Recommendations for home recording

[CapnCrunch]

My philosophy is use what you've got. My dabbling in Cubase was solely because I got a free copy with a synth I bought.

It's far too easy to get paralysis by analysis - sometimes it's good to start with something and adjust later. Even better when you can dabble without a financial commitment.

Great advice.

 

[CapnCrunch]

Another thing to be wary of is over modulation...i thought that might have been a problem here...but it worked out ok...thats a micd up carlsbro super stingray.120 watts...1978 solid state amp..guitar straight to amp the old fashioned way...had to get it loud for that tone...and i used same amp for bass

not the jazzmaster on that one

I like all of the songs you posted. My first thought when I started listening to the first instrumental surf tune was that it sounded like the Beatles did a surf tune. At least the way it came across my monitors, it struck me that way. Cool sound.

 

[Wulf]

I like all of the songs you posted. My first thought when I started listening to the first instrumental surf tune was that it sounded like the Beatles did a surf tune. At least the way it came across my monitors, it struck me that way. Cool sound.

thanks...im a beatles fan...
heres a totally different take on that pub rock thing

same vid ...more polished version of song

 

[Wulf]

mixing in mono works too.
tried to get that late 50s /early 60s sound....not sure if i did
notice the recording quality keeps getting that bit better?

 

[CapnCrunch]

thanks...im a beatles fan...
heres a totally different take on that pub rock thing

same vid ...more polished version of song

That's cool too, but I think I definitely prefer the other version with some drive on the guitar.

 

[Wulf]

That's cool too, but I think I definitely prefer the other version with some drive on the guitar.

thats why i did the second version...i like the driving sound on it...maybe should have used a bit of compression...if you play it loud it really wakes up that sound....the bass gets growlier and the guitar sounds like a blizzard of nails....glorious

 

[CapnCrunch]

mixing in mono works too.
tried to get that late 50s /early 60s sound....not sure if i did
notice the recording quality keeps getting that bit better?

My wife and I honeymooned in England. We drove all over England and Wales. I remember getting on the M25 around London leaving London and coming back. We went from London to Bath, stayed a couple days and then spent 4 or 5 days in Wales mostly in the North. Then went over to the Lake District for a couple days and then up to York a couple of days. We returned to London on the M1 and I remember going 100 MPH and being passed by many, many cars.

 

[Wulf]

My wife and I honeymooned in England. We drove all over England and Wales. I remember getting on the M25 around London leaving London and coming back. We went from London to Bath, stayed a couple days and then spent 4 or 5 days in Wales mostly in the North. Then went over to the Lake District for a couple days and then up to York a couple of days. We returned to London on the M1 and I remember going 100 MPH and being passed by many, many cars.

york isnt that far from me....lucky you didnt get stopped....usually instant ban for 100mph...not that it stops us...i got nicked at 103...got sixty quid fine...depends on the cop...i was lucky.
the M25 is the countrys biggest car park...

 

[CapnCrunch]

I loved England. I would like to be able to come back and spend a month in each, England, Scotland and Ireland. Not gonna happen in my lifetime, but if I win the Lotto.........

 

[CapnCrunch]

york isnt that far from me....lucky you didnt get stopped....usually instant ban for 100mph...not that it stops us...i got nicked at 103...got sixty quid fine...depends on the cop...i was lucky.
the M25 is the countrys biggest car park...

I wasn't even going as fast as most of the traffic. I learned very quickly to get into and out of the right hand passing lane. The little rental Peugot didn't help much.

 

[Wulf]

I loved England. I would like to be able to come back and spend a month in each, England, Scotland and Ireland. Not gonna happen in my lifetime, but if I win the Lotto.........

its not a bad place...could have gone different for me..english dad danish mother...i was born over there

 

[CapnCrunch]

I found it humbling to be in a place that actually has history. I loved the castles and the ruined monasteries and driving by Stonehenge and walking on the old wall in the old part of York. We don't have anything remotely like that here. We stayed in a drover's inn in northern Wales that been added onto over the years but the original parts were still there. I'm a wood worker and I remember looking at some of the original mortise and tenon joints between structural post and beams that were cut in about 1000 AD and they were still as sound as the day they were joined. Again, you don't see that kind of stuff over here, even on the East coast.

