Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with homerecording

Best Condenser Mics for Recording Drums?

Ironmouth — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:05:12 -0800

What is a good set of condenser microphones for recording drums? I'm looking to record an EP with my band. I am looking for a two-overhead condenser/one bass drum mic set up. I'd like a recommendation for a pair of don't break the bank but still good condenser microphones. I probably don't want to spend more than $400 on the pair.

Betrayed by the sound engineer... Great songs, Horrible recordings...

cadastral — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:53:18 -0800

What are some brilliant songs that suffered from (or were totally ruined by) poor studio production? ...I'll take heat for this, but for my part I'll offer up [quite a bit of Joy Division's back catalogue, including] Love Will Tear Us Apart.

For clarification, I'm not really looking for subtlety along the lines of "Albini would've done a better job with 'Heart Shaped Box'..." or "Spector's excesses with 'Let it Be' were unfortunate."

...Instead, I'm looking for, like, something approaching atrocity. Something where the finished product comes close to a betrayal of the songwriter. Something that leaves you feeling that the engineer should be pistol-whipped for his artistic decisions (or lack of skill).

I thought this over for a long while and I couldn't pluck from memory many songs that fit the bill... but I lucidly remember having come across songs like this quite often in the past. The MeFi music folk tend to do a fantastic job with questions like these, and I've been awed in the past with the diverse styles and genre's y'all have hipped me to. Many thanks for your consideration and your input.

Best options for Laptop multitrack recording?

tdismukes — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 21:26:24 -0800

Starting out with laptop multitrack recording. I need recommendations to get the most bang for my buck on a limited budget. I moved 150 miles away from the rest of my band, and now I only see them on weekends. It's hard to do much gigging under these conditions, so I want to get a laptop and some multi-track recording software/hardware so that we can spend some time laying down tracks whenever I go back to visit.

Depending on how my finances work out over the next few weeks, I should have somewhere between $1100 - 1600 to spend. (More likely near the bottom end of that range than the top.)

We already have our stage mikes (Shure 58s & 57s) and a headphone splitter/amp that I used for our old cassette portastudio.

Requirements:

We'll be recording a 4-piece folk-rock band with vocals, guitars, bass, keyboard & possibly clarinet. I want reasonable recording quality, a decent user-friendly interface, easy editing of tracks, easy punch-ins to correct mistakes, and the ability to make dynamic mixes. The ability to record more than one track at a time would be very nice but is not required. I have no particular interest in pre-recorded beats or samples, but a built in metronome for a click track would be cool. I don't need a lot of effects beyond basic reverb and the like.

Possibilities so far:

1) MacBook ($1099) + Digidesign Mbox 2 Mini (includes Pro Tools LE) ($295)

Pro: I've wanted a Mac for a while, so this would be my excuse. Our regular studio guy uses Pro Tools, so this would enable use to share our home-recorded projects with our studio projects.

Cons: Might end up costing more than I will be able to afford. Even if I can afford it, won't leave much money for new mikes or studio monitors.

2) Macbook ($1099) by itself. Use GarageBand for the software.

Pro: More affordable. I still get a Mac. If I can save up more money, I might get the Mbox + Pro Tools later.

Con: Can only record 1 track at a time with GarageBand. GarageBand projects would not be compatible with our studio guys Pro Tools system.

3) Windows laptop (??? under $1000) + Lexicon Omega (includes Cubase LE) (under $200).

Pro: Less expensive - leaves more money for good mikes and other equipment. Allows recording more than one track at once.

Con: Most windows laptops now are sold with Vista - but Cubase LE isn't certified for Vista. I'd need to find a laptop loaded with XP. Not compatible with our studio guy's Pro Tools system.

Please offer any thoughts or experiences about the above options or any other possibilities.

Garage Studio or Pro Studio?

InfidelZombie — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 14:20:24 -0800

Garage Studio or Pro Studio? My band is trying to decide whether it makes sense for us set up a garage recording studio, or if it would be better for us to pay for time in a professional studio.

The studio we used last time is reasonably priced (about $400 for 16 hours) and though we would have liked more time to tweak things, we were pretty happy overall with the sound we got. (The songs I’ve posted to Music were recorded there.) We have limited cash available, so recording this way will probably happen only one or twice a year.

