Sunday, Oct 30, 2005

[bleujazz3]

Roast Pork Loin, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Buttered Almond Green Beans, and Apple Pie for dessert. Ah, Sunday Dinner with family.

For those of you who do analog recording via amp, microphone, mixer and/or either workstation or CD or cassette tape recording device, have you marketed your "product" for a general audience, or do you use your recordings as a reference point for improvement?

Meaning, "my recording and/or playing technique has improved to the point where I would be able to consider marketing my recordings in the near future, for the general population, or my friends who share and support my musical endeavors."

I, myself, am approaching that point in life, but lack sufficient capital to make it happen. Sure, I have entry-level recording devices (SM-57s, Beta 57As, amps, cheap mixer, and tape cassette recorder), but need others' input and experiences with their analog endeavors.

What do you recommend for the best sound quality recording devices on a shoe-string budget? I'm thinking in the future I'll need a Mackie VLZ-series, and something to record onto as well. I hate to have to use a workstation or computer, and am interested in something purely simple and straight-forward. I don't know that I'd ever need to overdub, but what are your thoughts for this recording newbie?

[Big Mike]

I've not eaten lunch yet, large breakfast. Enjoying the feeling of a raiders win.

I think you're limiting your flexibility by ruling out the computer based workstation. IMO. I'm getting into this soon as well, but I think that gives you the best flexibility for getting what you want to a medium.

[bleujazz3]

Problem I have is that my computer is a desktop located on the 2nd floor, while my amp music room is in the basement. Did someone say laptop? And what type of software is best, that won't kill me by overwhelming me with boatloads of features I'll never be able to figure out? I know I should spring for one, I've heard good things about the Apple. What're you using, Mike?

[Big Mike]

I'm at the same stage you are. Pondering away.

I'm really comfortable with the mac platform though. My thought is a new Desktop and a Digidesign M Box to start with.

[irwcustom]

Bacon pasta bake.

I use a Digital workstation - Roland which is pretty good but probably dated now. You can burn to CD, but have to covert them to MP3's if you want to go that way for any reason. I've thought of PC based, but pondering away as well. I had some lengthy discussions with stores that specialise in this, but they kept saying about compatability problems, this and that technical problem. You buy a PC to do one thing and then end up using it for loads of other things. It's a bit of a recipe for disaster. My mics and equipment are superior to my recording equipment now and that's where my investment is ..still pondering a recording solution - software and PC or newer digital workstation.

[johnreardon]

Roast Pork + Veg

I use the PC method. Just Guitar Port, using the built in amp tones and Guitar Tracks Pro 3. Quality seems to work for me. Then again, I've no thoughts of releasing a CD

[jas]

Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich and French (Freedom) fries.

I have recorded myself since I was 13 years old (I am older than that now) and I still have recordings throughout the years - both live and home stuff. It's fun to listen to and I live in the hope that my kids will some day discover that I had some things to say on a guitar.

I am 100% in the camp of doing everything on a computer. I have a MOTU 828 MKii which works great. I use Sonar for software which is top-heavy but fine. I have been through mono reel-to-reel, sound-on-sound, 4 channel r to r, 4 channel cassette and all sorts of digitizing hardware on computers. Multitrack recording on a computer is a gift from the Martians who created us.

In my last band, we recorded every practice on my computer. I would listen the next day to make sure I didn't repeat myself with licks. Can't stand that.

As far as posting them here, I've posted one or two clips. The response was so roundly underwhelming, it was humiliating. I keep 'em to myself now.


-John

[bleujazz3]

Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich and French (Freedom) fries.

I have recorded myself since I was 13 years old (I am older than that now) and I still have recordings throughout the years - both live and home stuff. It's fun to listen to and I live in the hope that my kids will some day discover that I had some things to say on a guitar.

I am 100% in the camp of doing everything on a computer. I have a MOTU 828 MKii which works great. I use Sonar for software which is top-heavy but fine. I have been through mono reel-to-reel, sound-on-sound, 4 channel r to r, 4 channel cassette and all sorts of digitizing hardware on computers. Multitrack recording on a computer is a gift from the Martians who created us.

In my last band, we recorded every practice on my computer. I would listen the next day to make sure I didn't repeat myself with licks. Can't stand that.

As far as posting them here, I've posted one or two clips. The response was so roundly underwhelming, it was humiliating. I keep 'em to myself now.


