Recording at Home

Eraserhead2416

Eraserhead2416

Active member
I'm not even going to start on shotgun mics- what do I want? Bah. I'll take the DVX to one of the audio shops and play with them all.

Now my question is concerning the recording of a original soundtrack. The setup I'm looking at would include an assortment of guitars, both electric and acoustic, bass guitar, piano, probably will have a midi keyboard, maybe some live drum recording. I'll take these into some audio program or another (like Acid, cause Pro Tools is... just too pro for me.)

My problem is: How? I'm on a non-existant budget, and getting equipment piece-by-piece. I'm looking for a simple computer hardware setup, some sort of midi hook-up, and possibly a way to directly plug and record from studio mic setup.

Unfortunately all information I find is either too expensive or too isoteric.

My cheapest and most easy option is to plug the mic into the DVX and record our playing to transfer to the comp. That's ridiculous, though.

I'm going to meet with a guy up the street who has a studio in his house. It's nothing too fancy, but the guy has won a couple grammys so he's no slouch.

I'd jump at the chance to just hang out there and jam, but I'll be damned if I pay normal studio prices. Who knows, I'm not going to drop my hopes.

Any suggestions or links for beginners would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to keep searching in hopes to find something other than an online store...
 
Re: Recording at Home

You are going to need an audio interface. Like a Digi 001 or alike. The Digi works Pro Tools, and you shouldn't be afraid of that because if you are serious, you'll learn to value it in no time. MIDI will be the simpler of your problems if you want only to plug in a keyboard, since you can find USB MIDI keyboards pretty cheap these days.

My first choice in audio interfaces would be a M-Audio Firewire 1814, but again that's 750 dollars. You can improvise or go a little further. Now be aware that those interfaces, despite having a lot of inputs only have a few preamps (2 in the 1814, and that's 8 inputs...), so if you are considering connecting all the instruments at once or micking a drum set with more than 2 mics you would also need a analog mixer or some external analog preamps to boost the signal before it gets in.

Now, if you are going to be doing all the playing and can live with overhead drum micking with only 2 mics, you can just get a Mobilepre USB from them for 170 dollars and start playing. There are even more and more expensive alternatives, maybe even cheaper ones. You'll have to research some more. Some boards will be more help than this, since this is essentially a video (audio for video/film) board, but I'm sure even here there is someone that knows a whole lot than me about to kick in with more info...
 
Re: Recording at Home

u dont need to spend a crap load to get good recordings....
do u have any budget at all?

i would suggest you invest in a nice condensor mic...for vocal recordings i use a groovetube gt66 sounds damn good its pricy though....but you can acheive a good sound with a dynamic sure sm58 that only costs 80 bucks or so,and 20 for a pop filter...

if ure lookin to record multitrack thats not cheap by all means...but for simple recordings 2 sources ull be fine....invest in a 12 or 14 channel mackie or beringer mixer and have the out put go to ure sound card...

i use the creative audiy2 zs pro....it has an external breakout in wich i take my mics to my compressor/limiter/gate...then to the my 1404vlz mackie and use a balanced 1/4inch cable to my breakout box...with minimal noise the creative cards has excellent outcome.....
hit me up on aim if u have any questions...
 
Re: Recording at Home

If you have nothing right now, and have no money, and don't want to spend more than a few hundred bucks, then your only hope is to make friends with a someone in a studio and ask them to do it for free. If that doesn't work out, then you're going to spend at least $1000, but probably more to get some sort of usable, stable system up and running.

-Dave
 
Re: Recording at Home

I guess I'll have to make friends with the guy up the street.
Thanks for the advice.


What I really need is to find several garbage bags packed with unmarked $100 bills. Yeah...
 
Re: Recording at Home

The Studio Projects mics are very nice and there very cheap. I have the C-1 condencer and I use it more than my expensive mics.

The M-audio stuff is also very good. you can get a four channel interface for around 250.00
If your tracking instruments one at a time you can get away with even less.

If the guy down the street has won grammy's, he's curtainly worth regular studio prices and then some.
 
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