Recording , Tricks , Shortcuts and Clarity

C-Grin said:
Well my secret is to start with a bad recording and make it worse :facepalm: :ROFLMAO:.
In all seriousness I just hate spending time trying to get anything perfect, I just wing it and call it a day. I have a real problem with patience, but I just want to jam and play guitar. I don't even want gear that requires thinking about knobs, much less all the patches and presets , yadda , yadda. The irony is my kid has a degree in audio engineering. I should really use him a resource more.
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Lol. I only go so far with my own materiel as well. When I record vocal over a karaoke track I do nothing with it after. The only time I get serious is if someone gives me a mix to be mastered. It really doesn't happen anymore so sometimes I snag one, even from here, to practice a bit. Importance and how much it really even matters always plays into the game with me.

Tell your son TP payback is in order. Lol.
 
Sapient said:
Lol. I only go so far with my own materiel as well. When I record vocal over a karaoke track I do nothing with it after. The only time I get serious is if someone gives me a mix to be mastered. It really doesn't happen anymore so sometimes I snag one, even from here, to practice a bit. Importance and how much it really even matters always plays into the game with me.

Tell your son TP payback is in order. Lol.
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In the grand scheme "Nothing Else Matters"
So here we are square one. The take is it . If you don't have that down , break the knobs off of the $10000 equipment toss $1000 worth of plugins in the trash and have a beer.
 
67plexi said:
Time to upgrade my software it never ends and format a new computer


View attachment 98558
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And there lies much of my issue with recording and posting here. My "studio" is a laptop sitting on a card table. A guitar plugged into the Boss GT1 which I can interface with said laptop via USB. I have no audio interface, No microphone. And frankly, not sure I want to spend the cash to fix that since at the end of the day.... how much would I actually use it?? So recording vocals is pretty tough. I am absolutely clueless when it comes to drums. I want to add some of my stuff here.... but I get seriously frustrated with the recording part of things.

70yIAid.jpg
 
iblive said:
And there lies much of my issue with recording and posting here. My "studio" is a laptop sitting on a card table. A guitar plugged into the Boss GT1 which I can interface with said laptop via USB. I have no audio interface, No microphone. And frankly, not sure I want to spend the cash to fix that since at the end of the day.... how much would I actually use it?? So recording vocals is pretty tough. I am absolutely clueless when it comes to drums. I want to add some of my stuff here.... but I get seriously frustrated with the recording part of things.

70yIAid.jpg
Click to expand...
It does not have to be expensive, there is a Berhinger interface you can get for like $60, and you can get very low cost used microphones all day long that will work just fine. I have been using Audacity which is free. And I did not have to learn that many steps (which all you have to do is you tube the lessons) to record what I am doing. Which is not very polished but the learning curve is not that steep.
 
iblive said:
And there lies much of my issue with recording and posting here. My "studio" is a laptop sitting on a card table. A guitar plugged into the Boss GT1 which I can interface with said laptop via USB. I have no audio interface, No microphone. And frankly, not sure I want to spend the cash to fix that since at the end of the day.... how much would I actually use it?? So recording vocals is pretty tough. I am absolutely clueless when it comes to drums. I want to add some of my stuff here.... but I get seriously frustrated with the recording part of things.

70yIAid.jpg
Click to expand...
A very easy drum program that is free is called Hydrogen drum machine.
I can walk you through it.

Downloads

The digital home of the advanced drum machine.
hydrogen-music.org hydrogen-music.org
 
ibmorjamn said:
In the grand scheme "Nothing Else Matters"
So here we are square one. The take is it . If you don't have that down , break the knobs off of the $10000 equipment toss $1000 worth of plugins in the trash and have a beer.
Click to expand...
That's about it. In most ways effects are meant to enhance, not fix. If a recording is done with a $4.99 mic from Radio Shack it will never sound like a professional production ...even with $100,000 mastering hardware setup. This is especially true with poorly recorded drums. Ewww.

The big question is, why is @Thatbastarddon not here? :(
 
iblive said:
And there lies much of my issue with recording and posting here. My "studio" is a laptop sitting on a card table. A guitar plugged into the Boss GT1 which I can interface with said laptop via USB. I have no audio interface, No microphone. And frankly, not sure I want to spend the cash to fix that since at the end of the day.... how much would I actually use it?? So recording vocals is pretty tough. I am absolutely clueless when it comes to drums. I want to add some of my stuff here.... but I get seriously frustrated with the recording part of things.

70yIAid.jpg
Click to expand...

To me there is nothing more frustrating than the actual process of interfacing with a DAW, or any other "recording" stuff for that matter. It's tedious and it always seems like something gets bumped into rearranging things into a mess. I hate working with the actual audio lane section that always seem to bounce, cling to, or fall apart in some way or another. I completely hear you on this. It always keeps in anxious and unsettled.
 
