The one man studio thread

[RAGER]

We might have done some iteration of this thread a while back?  Anyways.  The "Post your most recent stuff" thread has made me think that I should get off my ass and record some stuff.

Do you guys have any suggestions for recording stuff on your own.  I mean live drums, guitar, bass, and vox at separate times.

What decent interface should I consider. ( I guess you need one of these to record onto laptop)  doesn't have to be the cheapest but should be very user friendly.

I'll probably just use some SM57's for mics.

What software is user friendly.  Audacity?  Garage Band?  Cubase?

Headphones?  Headphone amps loud enough to hear guitar tracks over live drums?

I'm fairly proficient on all the instruments I'll be playing and I don;t like anybody anymore so I don't need anybody else

What else should I consider?  Doesn't have to be pro shit cuz I half ass everything.  It's my sound.  I just want to get shit down cuz the riffs are piling up.

thanks.

[JemDooM]

Doooo iiiit!!!!  

I highly recommend the presonus stuff, the software is Studio One, I got into it through Ryan I'm sure he said it was set up by some guys from Cubase, anyway iv never had any problems with it, the interface is built like a tank and it's all seriously user friendly! Good prices too, I'd recommend the 2 input if its just you and if you want to save money, otherwise I'd go for the 4 input as it'd come in handy for other stuff, I can't wait to get my hands on the firestudio!

http://www.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-22VSL

[da_qtip]

^I've got a Presonus Firepod and it works great, but I use Pro Tools as my DAW.

57's will do you fine but you might wanna look at some cheaper condensers too.

The headphone amp on my Firepod is plenty loud, it literally goes to 11. When tracking drums I use Vic Firth isolation headphones so I don't have to crank the volume anyway.

As for recording tips, it might be blasphemous but recording to a click makes things pretty easy when you're playing by yourself. Or even record a scratch bass or guitar track to the click then record to that track. It makes any editing much easier and give you something to play off of.

[Lip]

A handful of my friends are using Logic. My understanding is that its pretty sweeet... but i'm a total DAW noob. I'm trying to get a home studion set up as well. I have a new macbook pro, powered monitors, an interface with decent pre's.. need to pick up a good intrument mic - Is an SM57 basically the standard there? And of course - the DAW - i was gonna rip a pirated copy of logic from somewhere just to try and get the feel of it... any recommendations of a decent site to torrent recording software? Are we talking Pirate Bay? or is there a better alternative?

[Chovie D]

MY studio is VERY basic and kinda preskool. everything is old so im sure theres better ways to do this now.
my setup is Line 6 ux2 interface , amp and preamp sim, tracktion 3 is my daw, power monitiors, sm57, mxl condensor mics, mxl ribbon mic, sm58, microkorg synth/midi control, ezdrummer. thats all.

Some things that are useful for a solo studio:

-amp simulator of some sort, amplitube, line 6 , amp farm, whatever is good these days. i use line 6.
you may not think you will use this but you will. its so much easier to lay down scratch tracks/ideas at 2am without micing an amp and waking the neighborhood.
some of the sounds are great too. line 6 does clean to gritty fenders very well.
-its also nice if you have preamp sims for your microphones.
-drum software, I use ezdrummer. again, its nice if you have an idea to pull up a beat and go for it without the god damn kit.
-interface with phantom power so you can use condensor mics.

MIcs:
sm57 is a must have
small dia condensor
large dia condensor
you need a pop filter

-Midi controller, get a cheap synth like microkorg or alesis and use that or just get the $99 keyboard controller.

-free vsts and vstis, make yourself aware of the world of free virtual affects, mastering suites, and even instruments. yes free. many of them.
I use the kjaerhaus classics and alot of the free synths especially the padawan and nintendo sounds.
http://www.kvraudio.com/q.php

-podium gooseneck mic stands. I have one under my desk with a small condensor in ti, when I have an idea on acoustic guitar I can pull that out  its always ready no setup, before I lose my motivstion or idea.  have em on my amp racks too, saves space and nevr have to set up a mic stand for guitars.


-investigate the one mic drum tehnique use on led zep II. Im geting good results with this .

