Help a n00b brother out!
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Category: Other music related lounges
Forum Name: Tech Talk
Forum Description: Discuss musical instruments, equipment, hi-fi, speakers, vinyl, gadgets,etc.
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=62322
Printed Date: November 29 2024 at 12:06
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Topic: Help a n00b brother out!
Posted By: Tarquin Underspoon
Subject: Help a n00b brother out!
Date Posted: October 25 2009 at 18:27
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Allright guys, here it comes. I need to know what I need to do to get my music from my brain to my computer. I need recommendations and help and advice and anything else you guys can give me. I'm an amateur musician and I've got a lot of stuff I'd like to put down, but I just don't know how. I am truly the biggest noob in this department.
First, I'll say that I do have Cubase LE and I have a basic idea of how it works (I hate it, however
 ). I'm aware that I'll need mixing software, and I'd like to use VST drums (EZDrummer, I think) to get drum sounds. I have a midi-capable ZOOM pedal (G7.1ut) that I have used with Cubase before, but it's never quite worked right and I've always loathed the sound, so I'd obviously like to hear alternatives. Do I need an interface? A condenser mic? Both? Do I need a mixer? What will sound best? How much can I expect to spend? The answer lies with you guys.
Sorry for the vagueness, but major thanks in advance.
 - Tarquin. ------------- "WAAAAAAOOOOOUGH! WAAAAAAAUUUUGGHHHH!! WAAAAAOOOO!!!" -The Great Gig in the Sky |
Replies:
Posted By: progkidjoel
Date Posted: October 25 2009 at 19:08
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Hey Tarquin!
To be honest, I have no real idea. Although I have recorded 2 tracks of decent quality directly into my PC 
Would it be cool if I asked some Q's whilst I'm in here aswell? I could use help just as much as you 
To begin with, I'd reccomend downloading Audacity - Its free audio recording software, and it ain't bad! http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/files/audacity/1.2.6/audacity-win-1.2.6.exe/download - Click here to download Audacity! ------------- 
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Posted By: cobb2
Date Posted: October 25 2009 at 21:26
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What instrument(s) were you planning to record? Cubase should work fine- although I don't know what is missing in the Light Edition. As above- Audacity is another option, though you should really consider one of the more professional music studio software packages. These are expensive, so if you only want to play around, go with what you have got until you find you need more. You don't need a mixer unless you want to record multiple instruments simultaneously. The mixer you will need is part of the recording package. If you are recording guitar directly, you will probably need a DI (Direct Interface) so you can plug it into the soundcard input. These are relatively cheap. Might I suggest checking out www.homerecording.com
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Posted By: Tarquin Underspoon
Date Posted: October 25 2009 at 22:18
I'm planning on guitar, bass, midi keys, and, as I said earlier, VST drums. And vocals, too. I don't know whether or not I should record my guitar directly.
This is one of those questions that may make me look like a caveman, but can I not just mic up my amp?
Also, I'd like this to sound as professional as possible while still being "on the cheap", so to speak. I have visions of getting an album or an ep out on the internet for free, using last.fm or something like that (an idea I stole directly from forumer Endless Wire, who put out a nice album of his own that all should check out). So I suppose I just need to know what is standard procedure for this type of thing. I'm definitely not looking to set up a pro studio in my room or anything, but it's gotta sound high quality. ------------- "WAAAAAAOOOOOUGH! WAAAAAAAUUUUGGHHHH!! WAAAAAOOOO!!!" -The Great Gig in the Sky |
cobb2 wrote:Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: October 25 2009 at 22:23
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOO AUDACITY. Seriously, when you can use Reaper for free for a trial period and the licence key is so cheap to be able to use it permanently, there is no reason to use Audacity. It might not offer as good a workflow as Cubase, Ableton or Protools, but it's good enough to get results as good as those 3 and so much better than Audacity it's not funny. Reaper has full functionality in the trial period And GOOOOOOOOO: http://www.reaper.fm/ How much money you got? I'll suggest some fairly budget minded things for now. First, ditch the Zoom (well okay, if you wanna keep it that's cool, I didn't mean literally go out and sell it if you don't want to lol). Depending on your budget, here's a good suggestion: http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=FWinterfaces These have a good reputation and I regularly speak to people very happy about their Firewire M-Audio interfaces. Firewire will be able to handle intensive applications. Can't afford Firewire, they do make USB 2.0 interfaces, but I strongly recommend Firewire over USB 2.0 USB 2.0 is not bad and what powers my current interface, but it does leave a little to be desired at times. If you plan to record real amps, you'll want a mic obviously. A Shure SM57 will pretty much cover it and they are fairly cheap. Don't worry about the cheap price tag, they're an industry standard microphone that gets used on high budget productions and very popular for guitar amp mic'ing. Otherwise, if you don't have a real amp/aren't prepared to spend money on a high quality amp, look into software amp sims. They will kick the pants off any cheap amp, seriously. If you want software amp VST plugs in, keep me posted in this thread and tell me what style you need, because I know where to get a range of VST plug in amp sims that will cover anything from good clean tones, classic rock to extreme metal
DI = Direct Injection. An interface is just an interface dude. DI boxes allow you to track dry tracks, unaffected signals which allow you to use amp sims and cabinet sims and constantly tweak your tone instead of having to re record with different settings. Also allows you to reamp with a reamp box and real amplifier.