C-Grin said:
It does not have to be expensive, there is a Berhinger interface you can get for like $60, and you can get very low cost used microphones all day long that will work just fine. I have been using Audacity which is free. And I did not have to learn that many steps (which all you have to do is you tube the lessons) to record what I am doing. Which is not very polished but the learning curve is not that steep.
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Cost isn’t really my concern. Kinda got a budget of 200 bucks or so for the interface, mic and cords. I actually have the cash in hand. Can pretty much do it thru Sweetwater or eBay and get everything I need. I just have to convince myself I’ll use it after I buy it. That’s what’s holding me back. I know me…..

DAW isn’t a problem. Already have a couple on my lap top. Been working on Reaper, which technically isn’t free but I can keep using it till I decide I like it or not.
 
ibmorjamn said:
A very easy drum program that is free is called Hydrogen drum machine.
I can walk you through it.

Downloads

The digital home of the advanced drum machine.
hydrogen-music.org hydrogen-music.org
Click to expand...
I have a drum app on my laptop. The brick wall I come up against is….. I don’t think in drum. I barely think in guitar. I do, however, think in bass. I sing bass. I played bass clef staff in band. I hum along with the bass line in songs…. Sometimes making my own bass line in my head as I go. I should have been a bass player but went down the guitar path instead. I don’t regret that…. But I know I could have been in a band had I chosen the bass route rather than guitar.
 
Sapient said:
That's about it. In most ways effects are meant to enhance, not fix. If a recording is done with a $4.99 mic from Radio Shack it will never sound like a professional production ...even with $100,000 mastering hardware setup. This is especially true with poorly recorded drums. Ewww.

The big question is, why is @Thatbastarddon not here? :(
Click to expand...
That analogy works on a lot of things. You can’t make good wine with bad grapes. Doesn’t matter how good the winemaker is.
 
We play real drums Joe has been a drummer over 50 years I'm over 30 years on drums Doug when he shows up 45 years drumming
don't have a issue with timing running 6 microphones on the drums 3 toms 1 bass drum 1 snare drum one overhead condenser mic

drums 001.JPG
recorder 001.JPG
 
This….
1711056122011.jpeg
…is all of the recording gear (interface, computer…well…iPhone 4s, mic, cables, adapters, and recording desk…well…folding tray table) that was used to record this:

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Duser-876355516%252Friver-of-deceit-mix-wav-cover%3Btrack_id%3D543740637

The drums were programmed on an iPad though…I hadn’t found a drum program I liked, for the phone, back in 2011.
Uploaded to SoundCloud directly from the app on the iPhone. No actual amps used. I monitored on earbuds.

This:

1711057112259.jpeg
…was/is one of my favorite rigs for quick, portable, recording…since my old 4-track days. The good old iPad (that one is an iPad 2), USB adapter, and the ART USB DualPre (the DualPre will run without batteries or wall power, off the iPad/iPhone power…unless you need phantom power…then you need a 9V battery). I used this rig to record this:

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Duser-876355516%252Fmother-pink-floyd-cover-mix%3Btrack_id%3D625062120

That one was also uploaded directly from the app used to record and mix. I upgraded my monitoring to a set of cheap MonoPrice headphones for this rig, and actually used a couple of amp’s for electric guitar (and bass iirc) for that one.

I have one or two other “portable recording” rigs that I’ve used for live band stuff too. But my point is; learn to use what is easily accessible…learn it well…explore, experiment, and exploit it thoroughly. I started playing with this type of stuff after years of working with an old AKAI DPS24, and a really well loaded(plugins up the wazoo) and mod’ed XP desktop, making demos for my band and some other locals. Stuff like this:

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Dthatbastarddon%252Fjust-do-it%3Btrack_id%3D968767198

And this:

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Dthatbastarddon%252Fprisoner%3Btrack_id%3D131756966

I, personally, find the portable rigs to be crazy fun. The big rigs, with the fancy plugins…way more production/learning time involved/spent for my taste. Sometimes it’s really great to work with… Sometimes I want to spend more time actually making the music. If you can capture what you need for the piece going into the recorder, you’ll spend less time fiddling with other stuff in an effort to make it sound right(to you). I’m still learning.

Right now, this is my happy place for recording:
1711059394512.jpeg
 
Thatbastarddon said:
This….
View attachment 98570
…is all of the recording gear (interface, computer…well…iPhone 4s, mic, cables, adapters, and recording desk…well…folding tray table) that was used to record this:

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Duser-876355516%252Friver-of-deceit-mix-wav-cover%3Btrack_id%3D543740637

The drums were programmed on an iPad though…I hadn’t found a drum program I liked, for the phone, back in 2011.
Uploaded to SoundCloud directly from the app on the iPhone. No actual amps used. I monitored on earbuds.