Setting up to record at home would allow us to record a lot more songs, and spend more time getting the mix they way we’d like it. We’re recording newbies, but willing to put in the time and effort necessary to learn.

The band is loud rock & roll, 2 guitars, bass, drums, and vocals. We have some live sound equipment (8 channel PA, 4 channel mixer, 1 Beta 58a, 1 SM58, a couple PG58s, and a couple instrument mics), but no recording equipment. I have a copy of Guitar Tracks on my desktop at home, but no laptop available and none of the interfaces you’d need to make that work.

Will it possible for us to record good quality tracks with the kind of bare bones setup we can afford to get? The drums are my biggest worry. The units I’ve been looking at only record two tracks at the same time- wouldn’t you need more in order to make adjustments to the drum sound in the mix?

I’m really interested here in your opinions on whether home recording makes sense for us as a band, since equipment recommendations are pretty well covered on other questions on this topic. But I’ll take those too, along with any other advice you may have.

Where the drums at?

Demogorgon — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 17:35:30 -0800

Where can I download royalty-free percussion loops for Cakewalk? I just started recording some music in my basement. All I have is a Shure SM57 to record with, so it's pretty tough to close mic the drums. Has anyone out there had experience using a free file library for some very basic, stripped-down percussion tracks? Bonus points for diversity of instruments/styles!
Also I have to be able to load the clips into Cakewalk, so I would prefer that they were downloadable as Cakewalk Project Files.
And please don't recommend any of the file libraries out there for purchase because I'm broke.

How to become literate in home recording

primer_dimer — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 02:48:52 -0800

Editing my home multitrack recordings - looking for advice and resources. So I've just picked up my shiny new digital multitrack recorder and am happily making recordings which I then transfer to my computer. That's when things start to get a lot more complicated; I open the tracks up in Audacity or Ardour and suddenly there are dozens of effects with hundreds of parameters to play with. Stunned by the abundance of options, I click around aimlessly playing with plugins who's names mean nothing to me.

I've seen some great answers to home recording questions before in AskMe, so I'm looking for advice and recommendations on internet resources. Where should I go to learn about this stuff? Is there a standard set of "things" I should "do" to each track to make it sound good? Should I endevour to have an idea of what I want the track to sound like before I start playing? Should I just stick with it for a couple of months and wait for it to start making sense? I know I could google for web resources but I'd also like some personal recommendations.

In case it's relevent, I'm recording acoustic guitar and vocals simultaneously, through a pair of cheapo Gatt condenser mics, through a pair of ART Tube MP preamps, into a Fostex MR-8 digital multitracker. Any other questions, just ask.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Is the Edirol UA-101 any good?

damehex — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 12:40:45 -0800

Has anyone used a Roland / Edirol UA-101 recording interface on WinXP? Other USB2 DAW interfaces? I am shopping for a USB2 interface, 8 or 10 input unit with a couple of XLR ins going to mic pre's (the other ins can be line-level 1/4 inch, balanced or un), spidf and maybe optical. My key concerns are A/D converter quality, consistent latency and stable WinXP drivers.

I am currently using a Tascam US-428 (USB1.1) which is noisy and has crapulent drivers. I desperately miss my M-Audio Delta 1010 which had amazingly clean A/D, solid dirvers, a great software mixer, and latency that never changed by more than 0.1ms (about five 44.1k samples). Alas, I am now on a laptop. The UA-101 has caught my eye but I can't spend so much without solid recommendations.

Question number 15240

petebest — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 18:48:28 -0800

HomeStudioFilter: I have a Tascam 688 cassette 8-track recorder, and I'd like to get a MOTU 896 HD. Will that enable me to put all my 8-track analog glory to digital? [+]

Question number 9095

armoured-ant — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:57:54 -0800

HomeRecordingFilter. Of course, I'm recording an album at home. I'm already using a Rode NT1A mic, but I want to get the effect of a vocal coming through and old radio. I understand that I can fiddle with the EQ controls in CoolEdit (I mean, Adobe Audition...) and emulate the desired effect, but does anyone have any more tips to get the vintage wireless sound? While I'm at it - does anyone have any home recording tips in general?