Decent Quality Recording Gear

ubw newbie Joined: May 24, 2009 Posts: 2

Hi, my band spent a few hours in the recording studio a little while ago and, at the time, we thought the result was pretty sweet. But now that we look back to that and listen to it, it's not quite as impressive, so we're now looking into doing our own recording. I'm just curious of what hardware we're going to need. We're likely going to be ordering almost everything from Musician's Friend since we're on a bit of a budget. We already have a Mackie DFX-12 mixer so I'm hoping that might help, but in addition I'm looking at the Tascam US 144 Interface which just connects to the computer via USB. It only has 1 or 2 inputs but I don't think that should be an issue since the mixer has a bunch of inputs and I'm hoping I can hook that up to the interface. We're only going to be recording one instrument at a time so I think the USB connection should be fine. However, I'll be using 8 or 9 microphones for the drums ( 4 mics for each tom, a kick mic, a snare mic and 3 overheads ) so I wonder if I should get an interface with Firewire instead of USB. Does Firewire make a big difference? For the microphones, we're looking at a Shure SM57 for recording the guitars and bass ( I might use one of the tom mics for the bass guitar or something, we'll have to experiment ). The drums are going to use a CAD PRO-7 pack of microphones, I don't know how well they'll work but the reviews seem promising. However, for the kick drum we're using an AKG D-112. The vocals will either be recorded by his dynamic Electro-Voice 767 microphone or an MXL 990 mic that comes as a bonus with the Tascam US 144 Interface. For software, I'm thinking about picking up SONAR Cakewalk Producer 8. Then I'll spend many sleepless nights trying to figure out how it works. I think this is a fairly decent combination of junk on a budget, but I'm kind of going out on a limb here. We're just hoping for quality that's as good as or better than the song we originally recorded, which can be found at www.myspace.com/latesurrender . I'm sure a good chunk of the work required is done with mixing the stuff on the computer and I'm willing to spend an infinite amount of time with that. I'm just trying to figure out what equipment will work for us. If anybody can give some suggestions or any support, I would REALLY appreciate it. Thanks

Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 7:32 pm

I don't mean to be a downer, but recording and mixing a band is tougher than it looks. Don't expect miracles. There's definitely an art to it.

I don't know alot about the best recording equipment available nowadays for tracking as many live inputs at once as you're going to need, but expect to find yourself struggling with it more than you anticipate. The technology can kill the vibe of what you've got going on.

I will say this. A good vocal mic is worth it. I got a Neumann TLM103 and love it - I use it for everything, including vox, acoustic guitars, and drums.

I'd encourage you to reconsider recording one instrument at a time. At least try recording everybody in real time and see if you don't think you get a better vibe. In my experience, one-track-at-a-time efforts might sound good, but they seem to lose a certain life of the song.

ubw newbie Joined: May 24, 2009 Posts: 2

I'll have to consider that. We might be able to do 2 or 3 instruments at a time, I'm not sure, we'll have to experiment. Thanks for the input.

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 7:57 am

I would have to agree with Smili....hey Smili?? whats up??..anyway
recording your band live can be a difficult challenge....make sure you do a lot of test runs before you just push record and go...my bass player made that mistake and we have about 3-4 hours of music we did that is going in the trash......and i also agree that recording each instrument does lose a lot of life...because in my opinion, feeding off the other band mates energy and seeing them getting into the song/songs is what gets me rockin and then i get into it therefore my playing ability gets better...cant explain it.."it is what it is"......experiment though...sometimes the best things in life are accidental.....i was!
Good Luck...and most importantly...ROCK ON!!!

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 4:30 am

i was just reading a little of the thread and have to concur with Smili and Gunner (hello, gents), but also have a few other ideas to keep in mind:

first off, and much along the lines of what Smili was getting at, your big-ticket items should be your mikes. next preamps, then PC hardware, then the software.

Sonar 8 producer is wicked expensive, and, in my opinion, not at all worth it for the functionality you'll probably get out of it. unless you use a lot of VSTi plug-ins and loads of midi sequencing, you don't really need all the bells and whistles that come with it. i would also recommend also something different from the Cakewalk gear, having used various versions of the last three runs of Sonar, the last one being Sonar 8 Producer.

if you're working with mostly, or completely, real audio, i would suggest Adobe Audition 3. oh, for the moment, i also encourage you to stay away from anything that says something like "Producer" or "Suite" (usually recognizable by the insanely high price tag). it's just going to have a bunch of stuff that 1) you can probably get legally and free from vendors who provide mastering plug-ins FOR FREE that are often just as good but don't look as cool; and 2) is really not even necessary.

DAWs like this version Cakewalk also double as film-editing software, meaning you're getting tools that you really shouldn't be spending your limited cash on if you're goal is to create an album. the hardware is super important, which can't be stressed enough. i know that concessions have to be made all around when on a tight budget, too, which is why i also stress avoiding the purchase of the big DAWs. you can always upgrade in a year or two when you've got a better idea of what works for you and what doesn't. unlike hardware, you really can't get your money back that easy with software. if you sink all of your money in now and get stuck with something you don't really like, it sucks ass.

if there's something in particular about Sonar you prefer, then just get the Studio version. it has most of the same gear as producer, minus some of the higher-end mastering plugins (i refer you back to '1'). i'd also consider Cubase, as it allows you to work with a wider range of common file types associated with other popular audio production software you may want to utilize later (like .rex and .rex2 which work in Reason and Ableton as well...and perhaps Native Instruments' Kontakt 3 and Battery 3 but not certain). although i admit, from many hours of personal experience, that learning and testing loads of different DAWs can be stressful and annoying when all you want to do is lay down some tracks, i testify to you that you'll be well off to try out some demo versions of different DAWs, which are most often available for free online and often have many of the key features available in the actual purchased product. this might hold you up a bit, but you also have to be sure that whatever software you decide upon also works well with any and all hardware. i know i sound kind of nuts about this, but i've had many many headaches due to purchasing software that i thought did what i needed it to do but found out only later that there was just one glitch that f@#ked my flow, dig?

as for the USB/FireWire question, FireWire is better, but USB isn't bad. most USB models to come out over the last few years have fortunately been upgraded to USB 2.0, so there isn't a huge difference to FireWire 400, but FireWire 800 is faster, and eSATA even faster! the best thing is probably to have an integrated sound card, and you can get cards with loads of I/Os (like the M-Audio Delta 1010 LT w/ 8 analog I/Os) and then just track through a board. there is a rack version of the Delta that also has phantom power for the two XLR I/Os for the dope mikes you're going to get!!! lol just playing

oh, keep in mind that you'll need something to listen to play your mix through! no point in the gear if the speakers are crap. you can get something to get you by for about $100-200 if you shop around.

here's a link to another forum thread along the same lines with other people's input on the matter, and hopefully it will help facilitate the process of figuring out what works best for you.

regardless of which route you choose, best of luck, have fun, and be sure to post some tracks here when you start getting those tracks down!

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 10:19 pm

also - when I recently asked about newer software for tracking bands I got alot of suggestions to check out Reaper. It's only $60 for non-commercial use and seems like it's got a big development community behind it - one of those home-grown type apps to compete with the high $ stuff. The recs were coming from pros. (granted, I got alot of Cubase recs along with other apps also, but Reaper stood out to me because I'd never heard of it).

http://www.reaper.fm/

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:17 am

very nice, smili! for $60, it's totally worth checking out. sounds great going off the info at the site.

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