home recording

[valleyartsman]

just starting out to record at home and don't know anything about it. please help on what to get. i don't want to spend more than $1500 right now. your help would be great. thanks.

[simonc]

im assuming you have a pc

get yourself a good soundcard , & go from there.
I am using an edirol ua25 , great usb sound capture.It came with some ok software, cant remember the name, because I am using garageband on my mac at the moment.
the UA25 should cost around $200 US , & some ok software should leave you with plenty of change , or you can go all out & spend up big, s'up to you.

peace out.

[captain gorgeous]

fwiw, i recently bought a tascam digital 8 track hard-disc recorder and a nice rode (NT1A) condensor mic. about £300 and £120 respectively i think.

it's pretty cool and easy enough to use for a luddite like me but these things bug me:

you can only record 2 tracks simultaneously.

the pre-amps are a little noisy. especially with a dynamic mic like a 58. you have to CRANK them to get a decent signal off something like an acoustic. definitely far less sensitive than my old tape 4 track. sounds pretty good with the condensor though. In fact it picks up so much background noise i have to be much more carefull about recording environments now.

i find it hard to get tracks off the hard disc and onto CD (still reading the manual though... and i am retarded at stuff like that)

every time you load up a new (or pre-recorded) track it automatically arms both mic channels so if you've got your monitors (okay, stereo) on and the mic plugged in (which is usually the case) you get deafened by squalls of piercing feedback. every frikken time!

apart from that it's cool though. very easy to use. good basic sound. some nice reverbs (haven't tried any other effects) and loads of storage space. you can link up to computer by usb to upload either individual tracks for tweaking or complete mixes for burning.

that's my challenge for this week. retrieve them demos!

[raisindot]

Originally Posted by valleyartsman

just starting out to record at home and don't know anything about it. please help on what to get. i don't want to spend more than $1500 right now. your help would be great. thanks.

First of all, I would recommend staying away from "all in one" DAW recorders unless you're recording "live." Once you buy one of these, the technology goes out of data and you're stuck with something you can't upgrade easily. Recording onto a well-equipped PC gives you a great deal more flexibility, since the huge number of sequencing and audio recording programs and software-based effects make it easy to edit and sweeten your sounds.

Warning: Following information is for PC users. I know nothin' 'bout Macs!

That said, what equipment you want will depend on what you want to record. If you want to record acoustic instruments (like guitars or drums) you'll want an audio
interface (with either a PCI-based card that you plug a mike or audio line directly into or a USB based system with a separate "mixer" type box that takes analog and digital inputs. You can get basic PCI-based audio interfaces for around $100-$200 these days and they often come with entry level recording software. But these don't always come with built-in premaps, which is critical if you plan on using condenser mikes that require phantom power. Yes, you can connect a separate mixer with a preamp and line-out from the mixer into your interface, but this adds a layer of potential noise (and complexity) to the equation.

When I first started home recordeding, I got a Tascam US-224. Nice little 4-input module (two XLR mike inputs, four RCA/quarter-inch inputs, mixer sliders, etc.). Connected via USB to my PC, and I recorded everything into Cakewalk Sonar. The unit cost around $225 at the time.

Since that time I have upgraded to an Emu 1820M. This consists of a dedicated proprietary PCI card that connects via cable to a breakout input box with 8 analog inputs (including 2 mike inputs), and two digital inputs. It has a built in pre-amp for phantom power and even has RCA inputs and a ground for directly attaching a turntable. It has a dedicated software mixing program witn built-in effects (I don't use the effects, since Sonar has better) and I believe still may come with an entry level version of Cubase. I paid around $400 for this, but Emu offers a less expensive, card-only option with similar functionality.

So, assuming that your PC is already ready to handle audio recording, you can get an interface plus a couple of decent mikes for less than half of the $1500 you were thinking about.

Jeff in Boston

[valleyartsman]

hey thanks for all yal's replies. my dad and i got to talking with one of our friends who runs a studio and he said pro tools would be a good choice. what are some of yal's opinions on pro tools? your help would be really great. thanks.

[Tim Armstrong]

ProTools is an excellent editing program, very good for taking your recording and fixing and polishing it. It's also quite expensive, at least after you get into the actual professional-level versions. According to a fair number of recording engineers, it's also only a so-so program for basic recording quality.

Cheers, Tim