-John
Jas,
Are you using a PC or Mac laptop, and what are you using for your peripherals (besides arms and legs)? I'd be interested in finding out what a system like yours would cost, just to be used for recording and putting out recorded CDs.

[jas]

Bob - I'm using a PC, a desktop, not a laptop.

Recording on computer takes gigs and gigs of disk space. I have two large internal hard drives, two firewire external hard drives and I still have to dump all but a month's worth of recordings all the time.

My interface is the MOTU (Mark of the Unicorn) 828 MKii which you plug into your firewire port on either a PC or a Mac, laptop or desktop. It's portable, kind of. It takes 8 analog inputs, 8 analog outputs and has digital I/O too.

For the band, I had 5 drum mics going into a mixer that then went into the MOTU, a line running from the bass amp, another from the piano and lines running from each guitar amp. The vocals each got their own channel (up to three singers - I sing real loud (and awful) and it was important to be able to turn the others up or me down to get the harmonies mixed right.

If you're just recording yourself, I'd advise getting a good condenser mic (especially for vocals and/or acoustic guitar). That's where you pick up sound quality - a good mic. For everything electric, I just sent it right in to the MOTU - I'm no good at mic'ing amps. I've spent a fortune on direct boxes so that I can send one signal to the computer/MOTU while the other goes to the PA or amp for live sound.

Again, for software I use SONAR (I think it's up to version 4 by now). That's simply a matter of preference and the fact that I started with Cakewalk software years ago and have paid those clowns thousands in "upgrades". SONAR is stupid easy to operate.

So my investment, not including the computer or hard drives was: a handful of mics, mostly for the drums, a few direct boxes, some wires and the MOTU 828 (about $700 I think). I have the whole shebang hooked up to a good stereo and the MOTU acts as my sound card for other PC stuff (games, mp3's).

Hope this helps.

-John

[bleujazz3]

Thanks, John.

I'm thinking I will need the accompanying laptop and CD-burner with tons of hard drive for tweaking and editing. If Sonar can do that, I'm good to go. Just need to scrape together the funds, or rent out my kidney for a couple months at a time. (Of course I want it back!) :D

[EmeraldQuiltBirds]

I'm at the same stage you are. Pondering away.

I'm really comfortable with the mac platform though. My thought is a new Desktop and a Digidesign M Box to start with.

Be warned though that The MBOX is USB attached. Check out PreSonus' new FIREBOX. Its basically the same thing but using firewire and its based off CuBase instead of ProTools. Both programs seem to be the 2 top programs to use and is arguable whos is better.

I would HIGHLY recommend the PreSonus stuff and DEFINATLY recommend going with a firewire product versus a USB product. If you can swing a little extra cash then go with the FIREPOD instead for more inputs (8 I think)

Just for a reference as well the MBOX is ~ $450, the FIREBOX is ~$399, and the FIREPOD is $499(not possitive on the POD price). The FIREPOD will allow you to connect 3 units together for 24 inputs and each unit is a single space rack mountable unit.

Check them all out.

D

[jas]

Sounds like good advice, EQB.

Bob, I shouldn't have obsessed quite so much about the disc space. I was talking about recording 4 hours' worth of playing, 8 tracks (8 instruments).

If you're going to be recording 5 minute songs and multitracking, you won't need nearly the disc space that I do. An evening with the band would take me about 4 gigabytes. But a song with, say, 16 parts (instruments) would be just a few megabytes.

SONAR will compress your stuff into mp3's but you have to send them an extra $25. I'm not lying. They give you a demo of the wav->mp3 converter but it's only good for a few tries. They you've got to pay them. Isn't that pathetic? Nevertheless, it's easy to make CD's of your own stuff using SONAR and some kind of disc writing software (mine came with my computer, I'm sure you have some too).

-John

[WhaleBlueTwentyTwo]

I'm at the same stage you are. Pondering away.

I'm really comfortable with the mac platform though. My thought is a new Desktop and a Digidesign M Box to start with.
No lunch. I couldn't be bothered to eat any.

I've used Mac for 5 years straight, and watched them gently evolve the software- see, I came in just as Mac OSX made it in, and got frustrated with a lot of software being suitable for OS9 only.

But I'm happy now. ProTools 6.4 LE does me great. As does my Digidesign Mbox. I can record pretty high-quality solos on my classical guitar with consumate ease, and enjoy doing so. In other words I don't get tempted to throw the computer out of the window, unless it started to mess me about.