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At home recording from DI

#21
djmay said:
I use a Tascam DR-40X to record gigs. Bass goes from DI into external mic input. Very easy. Advantage of using a portable recorder vs audio interface is that you can do it anywhere.
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Plus 1 for the DR-40X, I used a Tascam DR-05 for about 10 years to record practices, when it finally gave it up I replaced it with a DR-40x. It's 4-channel and has both onboard condenser mics and Neutrix ( XLR / 1/4" Balanced / Un-Balanced ) inputs. While the DR-05 has a stereo 1/8" input that you could use an adapter for, the DR-40x is a much higher quality product ($199 vs $99 for the DR-05x). I see you've mentioned that you're not into tech, to get any decent recordings you'll have to dip your toes in.

The Tascam products are very similar to the Zoom products (see the review). I'm really pleased with the DR-40 recording quality. I record our practices in 4 channel now, taking the stereo vocal (Rec. Out) off the mixer into the XLR ports, and using the condenser mics to capture the live room. Recording quality far exceeds expectation. Again it's personal choice, I was already familiar with the Tascam controls and I have to admit I'm a long time Tascam user (for better or worse ;)). You can't go wrong with either of these units.

One thing I've found is that Audacity is great to edit & clean up practice recordings, fast and easy... I haven't found an easy way to import all four tracks at once and the DR-40x output files are a little confusing. It generates two stereo tracks with a "12" and "34" suffix on the filename. I've found that importing the "1 and 2" track first, then opening a new session and importing the "3 and 4" tracks seems to work for me. Then copy (add) it to the first "1 and 2" session. As long as you copy the full track they sync up just fine. For practice recordings I don't do much other than cut out dead space (chatter, clam versions, etc...). If there is something particularly good, Audacity has a good toolkit of utilities, and the latest version can use most DAW plugin's on your PC. It's fairly quick to save individual songs as MP3, and we share on Google drive.

Cheers and good luck...
 
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#22
tothemax said:
Plus 1 for the DR-40X, I used a Tascam DR-05 for about 10 years to record practices, when it finally gave it up I replaced it with a DR-40x. It's 4-channel and has both onboard condenser mics and Neutrix ( XLR / 1/4" Balanced / Un-Balanced ) inputs. While the DR-05 has a stereo 1/8" input that you could use an adapter for, the DR-40x is a much higher quality product ($199 vs $99 for the DR-05x). I see you've mentioned that you're not into tech, to get any decent recordings you'll have to dip your toes in.

The Tascam products are very similar to the Zoom products (see the review). I'm really pleased with the DR-40 recording quality. I record our practices in 4 channel now, taking the stereo vocal (Rec. Out) off the mixer into the XLR ports, and using the condenser mics to capture the live room. Recording quality far exceeds expectation. Again it's personal choice, I was already familiar with the Tascam controls and I have to admit I'm a long time Tascam user (for better or worse ;)). You can't go wrong with either of these units.

One thing I've found is that Audacity is great to edit & clean up practice recordings, fast and easy... I haven't found an easy way to import all four tracks at once and the DR-40x output files are a little confusing. It generates two stereo tracks with a "12" and "34" suffix on the filename. I've found that importing the "1 and 2" track first, then opening a new session and importing the "3 and 4" tracks seems to work for me. Then copy (add) it to the first "1 and 2" session. As long as you copy the full track they sync up just fine. For practice recordings I don't do much other than cut out dead space (chatter, clam versions, etc...). If there is something particularly good, Audacity has a good toolkit of utilities, and the latest version can use most DAW plugin's on your PC. It's fairly quick to save individual songs as MP3, and we share on Google drive.

Cheers and good luck...
Click to expand...
Good article/comparison. I was surprised that the H4Pro can't handle line-level inputs, as the H6 has -20 dB pads on the four 1/4"/XLR inputs.
 
#23
Here's a couple of examples between the DR-05 and DR-40x same practice room, Ventura Highway was a first time run-through for us and getting the vocals off the board really made a difference. I did a fair amount of cleanup on Moondance, and that was about the best I could get while the Ventura Highway is the raw recording (also was testing the built in limiter on the condenser mics).



 
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#24
It would be an unnecessary complication/problem that yields little to no advantage. First off, you have no positional reference between the band audio on the DAW and your bass audio. All the effort put into playing in-the-pocket is lost because you'll have to import the bass track then slip it around by ear trying to find where it fits. The second issue you are fairly immune from because you're using a DI. The clock of the DAW and the clock of the PDR are not locked to each other. You know that if you hung two wall clocks and set them to the exact same time, at some point in the future they will display different times. One will probably be faster or slower than the other. Same thing with digital audio devices. As stated, probably not going to be an issue in your case. But if you were to record a track that is picking up some of the other instruments, the shifting time base is going to cause a tone shift much like a very slow flanger.
 
#25
Thank you all for your thoughts and expertise. Alot of considerations here.

Boundary Effect: I was under the (maybe misguided) impression people where doing things like this frequently. Recording parts away from the band and emailing them back and forth. I know absolutely nothing about the clock but understand the concept of them not lining up. Is the only way to do this reliably is to be using the same DAW and then import those tracks?

I can't thank you all enough for all the replies!
 
#26
Just think of one recording as a backing track, and then you add your part as a separate track (or vice versa). You can use something for a click (metronome, click track, drum machine, etc..) just so you are in time. Think back to the "old" days when they were splicing tape, it was by ear... The digital world can make simple things way more complicated than necessary for basic practice recording.

Cheers
 
#28
failuresXbass said:
Thank you all for your thoughts and expertise. Alot of considerations here.

Boundary Effect: I was under the (maybe misguided) impression people where doing things like this frequently. Recording parts away from the band and emailing them back and forth. I know absolutely nothing about the clock but understand the concept of them not lining up. Is the only way to do this reliably is to be using the same DAW and then import those tracks?

I can't thank you all enough for all the replies!
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. I've provided vocals and bass for a friend and we use two different DAWs (Studio One for me, Pro Tools for him). He gives me the rough track, I record my parts, then I just export the parts as WAV files and put them on a USB drive and take it to him. As long as we both use the same tempo and time signature settings, it's simple to line everything up.
 
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