Wanna set up a home studio to record songs of my band, pls help!
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Posted on Dec 09, 2008 10:14 am
dlau0318
Member Since: Dec 09, 2008
We are new to home recording but we would like to record a song for a competition within this December. Initially, we intended to go to a professional studio for the recording. These days, I've read a number of articles from different forums, read books borrowed from the library and seek help from our friends' friends. And the conclusion is: it's very difficult for newbie, or it would be extremely expensive!
Now, we are thinking of another option. To record and mix the background music ourselves and after which go out to professional studio to record and mix the vocals into our music.
The instrument we have are:
1 Guitar, 1 guitar multi-effect (with midi in/out), 1 bass guitar, 1 set of Roland V-drums (with midi in/out), 3 guitar amps, 1 notebook (2.2G Hz, 2.0GB Ram, Windows XP). And we are going to purchase a Casio keyboard soon.
The music backgound will include sounds of guitar, bass guitar, drum and organ.
Here are my questions:
1) Is that all we need is a audio/midi interface and a recording software if I would like to line-in record the music? (Any budget recommendations of the interface and software? We planned to record track by track)
2) How should I connect the devices?
3) Do I still need to do a lot of EQ adjusting, compression, plugins if every instrumental sounds are recorded line-in? (The terms of EQ adjusting, compressions, and plugins are a bit confusing to me...)
Please advice! Thank you very much!!
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Dec 09, 2008 04:23 pm Welcome to HRC.
Most of the recording I do is direct input as well. You can get by with plugging in the bass direct, but guitars will generally not sound that good unless you have some kind of amp modeler. A lot of people on this site are fond of the Line 6 gear. I have a Roland GP-100 which has an amp modeler on it and I get pretty decent results.
You can get an MXL 990 for $49 if you want to record your own vocals. You'll just have to make sure the audio interface you buy has phantom power.
Yeah you'll still want to do some EQing and compressing. I usually don't use compression on distorted guitars, but I do some on the clean parts. I find that I always need to compress bass. There are some good articles on this site that explain how to use eq and compression.
LokiCone PokerMember
Since: Apr 07, 2002
Dec 09, 2008 05:07 pm I'm not a an of going direct at all, as the sound of a guitar is partly the sound of the amp. Depending on how many tracks you want to record at once, you could get a simple little box unit or if you want to do like 4 at once a soundcard with multiple inputs would be needed, and then of course some preamps.
I do like the MXL 990 and used it extensively on vocals and guitar cabs for a good long while.
Dec 11, 2008 07:32 pm Thank you so much for the info!
Now, I know I need a guitar effector with amp modeller, an audio interface and a software.
Somebody suggested the Pod XT as one of the options for Effector with amp modeller. Any comments?
For audio interface, a salesman told me that there's no big difference in terms of quality between those cost between $250 to $500. Is that true? What I have to consider in choosing the correct one?
And for software, I know most of them should be below $100. Again, what should I compare between different softwares to choose the one that suits me?
Pls help! Thank you very much!
Dec 15, 2008 09:43 pm I have never actually played on any of the Pods, but yeah the XT would probably do the job. I am more of a fan of miking an amp, but you can definitely get by with an amp/speaker modeler.
I think probably the main differences between the $250 and $500 interfaces are the number of mic preamps and connections. It just depends on what your looking for. One thing is that if your getting a firewire interface, make sure that your firewire card has a TI chipset. A lot of interfaces seem to have problems with other chipsets.
As far as software goes, I think most interfaces come with a light version of the software. It's like the full versions of the software but with less features. You could get by with that for a while. I personally use Cubase, which I love, but its like $600 software.
I would avoid going the pro tools route though. You can get just as good results with other software for a fraction of the price.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Dec 15, 2008 10:23 pm Um ya there is a difference. $250 buys you AD/DA converter of said quality. $500 buys you AD/DA converter of better said quality.