[eyeprod]

Do drum tracks first, then add other instruments. Vocal last. That's how I do it, and I've made lots of solo demos at home. Last time I actually tracked bass and the kick drum first (both at the same time), then I added snare and cymbals. That was because I couldn't play the drum parts I wanted as fast and as well as I wanted. It worked just fine for my purpose at the time.

We've got a korg recorder in my living room, which is where all my shit is set up. It looks like a mixing board, and it has 8 tracks you can record all at once, or one at a time. It works pretty good. Super easy to add layers, mix, and do it all yourself. I like it better than a computer based daw for getting the basic recordings, but I always copy the files over to my laptop, where I use Reaper to handle any post processing and any vocal overdubs. It's much easier to see the waveforms on screen when editing. I use a bit of compression on each channel, and sometimes some auto-panning to make things a bit more lively.

[jibberish]

Do drum tracks first, then add other instruments. Vocal last.
We've got a korg recorder in my living room, which is where all my shit is set up. It looks like a mixing board, and it has 8 tracks you can record all at once, or one at a time. It works pretty good. Super easy to add layers, mix, and do it all yourself. I like it better than a computer based daw for getting the basic recordings, but I always copy the files over to my laptop, where I use Reaper to handle any post processing and any vocal overdubs. It's much easier to see the waveforms on screen when editing. I use a bit of compression on each channel, and sometimes some auto-panning to make things a bit more lively.

that is exactly what I do. just change "korg" to "Tascam"

this is a little "noise" piece messing with the synth when I first got it, but it shows what reaper looks like. you can use reaper free until you guilt trip out enough to pay for it.

[Headshrinker]

-investigate the one mic drum tehnique use on led zep II. Im geting good results with this .

Glyn Johns? Here's some explanation.

That's four mics—if you go for two overheads, one bass and one snare drum mike—so quite elaborate. For recording basic demo's etc., you could do with less.

[Chovie D]

No. ONe mic. One large dia condensor positioned above the bass drum pointed at the snare.

I was told  this is how led zep 2 was recorded but maybe i was mislead? anyway the one mic technique works well as long as you dont got a guy with alot of toms pounding away

[RAGER]

Checked out a Presonus interface the other day.  Think I'll go this route.  It seems inexpensive and user friendly.  Just need to figure what DAW I wanna use.  Thanks for all the input.  will also try micing my drums in the Glyn Johns fashion.  All I need is the foyer of Hedley Grange now.

[black aspirin]

I use Mackie Tracktion 3 (just upgraded to 4) with a Presonus Firepod.  For drums, I sequence them with Tracktion and use BFD (real drum sounds recorded in a studio, just upgraded to BFD2 and the Steve Albini Deluxe expansion pack) as a plug-in.

I record drums first, then add bass, guitar, and synth tracks later (I use Absynth 4 for the synth sounds on my Mac).

I record the guitar and bass inside an isolation cabinet...that simplified things for me.

No vocals; can't do 'em.

[RAGER]

My recording experience is either full on pro studio with engineers ro half assing shit on my own.  I'd like to do just a little better than half assing but not much.

[clockwork green]

There is clearly an overhead in that picture and it looks like another cable by the snare.

[RacerX]

And a boom stand to the left, as well.

[Chovie D]

And a boom stand to the left, as well.

what fucking ever man....this techinique works for me. if you dont like it  or wanna argue about it.... just dont fucking use it!

heres where I got all my misinformation.

[RAGER]

yeah and a B3 and some amps and a melotron and a guy on guitar.  What the fuck chovie!!!???

[Chovie D]

yeah and a B3 and some amps and a melotron and a guy on guitar.  What the fuck chovie!!!???

exactly!  

look, if thats an overhead its higher than ive ever seen one placed and its fucking white...have you ever seen a white overhead? My guess is thats the talkback mic for the room? The stand on the left holds the one mic which we can see above teh bass drum. If you can really see a cable by the snare your eyes are better than mine. can you tell if its a mic or headphone cable?

But I guess the video dude is wrong in the comments section when he points to that zep session, cause everyone else says kramer used 4 mics on the drums. im SO sorry bout that. but the "single drum mic technique*NOT USED ON ZEP 2" still works and is awsome for a home studio with limited inputs/time/and mics.

[RAGER]

And I just spotted what looks like a 12 channel snake!  What's that used for you sonofabitch??!!

[Chovie D]

looking at that picture that overhead doesnt look THAT high and  it does look like  more than one mic.....but still .....fuckoff everyone. 