 

[Wulf]

I found it humbling to be in a place that actually has history. I loved the castles and the ruined monasteries and driving by Stonehenge and walking on the old wall in the old part of York. We don't have anything remotely like that here. We stayed in a drover's inn in northern Wales that been added onto over the years but the original parts were still there. I'm a wood worker and I remember looking at some of the original mortise and tenon joints between structural post and beams that were cut in about 1000 AD and they were still as sound as the day they were joined. Again, you don't see that kind of stuff over here, even on the East coast.

the area i live in..so much history....first cheap steel was made in middlesbrough...first public steam railway...stockton and darlington railway
theres an old hotel in my town..king edward 7th owned the top floor...just down the road is a house called teddys nook....that was his too
we had a high spindly looking bridge...that was where the army learned they had to break step marching across those things....or they start to wobble
i grew up in an old village called stanghow...acording to the viking sagas erik the red lived there for a while
i wear an original mjolnir pendant...been in family as long as anyone can remember...over 1000 yrs
I love history...captain james cook was from round here too

 

[Wulf]

I wasn't even going as fast as most of the traffic. I learned very quickly to get into and out of the right hand passing lane. The little rental Peugot didn't help much.

i had a little peugeot van from work....it was a lil go kart...great fun ...

 

[Wulf]

since the festive season is almost upon us...now this was fun to do..tricky lots of track bouncing...my vocal on this one

 

[Obsessed]

I have an old Mac that I doubt even turns on anymore. It's about a 2011 mac book pro. I was looking at used Mac books today. Probably will cost me $500-$700 for a 2015-2016 mac book pro. Would you go with logic over Studio One?

I use a refurbished 2009 1/2 Mac Book and the internal GB does everything you need for a long time. I use a relatively ancient operating system called, "Snow Leopard" and works fine with my 4 Channel interface/drivers (M-Audio Quad) and Toontracks' EZDrummer2. It will take you years to need more. BTW, it was here on TDPRI that got me started on the right foot.

Plus, with help here, I put together a good starter range of used mics too. These people here on this forum went beyond the call of duty to help me out in so many ways.

 

[cravenmonket]

If you're going to set up your own home studio and actually record live instruments/vocals, then I would advise you invest more time and (possibly) money into making the space sound good before dropping any more money on equipment.

Do some research and educate yourself on the physics of the way sound waves behave in a space. You could spend thousands on gear, buy the best monitors and mics and compressors, etc, but wonder why it still sounds s**t when you record.

Figure out the particular acoustic character of your space, then "mend" the space if it throws up problems. This usually means building bass traps and high-frequency scattering furniture. There is no single right answer to this step, but it is the most important and the most rewarding: experiment in your space and then build the acoustic treatments you need to get a good sound. Then the equipment you buy won't be that important.

 

[GoldieLocks]

I've been bashing about with DAW's for the last 3 years. I'm finally relatively happy now that i'm using REAPER and a TASCAM 8 input interface with a Allen & Heath Zed 24 board. And the VST plugins are accumlating quickly and wonderfully (tons of awesome free ones -= I got about 20 of those... and I bought some Waves stuff and reverbs.)

But WARNING: I can't seem to even get close to what million dollar recording studios are doing. Sounds great on the monitors and mastered ---- but in the car and truck: sounds like 70%. Probably too much compression and... and ... and...

Hint: Reaper (DAW) is free to try for a year or so. I finally paid for it ($60.00). I'm committed. Works flawlessly so far. I had to get a new PC computer: my 8 year old laptop couldn't keep up with the reverb plugins. Good luck buddy!

 

[Wulf]

I've been bashing about with DAW's for the last 3 years. I'm finally relatively happy now that i'm using REAPER and a TASCAM 8 input interface with a Allen & Heath Zed 24 board. And the VST plugins are accumlating quickly and wonderfully (tons of awesome free ones -= I got about 20 of those... and I bought some Waves stuff and reverbs.)

But WARNING: I can't seem to even get close to what million dollar recording studios are doing. Sounds great on the monitors and mastered ---- but in the car and truck: sounds like 70%. Probably too much compression and... and ... and...

Hint: Reaper (DAW) is free to try for a year or so. I finally paid for it ($60.00). I'm committed. Works flawlessly so far. I had to get a new PC computer: my 8 year old laptop couldn't keep up with the reverb plugins. Good luck buddy!

like i mentioned earlier...we are never truly happy with our work.
i tend to shy away from using compression at all...yet with hindsight some of my stuff would probably have benefitted from a little bit.
what i did use was some audio cleaning software to boost things once track was mixed. i found that made my music sound ok played on most things...including car truck...or stereo....its a learning curve and can be frustrating
one watchword...crud in equals crud out....too much overdrive and the danger of overmodulation is there...that causes fizz...as does too much distortion.
and there is no substitute for micing things up i found...you get a thicker sound ...better to work with

 

[Peegoo]

Don’t overthink this when starting out.

You can do a hell of a lot with a small mixer, a USB interface, and a Mac running GarageBand. The program is not a toy or ‘add-on’ software common on Microsoft machines.

The simpler your setup is—the faster you’ll be making great recordings.