what do i need for home recording?

S

shred me good

New member
i have a pc a very good guitar and a drumkit.
i want to be able to record somthing like an album but need to know what equipment i need to buy??
i have £1000 to spend and would like some kind of efects proceser, a nice piece of recording softwair and somway to get the sound of my guitar onto the recording thingy....

i dont realy know how to do it as im totaly inexperienced.
but i know with the right equipment i could do it well.
could anyone help?

thank you
 
Re: what do i need for home recording?

That should be more than enough cash to get what you need. What you need depends on how you want to record. If you want to record direct from the guitar to the PC you can get a product like a Line 6 POD or Genx and run a USB line from that to the PC. You need to have a PC with USB (or MAC with Firewire). If you want to record the sound from your amp you are going to get something with a XLR input. M-Audio and EMU make sound cards or adapters that can handle these functions. Is that enough info?
 
Re: what do i need for home recording?

shred-
a pc is a great place to start- Sonar or cubase are great to get you started in audio as well as midi, and also allow you to use virtual synthesizers and effects, many can be downloaded for free.

But there's about 3 things to really dig into and I suggest this is the order

Firsrt you have to do AD conversion and you need to do this outside of the PC for a good SN ratio- at the same time it really helps ot have a mixing environment and preamps and multiple inputs (drum machines, synths, live mics) so you might consider something like the EZbus or Yamaha's smallest digital mixer- This would also give you midi ports which are great for machine control as well as triggering parts.

monitor- Next most impotant is getting as close to the actual sound you are recording as posible when you monitor the mix- Ill get to a room in a minute, and it's hard to mix in headphones, so near field monitors are usually the best answer here.

mics- First a good old sure sm57 or 58 is a fine dynamic mic for micing an amp or back up vocals- In time you need to add a large diaghram consderor for vocals and room micing, and finally a small condensor for detail work-

room- The room you work in will almost deniately color your mix- Near field monitors help, but read up on both noise reduction and noise aborbtion/defusion.


look up some of these terms on the cubase site, or rec.audio and you can find a ton of information-have fun!
 
Re: what do i need for home recording?

There are basically four things you need to record digitally:

1. A way to turn sound waves into an audio signal (mic or DI)
2. A way to turn the audio signal into a digital computer signal (sound adapter)
3. A way to turn the digital signal into a recording (software)
4. A way to hear what you've recorded, and what you're playing (headphones or speakers)

All four pieces are equally important, and the quality of your work will only be as good as your weakest component. In other words, if you get a great sound adapter, a decent mic, and a pair of cheapo computer speakers, your sound will be as good as the speakers. When budgeting your money, it is important to balance all four factors.

A good, basic setup would be a Shure SM58 mic, a Digidesign MBox (this covers both #2 and #3), and a nice pair of AKG or Sennheiser studio headphones. The MBox comes with ProTools LE, which will have good effects plug-ins built in, along with a bunch of other goodies. With this setup, you will be able to get good results recording almost anything, and you'll have a lot of money left over. Also, don't forget you will need good quality cables to hook everything together.

If you are keen on spending the rest of your budget, you will probably want to get some active studio monitors (speakers), because headphones don't cut it for making a good mix. M-Audio and Samson have very good monitors for reasonable prices. You may also be interested in getting a Line6 PODxt or a Vox Valvetronix for recording your guitar. If you are keen on recording good vocals, you may want to look into a large diaphragm condenser mic.

That ought to be enough info to get you on the right path. Good luck, and post if you have any questions.
 
Re: what do i need for home recording?

^ Isn't it funny that all three of us came up with very similar responses? Either we're all right, or we're all idiots :)
 
Re: what do i need for home recording?

ratherdashing said:
^ Isn't it funny that all three of us came up with very similar responses? Either we're all right, or we're all idiots :)
Click to expand...
And sometimes it is hard to notice the difference. :fing25: :saeek:









:joke:
 
Re: what do i need for home recording?

look at a decent studio compressor as well - i just picked up an alesis 3630 - limiter, noise gate and compressor in one.. really brings out the guitar signal on record :32: i got mine for £50 used..

and yeah, +1 for the shure sm57 or 58.. i personally prefer the 57 (i use it more often as a snare mic, the guard gets in the way), but both mics will make fine presents to your great-grandkids when you're too old to bother with music anymore ;)

tom
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top