High quality recordings are 90 per cent the man, and 10 percent the machine (your tools, so to speak). We are talking years of audio engineering study, experimentation and practice, seriously, you can't expect within a few weeks you go from beginner to high quality. So much of it is in the ears that it's not funny and that ear for good sounds takes a long time to develop. |
Posted By: Tarquin Underspoon
Date Posted: October 25 2009 at 22:36
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^^^^Majorly helful post. Allright, the Firewire looks good, including price-wise. And I'd be using amp sims. (Any suggestions there? Thanks in advance)
And can I assume that Reaper (or whatever mixing software I use) will work well alongside EZ Drummer? I'm virtually sure I'll be purchasing it at this point.
Thanks for the feedback, and keep it coming!
...you may be powering the next prog legend's ascent  ------------- "WAAAAAAOOOOOUGH! WAAAAAAAUUUUGGHHHH!! WAAAAAOOOO!!!" -The Great Gig in the Sky |
Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: October 25 2009 at 22:52
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http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/ - http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/ Everything from classic rock to extreme metal/high gain leads http://nickcrowlab.blogspot.com/ - http://nickcrowlab.blogspot.com/ 8505 is based on the Peavey 5150, and as such is great for lead playing as well as heavy rhythms. I haven't used 7170 nor TubeDriver, but feel free to experiment with both once you get a good interface. http://www.voxengo.com/product/boogex/ - http://www.voxengo.com/product/boogex/ I use Voxengo Boogex for applying impulses. Impulses are used to get the power amp stage and cabinet stage of the guitar chain in action. If you don't use them and just use amp sims by themselves it sounds fizzy, which is of course because the power amp and cabinet are integral parts of the sound too. Boogex has many good impulses in it, however if you're not totally happy with them, there is heaps of other impulses you can track down. I'm a member of the Andy Sneap forum, so getting heaps of impulses is easy for me) I don't use Ezy Drummer, nor Reaper (I have Ableton Live Suite 8.0, which is quite expensive, so you can imagine I don't really need Reaper) but I may be able to find that out for you |
Posted By: The Runaway
Date Posted: October 26 2009 at 08:33
------------- http://www.formspring.me/Aragorn224" rel="nofollow - Trendsetter win! The search for nonexistent perfection. |
Posted By: progkidjoel
Date Posted: October 28 2009 at 04:48
There's much worse software out there. MUCH worst. -------------
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Posted By: Mr ProgFreak
Date Posted: October 28 2009 at 13:16
^ so - the reason for using Audacity is that ... there's worse? 
------------- https://tagyourmusic.org/users/Mike" rel="nofollow - https://tagyourmusic.org/users/Mike |
Posted By: Mr ProgFreak
Date Posted: October 28 2009 at 13:27
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Well, here's my advice: Do as Harry said and get a decent audio interface for the PC ... Firewire is nice, but you can also get an internal card (PCI), I have a ESI Maya 44e, but M-Audio also offers some. Steer clear of USB - it adds to the latency. Once you have a decent audio interface, you can plug your guitar directly into it and record the dry signal in your favorite DAW (Reaper is fine as a start, you can also use Cubase LE). If your audio interface doesn't offer guitar inputs you might also need a DI box to pre-amplify the signal to line level (my ESI card does that, conveniently). Once you have the guitar signal in the DAW, you can use software instruments to process it. You have a variety of choices ... the free ones that Harry linked to are nice, but there's also these: Line 6 Native Instruments (Guitar Rig) Peavey ReValver The latter two offer demo versions, so you can try them out before you spend money on them. The best way to do that IMO is to record yourself jamming around for a couple of minutes ... then simply put that on a loop and browse through the presets of the plugins. Keep in mind though that most presets - of any pedal/plugin/whatever - usually require some "tweaking" to sound good. ------------- https://tagyourmusic.org/users/Mike" rel="nofollow - https://tagyourmusic.org/users/Mike |
Posted By: Tarquin Underspoon
Date Posted: December 11 2009 at 19:21
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Hey guys, I'm resurrecting this thread with one more (presumably stupid) question:
These recording/mixing softwares (is that correct grammar?....)...... do they work in stereo? Or rather, do they have the capability to?
Thanks ------------- "WAAAAAAOOOOOUGH! WAAAAAAAUUUUGGHHHH!! WAAAAAOOOO!!!" -The Great Gig in the Sky |
Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: December 11 2009 at 19:39
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Yes, they do work in stereo. However some plug-ins do not, but you'll work out how to use them. For example, if you have 2 guitar tracks, one panned hard left and the other hard right, if you use the typical free amp sims, often they are mono only, which means you cannot just put one instance of guitar amp sim on both guitar tracks, you must use a separate instance for each guitar track. |
Posted By: Tarquin Underspoon
Date Posted: December 11 2009 at 20:44
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^^^ OK that's what I anticipiated. Gracias, my friend. ------------- "WAAAAAAOOOOOUGH! WAAAAAAAUUUUGGHHHH!! WAAAAAOOOO!!!" -The Great Gig in the Sky |