recording advice/tips/gear

[ryan summit]

hey homies
this winter i wanna start seriously recording
some of the stuff ive been doin
by serious i mean not just
recording jams and ideas into ipods voice memos
im pretty sure an ipad is on its way
so ill have that to start with
im not really sure where to go
as far as mics,preamps,mixers,etc
and also recording techniques
if you guys have any tips where to start
maybe some pictures of your home recording areas
that would be awesome

[Achtane]

Throw a microphone behind the couch in your basement and record everything at once for those sweet Mainliner toans.

[The4455]

There was a thread in which I spewed recording knowledge. I'll help you out. But more specific questions would be better.

For the general "O where, O where, do I start?" question.
1.
First you'll need a DAW, digital audio workstation. Simply put, music editing software. It would be much better to buy and install a DAW on your computer than on an iPad if you are going to begin the serious journey of serious recording.

2.Then you'll need an interface, which takes line level microphone signals and converts them into digital signals of ones and zeros into the computer and then back into audio in your DAW, all in real time.

3.But first you'll need: microphones, xlr cables, stands, and maybe a pop filter or two. There are many mics to choose from.

4.Then you can record, sorta.

If you buy Pro-Tools I can/could walk you through either via ILF (or over the phone if you wish) on how to set everythign up, and begin the recording process.

This is alot of information and there is even more to be learned. BLAM

[The4455]

Here is a link to that thread:

http://www.ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=29166&hilit=recording+help

[ryan summit]

thanks dude
i asked a few times
and searched and searched
thats what id like to do
peek in on someone elses conversation
i dont even know what to ask
my drummerfriend is a wealth of knowledge
and hes gonna do alotof this with me
should havejust called the thread
LETS SEE YOUR RECORDING STUFF
and left it at that
thanks

[morange]

Sometimes the interface comes with a DAW. I own an Edirol UA-25 (viewtopic.php?f=44&t=30482), and it came with Sonar, which isn't anything special, but works for recording and cutting audio tracks. I like to import my sound clips into FL Studio to arrange them into tracks and mess with VST effects. FL Studio is fairly popular with noobs because it's easy to pirate and pretty easy to use. I wouldn't recommend the UA-25 interface, though, because it doesn't support USB 2.0 and you can only either record or play when it's in the 96 kHz sample rate mode. You want an interface that can record and playback high quality audio at the same time and get it to and from your computer fast enough that it seems instantaneous. Latency is the root of all evil.

I've got an SM-58 and an XRL cable. Before I had an XLR cable I had this XLR to mono 1/4" plug cable and there was always hiss in my signal, and I realized that XLR is balanced for a reason.

You can buy a pop guard, yeah, or you can smell your moms ass on the used pantyhose you've stretched over a wire hanger. Or girlfriend? Maybe it's a good thing.

There are lots of cool VST plugins floating around free on the internet.

http://audio.tutsplus.com/articles/web- ... that-rock/
I've used Glace Verb and Omni verb. VST reverbs are incredible.

I also really like the Twin Reverb simulator from this suite: http://www.simulanalog.org/guitarsuite.htm
and Ferox tape sim, which used to be free but now isn't. http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-ferox/

[The4455]

Well, what's your budget like?

[Helter]

LETS SEE YOUR RECORDING STUFF

Cool Idea! Do that. I dont know what it is about "LETS SEE" threads but I pop mad boners over them.

[The4455]

Let's see what pictures I already have on my computer:

70's EV mixer, 16 channels, I bought it from the guitarist of Soil, really cool guy, extremely humble too. I've cleaned the whole thing out and ti sounds great, heavy, but great.

Studio Projects B-1 large Diaphragm Condenser Mic. An excellent mic.

Shure Sm-57, duh. What studio/venue doesn't have at least one if not five of these. I personally have two, for now.

Fun fact, the Shure Sm-57 and Sm-58 are the first directional microphones, before that all microphones were omni-directional, pretty rad huh?

[fungalattack]

That is hell of a mixer!!

I experimented with recording and more so mixing in one of the bands that I played in. First step, mic placement and this takes some experimenting. Where the mics are placed and how they are angled affect the sound vastly. Find a sweet spot, take your time getting a great sound and it will make the mixing process quicker and smoother. Use a couple of mics! Experiment and experience...Try placing a mic facing a singular speaker, or maybe inbetween, this will drastically or subtly affect what frequencies are highlighted. Place a mic in the corner of the room for some ambiance and natural verb; mix the two signals together accordingly. Be creative!!!!

Once you start picking up some good sounds, do some mixing. What helped really feel and hear the overall mix as I wanted it to sound, was less formal, more outside of the box, or I should say as a box. It helped me and the creative process by viewing the overall song as a cube. You have three axis', x, y, and z. X is the frequency range, starting on left the low frequencies like the bass drum, bass guitar, and sub bass frewquencies, all the way to the cymbals and piercing top end. The Y axis is volume and Z is how wet the signal is. The farther back in the Z axis the more reverb. So using this idea, I could step back and picture all the sounds as points, blobs in the cube. I try to balance this cube as well as I can (although sometimes it is better to say fuck the cube and dominate a certain low-end of the spectrum if you want to get wild). Instead of boosting every instruments key fundamental frequencies, I try making room for instruments within the other instruments. For example, the bass drum and bass guitar tend to overlap somewhere around 60-80hz so by taking some of that away from the bass guitar, you can let the bass drum really shine. But it gets more intense when you have to be considerate of all the instruments and what ranges they will shine in. Take into consideration how present in the mix you want it to be with the Y and Z axis.

This method really opened my mind. I did some research via the web but most of this theory came from stepping away from the computer and just thinking about it. Of course be creative and remember there are no rules when mixing, this is just a guideline that can help you view mixing as this not daunting task but a creative endeavor. Make all the elements come together as one! Make something beautiful or heinously disgusting, just like what you do and don't give up, EVER!!!!!! And most importantly, above all, HAVE FUN!

[The4455]

Yes, it's about 3 feet across. It's to big to carry by yourself so two people have to carry it, even then it's still heavy.

another really important and interesting thing in recording is that: Less is more, it really is.

Example:

I recorded one of my friend's playing piano for college auditions. I mic'd up the schools Steinway grand Piano with two AKG C414 (large diaphragm condenser mics) one at key twenty two and one at key sixty six. The middle of each half. I, based on previous recordings for bands, put an EQ, Compressor, and Reverb on the two channels bypassed to use later. Honestly I took off the compressor and the reverb, i didn't even really need the Eq, but it helped to even out the sound. The piano and the mics are what sound great, not the plug-ins. Although in this situation because the piano is the only instrument being recorded the use of a compressor is really pointless.

With that in mind in combination with what fungalattack said, that should ive you a basic idea of what recording entails to a very brief extent. Trying different things, stick with what works, don't overdo it, and before you record think about what you're recording and how you want it to sound.

[fungalattack]

Good point of having an idea of how you want it to sound prior to being recording. Very true also that less is more!!!! And sometimes all the additional eqing and stuff is necessary and just harming the overall mix. Get your mics set up the way you want and it will prevent you from tearing your hair out in the mixing process.

[dubkitty]

if you need a cheap USB interface, you can download drivers for the Line6 PodXT which will allow you to run into a USB port and into your recording program/DAW of choice. this also has the advantage of using the Pod's features for additional processing (reverb, delay[!], modulation, amp/preamp models, etc.). it's not optimal because it's a single-channel interface, but it's way better than nothing for getting sound into your computer in good quality. and Pods are going for stoopid cheap these days on the used market.

[dubkitty]

should i get into microphone placement?

[fungalattack]

Yeah you should!!