I thought I'd put together a tutorial for people wanting to record your well crafted guitars.
Starting with the best budget interfaces. Ive kept it to simple usb interfaces that can be used on PC'S And Macs too.
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I thought I'd put together a tutorial for people wanting to record your well crafted guitars.
Starting with the best budget interfaces. Ive kept it to simple usb interfaces that can be used on PC'S And Macs too.
More Interfaces
After the interfaces I'll move on to software that will enable you to record that guitar sound you've created.
I can't forget to add the
Very good ESI interface as I think Jarrod will testify to. If you have any suggestions or questions please feel free to ask
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug0...esiesu1808.htm
Best Wishes
Kimball
I've got a fairly grunty PC running Win 8.1 with Reaper 4.76 ( 64 bit )
The hardware is a Peavey PV6 mixer and a Sennheiser MD427 mic.
When fooling around at home I DI the guitar via various pedals into the mixer rather than mic the amp and when I am recording a jam session I simply hang the mic in between the three of us.
The guys I jam with one plays lap steel / dobro & sings and the other plays a Takamine & sings, I play bass or 6 stringer depending on the song.
At the jams I use my wife's lappy running Vista and the same release of Reaper via the Peavey mixer.
The Peavey only gives you two out which is fine for my needs
Hi Dave, Reapers one of the best budget DAWS (Digital Audio Workstations )Around bargain wise and it just gets better and better with each release . For a price of $60.00 nothing beats it. I use both PC'S and Macs . But find windows 8.1 really good .thats another great thing about reaper to you don't need a brand new computer to run it. I hated Apples Mavericks operating system it was slow and buggy. I'm hoping yosemite is going to be much better. Pro tools 11 is an amazing price currently $199.00 if you upgrade from previous version never been cheaper. But can be buggy and needs a compatible pro tools friendly computer .64 bit certainly has changed so much allowing us all to use the full memory of the computer. There's nothing like sitting in a room with other musicians and just playing .
I should add that I don't do any audio or video processing on the laptop it's just a convenient portable storage device.
I'm using Audacity to break up a very large .aif file from a jam on Saturday ( 2.5 hrs ), there were six of us, keys, electric guitars ( all Grestch 3x Falcon 1x Electrojet ) Magnum pedal steel, D35 & D28 Martin acoustics and my old Yamaha bass, the other five all sing like birds so there were some sensational harmonies. Genres included, country, bluegrass, jazz, rock & swing with solos getting handed off mid passage.
Reaper is teh awesomesauce. You can go from raw takes to mastered song without needing anything else software-wise, it even includes an autotune clone.
BIG note on recording though, and this is from years of experience in bands demoing songs and recording our own releases, use an external recording device. The ones at the top of this post are pretty good, I'm currently using a Zoom R16 which allows for a variety of input types and has some built in effects of its own.
The other pearl of wisdom is to record your instruments 100% clean unless there's a really good reason not to (i.e. playing with fuzzed out feedback). You can take your clean source and run it through a variety of real gear later to get your sound, and it allows for fine tuning you can't do live (like adjusting pedals whilst playing). I guarantee you can get your live sound this way, as I've done it several times with great results. Just output your take into where your guitar normally goes, and then record the end result. Make sure you mic your amp too as that will give a slightly different sound, and allow you to blend your ideal tone.
Great info Fatmunkey and Dave upload some of the stuff you guys recorded .tell us how you achieved it.
I saw this thread and felt compelled to throw my 2 cents in. I'm actually quite a noob to the world of computer recording, having only purchased a little 2 channel M-Audio M-Track interface a quarter of the way through this year. Before that I was live tracking everything through a Korg D3200 then importing into my DAW for post production.
My DAW of choice is FL-Studio(11) for the simple fact that I do quite a bit of electronic production in addition to my guitar based stuff (mainly house, drum n bass a bit of trance) and the "Piano Roll" feature on FL-Studio is second to none IMO, having also dabbled with Ableton and Pro-Tools.
Fl-Studio started life as Fruity Loops and was nothing more than a basic beat creation sequencer but over time has evolved into a fully fledged, fully functional DAW.
A lot of rock purists and probably many electronic musicians would probably turn their noses up at this DAW for some of the bigger names out there but personally when it stops doing what I need it to I'll consider changing...thankfully that hasn't happened yet.
