Newbie question
Home > Home Recording Forum > Recording Techniques > Newbie question
Posted on Feb 01, 2006 04:42 am
plumbum
Member Since: Feb 01, 2006
Hi everybody
Am about to get involved in home recording using my PC and found this site had lots of useful advice and articles.
I have just ordered some bits and pieces:
Behringer UB802 EURORACK mixer
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card
Behringer C1 condenser mic
to be precise. BTW it'll plug into an XP1800+, 512Gb RAM and 160Gb HDD system.
Does this seem a good combination to get started (hope you say yes as I've already ordered the kit). My question is that when I spoke to the supplier on what cables I needed to connect the mixer and sound card he said two 'dual jack to phono leads'. Does anyone out there know what plugs into what to save me some time when it all turns up as the manual I found online doesn't seem to say much on the subject (mind you I don't understand much of the jargon yet)?
Also I've been pointed at Ntrack as a good free startup software package does anyone have any comments?
Hope this is in the right forum and sorry it's such a long one to get started
Cheers
Martin
PS Sorry have now read forum rules and think this should probably be in Gear Gab (oops upset admin on first post, not bad!)
[ Back to Top ]
zekthedeadcowEat Spam before it eats YOU!!!Member
Since: May 11, 2002
Feb 01, 2006 09:23 am basically the cable (I think) is a 1/4" to RCA adapter.
I would suggest adding a second hard drive... thinks are less troublesome when the OS has it's down disk and the data is on another...simply being on seperate partitions won't do it.
Audacity is also a useful and popular app.
Feb 01, 2006 09:27 am I don't think ntrack is free, but thats not really the question.
Kristal Audio Engine is free and is a good recording app if you don't need MIDI. As zek said, Audacity is a good app as well.
Eurorack out to Audiophile ins (with the cable zek mentioned) and audiophile out to your amp/speakers.
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Feb 01, 2006 09:27 am Welcome to the HRC, Martin.
No prob on the forum placement, it's certainly 'Home Recording' related. Gear gab is a good place for individual pieces and parts chatter.
Anyway, your selections look well indeed for getting into the home recording. The audiophile is a well tested, and good results card, with good drivers.
The mixer will do your needs well, giving phantom and letting you route. I haven't heard much on the C1 mic, but there's a few here using the B2 from behringer, and like it, so I'm sure you'll be happy with it.
Your PC looks in good shape as well. Try and remove any non-necessary programs from running in the background; antivirus, printer support, real player, quicktime, bonzo, etc.
I personally use N-track, and have since ver 2.1 (around 2000). I'm pretty happy with it, though I've not used much else. I've looked at the bottom rung Cubase, and was not happy. I've looked at tracktion, but was more comfortable with a traditional track list / mixer view setup.
N-track is well suited for beginners. It's intuitive, but also does pretty much all pro-level tasks. The midi arena could be better, but it's workable, as lots of people use midi in n-track a lot. I think Sonar 5 PE has great new functions that N-track doesn't, but for the general gambit, N-track is right in league with most other recording apps out there.
I'm using ver 3.3 right now, but it's up to 4.?? something. It now uses .net platform to run on, and I'm not geeked to jump to it yet. I may as I'm building a new system with AMD 64, and may use n-track 64, but I'm not quite there yet.
Multitrack studio is another multitracking program that's getting acclaim. A few sources I've read state that it's rock solid, and doesn't crash, whereas n-track has some history of being a little buggy.
Now, cabling. Your mixer has two mic xlr inputs, and 2 buss (left & right).
I would:
1. connect mic, or guitar, etc. to channel 1 (and/or 2)
2. pan channel 1 hard left, pan channel 2 hard right. This separates the two signals from each other in the summing part of the mixer.
3. connect control room left to audiophile left input, connect control room right to audiophile right.
4. connect audiophile output left to tape in left on mixer, connect audiophile output right to tape in right on mixer.
5. select 'tape to mix' button, to insert your pre-recorded tracks back into your monitoring solution. don't select the 'tape to control room' button as that would send your pre-recorded tracks right back into the computer inputs. Not good.
6. connect the mains (l & r) to your monitoring solution; powered monitors, stereo system w/ speakers, etc.
7. plug headphones into headphone jack, so you can hear everything in phones.
8. record your million-dollar hit.
9. thank all the little people along the way =)
I believe the AP has RCA inputs and outputs, so you'd need 1/4" TS to RCA to go from control room plugs, to the AP inputs. You'd also need RCA to RCA to go from the AP outputs to the tape in inputs.
Hope that helps. Have fun.
Feb 01, 2006 03:35 pm Thanks for all the replies.
Hi zekthedeadcow
I've got a 140Gb HDD partitioned with Windoze on it and a second 40Gb drive that's empty at the mo so can use this for recording projects.
Hi dB Masters
There's an evaluation version of NTrack which is pretty fully featured and unlimited but I think puts some noises in the final mixdown but should be OK to find my feet. If I like it I think it's £35 ($50) so shouldn't break the bank.
Hi Strat-O-Pat
That sounds like exactly the advice I need to get me going. I was serching the forums and found some different opinions on what should go where. Initially, we'll just be recording vocals and acoustic guitar using the mic so should only be using a single channel at a time.
People tell me recording vocals is the hardest part. It was the motivation for this whole project to enable us to record my wife who's getting back into singing. But now I'm really excited and can't wait to get my hands on the kit, hook it up and start playing with it.
Don't wory you'll get a mention on the credits for our first number one.
Anyway, I'm sure I'll have loads more questions soon. I've read a lot of useful stuff on here already it's a great site.
Thanks all.
Martin
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Feb 01, 2006 04:00 pm Cool beans,
last I knew, n-track demo didn't let you mix down. only track and play with the individual tracks. It may be different now, but i don't know.
it only lets you put effects on the first channel, and I think puts silence every 10 seconds or so if you do.
16 bit n-track is pretty cheap, like 45$ or so. the 24bit is more, like 75 or 80$.
You won't need the 24 bit until you start adding effects, and changing levels. For what you're doing now, 16bit will work well.
