recording

Becca · #1 January 11th, 2007

How do you start a good home studio with limited dollars:?

allthumbs · #2 January 11th, 2007

Look half way down the page for free recording programs and other threads on the subject.
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...splay.php?f=69
Also look in the Home Studio forum for more info.

cshude · #3 January 11th, 2007

That is a HUGE question! You need to provide some more information before anyone can start giving concrete answers- we all would need to know 2 basic pieces of information as follows just to get started in pointing in some directions:
1) What do you consider limited dollars? A couple hundred, a couple thousand?
2) How serious are you about recording?

You can get some pretty decent recordings just by plugging into the soundcard of your computer- take a listen to the latest song I posted-http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9720 That was done by plugging in my acoustic/electric straight into the card, and the vocals were done on a chintzy microphone from a karaoke machine. The software that I use is PowerTracks ProAudio from www.pgmusic.com . It has a ton of features, has a very forum community to help and share with, and is less than $100. There are quite a few good free programs out there like Audacity, Kristal, etc. I like PTPA because of the real time effects controls and mixing.

So anyways, if you provide more information, I'm sure you'll get some direction. Also, don't forget to read the threads in the recording studio portion of the forum:
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...splay.php?f=47

Becca · #4 January 12th, 2007

Right now I am using a USB connection going from my computer to a mixer. Also, I am using CUBASE for my recording software. I am new at all this but I am anxious to learn more about it. It a just for fun thing I got going now. I have an electric guitar, amp, computer, mixer, and mic. I don't have any good speakers to get to a final mix down. That is frustrating at times. I will check the website you suggested. Thanks all for responding......

cshude · #5 January 14th, 2007

Well, you've got more than what I've got right now. If you don't want to drop the dough for some good studio monitors, then you should look at getting a nice set of headphones. I use a pair of AudioTechnica ATH-M30 cans that I picked up for about $75. They give you a very good response and you can get a pretty decent mix out of them. Make sure that you DO NOT get regular headphones designed for recreational listening. Those kind of headphones are designed to make everything sound better. What you want are headphones designed for studio use- they have a very flat response curve and are designed to let you hear every little thing in whatever you are listening to.

The trick with any setup is that you must listen very closely to professional music through your system that has the kind of sound you are looking for. One of the best things to do is to pull some songs into your recording software (Cubase in your case) and listen while watching a graphic eq analyzer- that, along with your ears will give you a representation of the overall kind of sound as far as bass, mids, his, etc, to look for in your mixes. It takes a lot of work to get right. Also, make sure that you mix your songs at the lowest volume level at which you can hear everything and can identify any change that you make. When you're mixing, ear fatigue is a real factor and if you listen at a high volume after a while everything starts to sound good (or bad, as the case may be).

Sounds like you're on the right road already- get yourself a good set of headphones designed for studio use and you should be posting some real nice recordings in a hurry!

Becca · #6 January 17th, 2007

cshude.....Wow, you must have ESP. That's exactly what I did this past Friday. The headphones really make a huge difference. I haven't tried using the equalizer to mix down. There is one on my CUBASE software, not really comfortable using that one though. Looks really complicating so I don't miss with it to much. I guess if it had active meters, I could see what changes I was doing better besides just changing by what I'm actually hearing. Thanks for the good pointers of mixing down, using a low volume make sense. I will try that. Thanks for responding.
Becca

eddiez152 · #7 January 18th, 2007

Becca,
I don't remember who posted this link. It may have been Tekker. But It was very interesting. Even some video explanations. Have a look.
http://www.acousticplayermagazine.co...cord1_001.html

eddiez152

Tekker · #8 January 18th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Becca

I guess if it had active meters, I could see what changes I was doing better besides just changing by what I'm actually hearing.

The Voxengo site seems to be down at the moment, but you can get the free Voxengo SPAN spectrum analyzer here.
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1023.html

Here's another one:
http://www.rogernicholsdigital.com/inspector.htm

Also, it is better to mix on speakers and then check your mixes with headphones. Even studio headphones won't be nearly as accurate as speakers because each ear is isolated from each other and there is a lot of stuff you will miss if you mix on headphones. Try this as a test:

Load any mp3/wave file into your recording program. Now using headphones, invert the polarity on either the left or right channel (but not both) in your recording program. Notice how the panning changes a little in the headphones and it sounds like it gets pulled in towards the center, but the bass and fullness of the song is still mostly there. Now try that same thing with speakers and there should be a much bigger difference. The center gets completely cancelled out, the bass and fullness are sucked out of the song, and what's left is very thin sounding.

Depending on your budget you can get some pretty decent monitors for not much money. Monitors make a huge diffirence in how your mixes come out, so this is one area you definitely want to get the best that your budget allows for.

-tkr

Becca · #9 January 18th, 2007

Thanks for the info...I like the free meters you can download. I will definitely try one of them. I'm sure it will help me a lot. Thanks again

Becca · #10 January 19th, 2007

Do you know of a decent graphic eq analyzer download (free) or reasonably priced that I can use in VST in CUBASE?

Tekker · #11 January 20th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Becca

Do you know of a decent graphic eq analyzer download (free) or reasonably priced that I can use in VST in CUBASE?

I don't know of any freebies unfortunately. But you can use the Voxengo SPAN analyzer along side any EQ plugin to get a similiar result. Just watch the analyzer as you make EQ adjustments. While it is easier to have both in the same plugin, this way will work better than no analyzer at all.... And it's free.

Voxengo also has several EQ's with spectrum analyzers in the $80-$90 range.
http://www.voxengo.com/group/equalizers/

I don't know what your budget is, but if you're interested in the Voxengo EQ's there are demo versions for every one of the Voxengo plugins so you can try them all out and see which one you'd want. Also be sure to read up on the Voxengo EQ's, because some of them have very unique and different approaches to EQing and don't work like other typical EQ's.

-tkr

cshude · #12 January 20th, 2007

Or, for about the same amount of money you can get PowerTracks ProAudio (that's what I use for recording), a full featured 48 tracks recording software program. The sonic analyzer is one of the built-in "effects" and it has full VST support for anything else you want to add on. You also get real time effects monitoring (that's a big advantage for me vs. some of the other programs like Audacity) and MIDI support, if you need it. It's very easy to use and can go head to head with other programs out there costing several hundred dollars. Plus they've got a great support forum on top of the company tech support.
www.pgmusic.com is the address.