Although cracked, fully working pirate copies are readily available of FL-Studio (for trial purposes of course) I had no problems forking out the $200 U.S for the "Producer Edition" which unlocks all the features available, although there are cheaper options with less functionality depending on your needs.
The $200 price tag may seem a little hefty but when you take into consideration this includes a lifetime of upgrades, meaning all future releases are free, it's pretty good value, not to mention versions are constantly being updated and customer service is really good going on past experience.
The M-Track interface was an absolute breeze to get my head around and simply plugs into a USB port, set up the in/out in your DAW and you're good to go, it's got 2 high HZ guitar ins and two XLR jacks for mics in addition to a headphone jack, and a few level and gain controls so for sitting at home recording it suits my needs perfectly. My only gripe would be that I didn't buy one 3 years ago and save myself soooo much dicking around importing files into the PC.
I never use a DI, and hardly ever mic up the amp opting to record direct into FL-Studio through the Guitar Rig 5 vst plugin, the selection of amps and sounds available within this plugin is staggering and pretty much all I need most of the time.
Another plugin that I'll give a shout-out to would be Izotope Ozone, it's primarily a mastering tool but I literally use it everywhere, all the time because it's got great multi band compressors, spacial effects, mid/side EQing, volume maximizer, exciters and the list goes on, definitely my favorite plugin ever.
Here's a couple of tracks done completely in FL-Studio, one's ambient house/dnb track, the others a hard rock number recorded straight into FL using Guiitar Rig
https://soundcloud.com/sodacupkiller/orssiting
https://soundcloud.com/sodacupkiller...-walls/s-b5XON
Good stuff Bargeloops , great that you put some of your work on here too .liked piano in first track some of the melodies where great
.The vocal in track two was good.Have you tried Slate Digital Virtual Mix Tack on your vocals. It'll bring Your vocal more up front , give it more presence too. It's free to try give it a go let me know your thoughts . If you load virtual mix rack before loading and racks select presets try the airy vocals http://youtu.be/Eci4nqyGUu0. As with any presets there just a starting point. Have fun
Thanks for sharing your music
Kimball
P.s try the wave vocal rider too if you haven't but just loving the slate digital,presently
Here some thoughts on the different types of recording software
http://www.thedawstudio.com/Gear/What-Is-A-DAW.html
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...thumbs-up.html
I watched the demo vid on that virtual rack, it sounded like they were getting really good results alright, unfortunately since we've moved house we've lost our unlimited internet access so I have to watch what I download and couldn't really justify grabbing a demo that in all reality I'd never buy. I couldn't see myself spending $200 on a plugin...ever.Quote:
Originally Posted by kimball492
Yeah it's amazing what we all spend money on at times . Some I never use others I use all the time. Here's loads of free ones might help you . Was using logic yesterday I love it it's great for laying ideas down and sequencing . But for recording audio I love Pro tools. I wish someone would put the best of all of the Daws into one package . Mind you Kenny Gioia a pro producer and mixer now reckons the $60.00 Reaper is the best currently. Here's some freebies for you to check out .
http://www.hometracked.com/2007/01/1...vocal-plugins/
Here's a great site for tips ideas etc for logic
http://logic-pro-expert.com
My home studio setup is as follows,
Computers:
I5 3.3Ghz Quad Core Desktop PC, Running Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit with 4Gb DDR3 Ram.
G4 Macintosh with Dual 500Mhz CPU, Running OS X Panther With 2Gb Ram .
Audio Interfaces:
X1 Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 (Firewire).
X1 Digidesign Digi002. (Firewire).
X1 Digidesign Digi001. (PCI Card Interface).
Software:
Image Line FL Studio 11 Producer Edition, 32 and 64Bit versions.
Ableton Live 9.1 64 Bit.
Reason 5.
Reaper 4.76 64Bit.
ProTools LE 6.4 (Running on my Mac G4 with the Digi001).
I'd definitely recommend getting a Focusrite Audio Interface if/when you can afford them since the preamps sound great.