This:

View attachment 98571
…was/is one of my favorite rigs for quick, portable, recording…since my old 4-track days. The good old iPad (that one is an iPad 2), USB adapter, and the ART USB DualPre (the DualPre will run without batteries or wall power, off the iPad/iPhone power…unless you need phantom power…then you need a 9V battery). I used this rig to record this:

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Duser-876355516%252Fmother-pink-floyd-cover-mix%3Btrack_id%3D625062120

That one was also uploaded directly from the app used to record and mix. I upgraded my monitoring to a set of cheap MonoPrice headphones for this rig, and actually used a couple of amp’s for electric guitar (and bass iirc) for that one.

I have one or two other “portable recording” rigs that I’ve used for live band stuff too. But my point is; learn to use what is easily accessible…learn it well…explore, experiment, and exploit it thoroughly. I started playing with this type of stuff after years of working with an old AKAI DPS24, and a really well loaded(plugins up the wazoo) and mod’ed XP desktop, making demos for my band and some other locals. Stuff like this:

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Dthatbastarddon%252Fjust-do-it%3Btrack_id%3D968767198

And this:

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Dthatbastarddon%252Fprisoner%3Btrack_id%3D131756966

I, personally, find the portable rigs to be crazy fun. The big rigs, with the fancy plugins…way more production/learning time involved/spent for my taste. Sometimes it’s really great to work with… Sometimes I want to spend more time actually making the music. If you can capture what you need for the piece going into the recorder, you’ll spend less time fiddling with other stuff in an effort to make it sound right(to you). I’m still learning.

Right now, this is my happy place for recording:
View attachment 98576
Click to expand...
All well done TBD.
 
So I did go back to the drawing board recording a guitar. Still not exactly what I want from it yet. Maybe I’ll try some different tools. I was using my special with the custom hot wound alnico 4 by MJ (SD)
I am going to try my classic tomorrow.
I did buy a El cheapaphone acoustic Last weekend. It is a beginner guitar but I might see how it will sound in a mix with delay and reverb on it.

Everyone says you can't fix it in the mix. Well of course the first video I ever watched about mixing says that. It basically goes with out saying but if you can not enhance sound in the mix why even bother with it.

I don't ever expect to make a perfect song but I will also not stop trying.
 
iblive said:
Cost isn’t really my concern. Kinda got a budget of 200 bucks or so for the interface, mic and cords. I actually have the cash in hand. Can pretty much do it thru Sweetwater or eBay and get everything I need. I just have to convince myself I’ll use it after I buy it. That’s what’s holding me back. I know me…..

DAW isn’t a problem. Already have a couple on my lap top. Been working on Reaper, which technically isn’t free but I can keep using it till I decide I like it or not.
Click to expand...
Sounds perfect iblive, so many great interfaces available. I started with the radio shack mic for $4.99 Sapient referred to.

The Shure SM57 is great but there is also a generic mic that is very good for less than half the price.
Better mics are great but a decent interface will last.

Something about recording is it is actually a great fun hobby. Given , the secret of mixing. I already solved that on my own sort of.
 
ibmorjamn said:
So I did go back to the drawing board recording a guitar. Still not exactly what I want from it yet. Maybe I’ll try some different tools. I was using my special with the custom hot wound alnico 4 by MJ (SD)
I am going to try my classic tomorrow.
I did buy a El cheapaphone acoustic Last weekend. It is a beginner guitar but I might see how it will sound in a mix with delay and reverb on it.

Everyone says you can't fix it in the mix. Well of course the first video I ever watched about mixing says that. It basically goes with out saying but if you can not enhance sound in the mix why even bother with it.

I don't ever expect to make a perfect song but I will also not stop trying.
Click to expand...
You have to enhance it ...that's what makes a studio production - otherwise you just sound like nice dry and raw recording. Try to get that on the radio - Lol. There are processes that are completely necessary and others that are optional. As you say, if you can't process it, say ..with plugs or if someone actually chooses to run again outside of the digital realm, then you might as well just keep it for a good memory.

I don't think it has to be perfect for anything we do here or in our daily lives in general. There is always the "good enough" factor that depends on ones personal taste and the expectations for the final product.
 
I like how each song and each song idea presents it's own challenges for tone, texture, effects...

I think you can never have anything truly mastered. There is always something new to learn and try different ways. Some pros have tried and true methods to capture and EQ certain types of music for sure. I'm certainly not that good at all. But I learn more every time I put a song together for sure.
https://soundcloud.com/id%3Dgoriath%252Ftiny-coffins%3Btrack_id%3D1186870828


This song took a bit to get the two guitar tracks to sound separate enough. I used 2 amps/cabs to do it. It was the first time I can remember nailing a recorded guitar tone, and not even adding anything post.
https://soundcloud.com/id%3Dgoriath%252Fin-deaths-grasp%3Btrack_id%3D799590073
 
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