounding weird on the cassette. Do I just need to play with the EQ on the 4 track some more?
2) What type of cassette should I use, and what speed? Should I use a type II cassette? High speed recording? I can't remember from my audio class days in college anymore
3) What kind of quality should I be looking for? I know this is never going to be audiophile quality, but what do bar owners, etc, look for when they listen to a demo tape? Is it OK for the sound to be a little "rough", or will this result in our tape getting tossed in the trash can?
4) Panning... At first the recording we did sounded really muddy, but then I figured out that all the tracks were not panned...just set dead middle. I panned the guitar far left and the bass far right, leaving the drums and vocals in the middle, figuring that is as close as possible to our live set-up. Any thoughts on this?
5) Dunno if anyone can help with this problem...our guitarist uses a decent amount of effect pedals. When he plays clean on the recordings, the volume is fine, but when he uses any of his pedals, the volume all but disappears on the recording. This was when we were doing it Direct insertion from his amp, but when we miked his amp, it was fine, of course. Any reason the DI method didn't work?
Any and all tips would be appreciated. Surprisingly the acoustics of the room haven't _seemed_ to have been a huge problem thus far, even though we are playing in small area with cement walls. We might try to isolate the amps from the drums a little though, if this is recommended?
Thanks in advance.