I like my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 since I've had relatively few issues with it apart from two of the inputs not working as they were supposed to (turned out to be a couple of loose plugs on the PCB which I fixed myself), the Saffire Pro 40 has 8 Line inputs, two of them double as mic inputs, there are also 8 line outputs, midi in/out, Spdif in/out, optical in/out, two separate headphone outs with independent level controls, I've got version 3.3 (I think) of Saffire Mix Control installed, this enables you to use the Saffire Pro 40 in standalone mode without connecting it to a PC.
I've also purchased a $60.00 license for Reaper, haven't done much with it yet cause I'm still getting my head round it, but I have to say that I agree that it is great value for money, interestingly, I found out that Reaper was created by some ex Avid Digidesign employees who apparently didn't like Digidesign's business model, I think the Reaper team's business model is great, loads of respect to them, if you're looking for a good DAW for your studio then check out Reaper.
Oh yeah, if you're looking for somewhere to upload your audio demos, check out Soundcloud.com, they offer three plans, one plan is free just to get you started, then they offer two paid for plans.
Hey Dr Nomis , good to hear from you . I have a focusrite amongst others ,great preamps for recording guitars. I use logic for sequencing getting ideas down quick, Pro tools 11.3 for vocals and editing . Reaper is small fast and a great bargain.
If you'd like free for 7 days loops beats samples try this place it was listed on pro tools expert site
https://www.audioblocks.com/freemusi...m_medium=email
Dr Nomis have you tried pro tools 11.3 great update gives you Acess to loads more memory and it's faster makes computers,especially older ones have new lease of life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kimball492
Haven't tried ProTools 11.3 since my Mac is an old G4 (circa 1999) and won't run any of the later version of OS X past Tiger (OS X 10.4.11), my PC should be able to run ProTools 11 though, unfortunately it's probably going to cost me a bit to buy ProTools 11 for my PC, might consider doing it when my funds permit as I'll then be able to use my Saffire Pro 40 with my Digi002, I'll have to buy a good PCI card with Firewire ports on it as well since I only have one Firewire port on my PC's motherboard.
I've been interested in producing PsyTrance music on my PC using FL Studio 11 Producer Edition, here's a link to a PsyTrance track I made and uploaded to my soundcloud account:
https://soundcloud.com/drnomis_44/in...nce-mix-master
DrNomis Avid are doing an upgrade and 12 months updates , from certain old versions of Pro tools for $199.00 instead of $800.00
Worth a buy if you have an applicable old version.
Kimball
Quote:
Originally Posted by kimball492
Cool, I'll have to check that out, I wonder if ProTools LE 6.4 is one of the qualifying old versions?, if it is, I might see if I can get the PC version of ProTools 11, might help me in the VET Music course I'll be doing at uni this year as they're running ProTools.
Cheers for that mate.
Hey Kimball, I'm currently in an acoustic band and I would be interested to use some of my pedals in the recordings, can I just mike the axe, then reamp it with the rig?
Also, currently I'm using Garageband (*cough* on my phone *cough*) to get the tracks recorded, then sent out to Music Creator 6 (nice DAW for the price!) for editing. Currently too low on $$$ for mics and interfaces :)
Hi Keloooe ,so is it just for recordings or live. If it's recording do a combination of the acoustic sound plugged in , and then mic it the nice thing if you record an acoustic with out any sound is you can then use affects , on the recording afterwards .try and double up your track that way if you mess up any time you always have the pure acoustic sound to go back to . I personally love the combination of a miked acoustic , mixed with the sound of a guitars built in pickup if it has one . When miking up try recording with Mike pointing upwards to the twelfth fret . Then record another take but with the Mike slightly above pointing down at the twelfth fret .Then add one guitar to the other with slider see which one sounds best as the dominant guitar.
Quote:
Originally Posted by keloooe
What platform are you running your recording software on?, PC or Mac?, if you're running your software on a PC there's a way you can use your pedals to record with without doing any re-amping, here's what you do:
Download and install a plugin called NadIR (it's an Impulse Response speaker cab simulator), next download some impulse response files from the internet and copy them into a folder which you create in the folder for your NadIR installation, next fire up your DAW and set up an audio track for recording, next load up an instance of the NadIR plugin for the track and then load up an impulse response in NadIR, you can then connect your pedals directly to the Line In on your Audio Interface, your guitar will sound like it's being played through an amp.