Recording Practice Cheap and simple :to noonesheroAnd others

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The fat one always watches us.
Member Since: Nov 08, 2002

hey, no ones hero- how did you record that last one. its good, fairly clear, and even on my laptop at work i could hear almost everything. the laptop has no bass to speak of though.Ill get it again at home. Ive asked this of other folks recording band practice type things too- Dan said he used a computer mic! For practice thats the perfect deal. Can you give me a run down on how you did it?

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Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 07:48 am

hey tony, my way is a simple way to get a half decent sounding recording: all you need is a mixer with several mic preamps and some kinda recorder, anything will do, in my case I used a Sony MiniDisc recorder.

Things have changed now, but I'd use a Behringer MX802 mixer with various crappy mics i got for free, like this radioshack thing, and these two old broken Shures, and my favorite is an Audio Technica. Okay, anyways I'd mic my cabinet (bass), the PA cabinet (guitar/vocal), the drummer's kick, one mic capturing the ambience of the room (okay now that's all four pres on the mixer) and now two more mics for a stereo image of the drums amped by my AudioBuddy, that's another little preamp, and send those outs into a stereo pair channel on the mixer. So now I have six differnt mics hooked up. that's kinda extreme unless you're cutting a demo to pass around.

Now with my headphones in the mixer and watching the little graphic dB meter I'd set each mic up one by one, turning all of them off but the one i was working with, and i'd zero it out while the drummer banged on my kick or whatever and slowing bring the gain up till it sounded full and I'd EQ that channel and get it's level nice and peaking close to 0dB (cause my recorder is digital... you don't have to be so picky if you're recording to tape or something) then turn its level all the way back down to move on to the next mic channel. just do the same and repeat with each one. just remember that once a channel is set up, turn it's level down, and not the preamp gain.

now once all the mics are set up like that, now you have to level each instrument. this can be tricky. just use your ears. get everything sounding "right" and when it does and nothing's clipping you're all set. run the line outs from the mixer to your recorder and tada!

this took me almost half an hour so set up the first time i did it. fortunately everybody was real patient. BTW nothing come out that nighh :O( i had the signal going into the "line out" on the MiniDisc. DUH!

The fat one always watches us.
Member
Since: Nov 08, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 08:10 am

Crap, i dont have any of that stuff......maybe ill get a kara-crap-oky machine from wall mart. its only 19.99 and comes with a mic. haahaha
When and if im gonna do a session like that itll be in a carpeted room (above my garage, in the pictures) its basicly square with the little recording nook. Will the carpet have a huge effect? can i get away without having preamps? what exactly are the preamps doing for you? Life like this is unacceptable. sooo hard without equipment.....
hey did you listen to the fixed version of your song? ive gotten some good reviews around here. i now understand it's not your "style" though. not loud, or fast enough!

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 08:22 am

Carpet will have a positive impact. I am building an iso booth over the winter and plan to carpet it with thin carpetting to deaden the reverb a bit.

Don't go get a Walmart machine. Go to your local Music Go Round, Pawn shop or the like and you will find a mic for $20 that will do a better job than any ol karaoke machine.

In regards to the preamp, it just makes a much better signal to feed to your PC, in a signal type and size that the PC will better understand and use. As I recall you said your wife was getting you a mixer for Christmas, right? Lucky you, you will have preamps on that! Pretty nice ones too if you get that Behringer we talked about.

Also, if you haven't already, look through our freeware section in the link directory, there are links to tons of freeware apps, effect plugins and other groovy stuff to help you do a lot of you signal processing on the PC. Not that that really has anything to do with the issue at hand, but it came to mind so I said it.

The fat one always watches us.
Member
Since: Nov 08, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 08:34 am

I was just kidding about wall mart. but i do want to get another mic- wider cone and more reach than sm-57. nothing great- just so that if ive got 3-4 people playing in various setups i can record it well enough to know who's out of time (usally me) and who is dead on (usally not me)
under 150?? and yes im in for the mixer baby oh ya. santa says ive been better this year. its an improvement present cause im still not good.

Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 09:17 am

did you remix one of my songs?

The fat one always watches us.
Member
Since: Nov 08, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 09:18 am

no, no ones heros songs, sorry i got confused. im old you see. very old, and i wasnt terribly bright to begin with.....
i'd give it a shot though, email me lyrics if you want me to make up music, or lyrics and music and ill give it a shot.

Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 09:21 am

LOL whoops. i freaked out for a second. all of my stuff is either *other peoples* stuff i helped them make, or remixes of popular songs. i like to mix other people's stuff into what i hear in my head and it alwyas comes out horrible. -j

The fat one always watches us.
Member
Since: Nov 08, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 09:25 am

where can i get some of youre stuff to listen to? Where does Jamie hide his music?

Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 09:31 am

crap i've done it this time. like i said most of the stuff i do is like restoring old bootleg tapes and people's band demos and crap and putting them on CD. it's something i do in my spare time to make a couple buks. but the only tracks i've finished myself are remixes of like 311 and prodigy and MAN they all turned out BAD. im working on things. i hope by christmas to have a drum n bass track complete. its kinda cheesy, but then so am i LOL -j

The fat one always watches us.
Member
Since: Nov 08, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 09:39 am

send me some stuff, ill give it that appalacian feel. im not sure what that meant, are you implying im a hillbilly of some sort? My family did come from west virgina-maybe i sucked up something there. hmmmmmm. i play that way cause its the only way that came out. im not much one for lessons-or the right way- or practice- and music theory- my theory is "it doesnt sound like crap its good" too bad- it still sorta sound like crap. I have just met a guy that sings though. and he plays piano with both hands and uses the black keys. very impressive indeed. if it works out we're gonna do some stuff around va beach this winter (when no ones here!)

Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 10:35 am

LOL, "uses the black keys, thats great" you know another philosophy towards keys is usign "only the black keys". that's another way to not hit the wrong key. naw, i'm not sayin' y'alls hillybillys or nuttin. it's just i'm so used to that appalachia feel of things that i yearn for somethign different. the funny thing is, the signer my band just met is a straight up rebel, you know? but it's cool, i dig the way does this bluesy stuff.

i can't send you anything cause all of my stuff is kinda rippoffs of other artists. i can't sell it ever share it legally. i hope to something original real soon.

The fat one always watches us.
Member
Since: Nov 08, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 10:44 am

no lyrics, no nothing? hmmmm. and that thing with just the black keys, hows that work? ive never touched the black keys- i thought they were spacers so you could figure out what white key to hit..........

Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 10:54 am

they're only used in oriental music and um.. i think the blues. and naw, i'm a bit of a loner when it comes to certain styles. unless you're into something electronic, either dancable, scarey or ambient, or something in between. caus eim looking to colaborate on something electronic. :OD -j

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Nov 20, 2002 06:54 pm

Hey, two ecomony mic packages to check out TonyD

Shure Dynamic Mic with 1/4 Inch Phone Mic Cable
service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear

Shure PG58-QTR Dynamic Mic with 1/4" Phone Mic Cable
service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear

Just some food for thought...

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Nov 28, 2002 11:39 am

You can also check out something from Audio Technica. They have some very reasonalbe price's on some pretty decent dynamic mic's. I have used one of their DR-1000 that I picked up at Musician's freind about 5 year's ago that has a pretty good sense when using it to mic a room. I think I paid about $29.99 for it then. I know CAD also has some really good mic's in the lower price range that will do what you want, and I believe MF still carrie's their stuff also.

Member
Since: Apr 26, 2002


Dec 01, 2002 10:54 pm

My bands practice studio is carpeted... floor, celing, and walls.

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