[RacerX]

yeah and a B3 and some amps and a melotron and a guy on guitar.  What the fuck chovie!!!???

exactly!  

look, if thats an overhead its higher than ive ever seen one placed and its fucking white...have you ever seen a white overhead? My guess is thats the talkback mic for the room? The stand on the left holds the one mic which we can see above teh bass drum. If you can really see a cable by the snare your eyes are better than mine. can you tell if its a mic or headphone cable?

But I guess the video dude is wrong in the comments section when he points to that zep session, cause everyone else says kramer used 4 mics on the drums. im SO sorry bout that. but the "single drum mic technique*NOT USED ON ZEP 2" still works and is awsome for a home studio with limited inputs/time/and mics.

That's all that really matters, although the drums on Zep II obviously sound bitchin'.

But what do I know? I use a cheap Tascam portable unit that doesn't even multitrack.

[jibberish]

relax everyone, it's ok. they have a banjo.

[mutantcolors]

Every chance you have to skip a microphone and record direct, take it. Blasphemy whatever. Save yourself the fucking hassle.

[gorefather]

Im thinking about getting a Zoom R16 or mabey even a R24 to build up my own studio. Its a portable studio that also works as an interface/soundcard for your computer.
Been reading up on it and it seems friendly to use with the usual mixer layout for an interface and its suposed to be pretty good to use with Cubase wich i took classes in during my later high school years. Gonna set it up along with some cheap drumset and some amps and set up in my apartment.

Also, I personally think that Audacity is a rather decent software to work with. I used to record some stuff with it when i worked as a music teacher at a high school here in Sweden. Back then we used some internal soundcard on a PC and then just used a Line 6 Digital Pod and a digital V-amp bass pod linked into the mixer wich was linked to the soundcard. Cant remember wich model tough, smoked way too much weed during those times. But the kids loved me!

[jibberish]

Im thinking about getting a Zoom R16 or mabey even a R24 to build up my own studio. Its a portable studio that also works as an interface/soundcard for your computer.
Been reading up on it and it seems friendly to use with the usual mixer layout for an interface and its suposed to be pretty good to use with Cubase wich i took classes in during my later high school years. Gonna set it up along with some cheap drumset and some amps and set up in my apartment.

Also, I personally think that Audacity is a rather decent software to work with. I used to record some stuff with it when i worked as a music teacher at a high school here in Sweden. Back then we used some internal soundcard on a PC and then just used a Line 6 Digital Pod and a digital V-amp bass pod linked into the mixer wich was linked to the soundcard. Cant remember wich model tough, smoked way too much weed during those times. But the kids loved me!

I agree. audacity is quite developed now.  I use it for quick recording, especially from the internet. it opens really quickly, hit pause-rec to start the meters and away we go.  it has a nice editing and mod suite to slice-n-dice wave files to prep for the DAW.   I have a monster collection of electricity effects, cheapo punch sounds, explosions, thunder..and other silly stuff that I just scavenge and record with audacity...pause-set up next sound-rec-pause-setup next sound-rec and so on until I get all the sounds I want to collect, and fill up a whole file with a similar pile of effects to keep them sorted by file name.

[gorefather]

I agree. audacity is quite developed now.  I use it for quick recording, especially from the internet. it opens really quickly, hit pause-rec to start the meters and away we go.  it has a nice editing and mod suite to slice-n-dice wave files to prep for the DAW.   I have a monster collection of electricity effects, cheapo punch sounds, explosions, thunder..and other silly stuff that I just scavenge and record with audacity...pause-set up next sound-rec-pause-setup next sound-rec and so on until I get all the sounds I want to collect, and fill up a whole file with a similar pile of effects to keep them sorted by file name.

Not to mention that the software is open source and can be modified or improved by anyone, given the computer skills.

I remember when i first used Audacity back in 2004-2005. Back then it wasnt anything like the excellent free software you get today. I used it for recording shitty "humoristic" music about aids and stuff, recording it first on a casette player wich I then lined into the computer to record the aucustic guitar and baryton I had recorded to the casette. Then I added some drumming by using various kitchen tools and a box out of wood i found in my fathers cellar.

I recon this is one of the hardest recordings I've done in my life and it was still shitty music anyway.