How do I get into recording?

By the time I bought the mics cables and my TASCAM DP01FX, I was into it for a grand, but I can do everything your looking for and patch it into my computor and burn a CD. I don't know about the cababilities of the set up your looking at, but it doesn't look like it burns CD's which was important to me.

 

I dont know about how you play or such

I started recording my band at practices, we use a rented rehersal room, we have some of our own mics and are provided with 3 there, so we have 6 altogether, we have 1 or 2 mics for the vocals, one for the guitar amp, and the rest get sorted out around the drum kit, the bass goes DI to the PA

And we record direct off the aux output on the mixer thats there onto and mp3 player

it works fairly well i can link you to the some tunes that gives you an idea of the quality we got if thats a help with the band situation


For personal use, ive got a behringer UB1202 mixer (you can get ones with fewer inputs), i use the DI out of the bass amp into the mixer, then the output of the mixer into my pc soundcard and record using a program called NTrack, i dont have any samples of that on the net yet tho

 

For 100 bucks it'll getcha started, that's where a lot of us started back in the day. You will have to mix to another sound source like another tape deck or pc.

But if you can scrape a bit more there are some pretty nice Digital Portastudios starting at 299 that'll give you up to 8 tracks, better sound and you can usb it to your computer and record your own cds. Tascam has a DP01 for 299 and you have real knobs for tweaking for those of us who hate scrolling thru menus. I have a Tascam DP01FX 8 track and I am recording some pretty cool stuff for $499.

 

No a 4 track will not record a 4 piece band. To me, these little gadgets like the tascams and such are mainly for a singer/songwriter who wants to record his IDEAS, or possibly songs.Depending on the quality you want your recordings to be, it can cost alot.

For me these are the things i would want to mic up
DRUMS
Snare (top and possibly tail)
Kick (2 mics can be useful but one will do)
Hi tom
Mid tom
Floor tom
Hi hat
2 overheads

BASS
DI
2 Mics on 2 different cones

GUITAR
Mic on the cone
Mic the rear of the amp

VOX
1 decent mic

So as you can see, I would need alot of mics = alot of cash. Although there are some versatile mics such as Shure SM57s and SM58s which are great for bass, guitar, toms, snares and decent enough for vox.

But with all these mics you need a large desk, and cables. The main thing that annoys me about the small tascam 8 tracks is that they only have 1 or 2 mic inputs. but i WANT a 16 track desk with 16 inputs, and digital (which will have inbuilt dynamics). And possibly a good reverb rackmount unit too. If the desk doesnt have a CD burner which is most likely wont, you'll need to hook up a computer with Pro Tools or Reason or another program like that. This can be good for doing some mastering and editing too.

So, as you can see, i basically want a home studio, lol. Which will be expensive. And you can see how quickly everything can add up. Mind you, you dont need and probably wouldnt want the same set up as i would, so its really up to you and how you want your finished product to sound.

 

How are you with computers? If you already have a computer and are fairly confident getting around them then that might be a more expandable and powerful route to go. If you already have a computer, then a Presonus Inspire for roughly $200 might be the perfect ticket to get you into recording. Comes with Cubase LE to get you started.

Hope that helps,

Benner

 

I haven't seen anything that comes all in one package,I consider mine small, it records 2 mics at a time but I can overdub,It has 8 track capability. To start off w/ you need at least 3 differant kinds of mics, the number of which depends on what you want to do. For the drums, I just mic the bass and use a room mics,(that's how Bonham used to do it) but other people want to mic each drum. Then you need instument mics for the guitar and bass, and a differant mic for vocals, see where I'm going here,then cables and the recording set up. My little one for a grand is a cheap set up.

 

I think the link below is one of the least expensive, really packed pieces of recording gear you can get. You can make some pretty decent sounding demos, it's easy to use, it has a built in drum machine that's pretty easy to program and sounds great, the effects sound great, it's easy to dump the tracks on your computer and remix stuff if you ever want to expand, easy to burn cds off your computer also - hey, you'd think I work for them or something . I don't.

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i-ZOO-MRS8.html

Another great point is that you can pay them $100 a month for it, for three months.

Only real drawback to any of these little studios is that at the price you're looking to spend it'll be really difficult to get anything that will take more than 2 inputs (a stereo mix) at a time. That pretty much means if you want to do live drums, you're going to have to just use 2 mics and record them seperate from the band, or get a mixer, or save yourself the whole drummer package and use the built in machine this things got. It never argues with you about anything. Das my $.02 about all this.

Oh yeah - last note, the cassette things sound pretty crappy in comparison to what you can do digitally these days for just a little more money.

 

Go here www.ntrack.com

 

Try this www.ntrack.com

 

I am in no way connected with the product I've been plugging.
I do own it however.

 

IMHO if you are wanting to get into recording do your homework. I recomend this book Modern Recording Techniques. Read the first half or so and then make some decisions on what you would like to purchase. Maybe just a 4 track or some cheap computer set up. Read that manual and learn how to operate whatever you have.

You can take everyones advise on what gear to buy but ultimately it means nothing to you right now becuase you have no idea how to use it or even have a point of reference. If you are absolutely new to this I suggest making as small of an investment as possible. No sense dropping a bunch of money on a hobby that you may actually not like. Get a a couple of decent mics and a recording platform (computer or other wise) and go nuts.

 

+1! Excellent advise.

 

if you have a mac then you probably already have garageband on your computer. that's a pretty intuitive program. then you just need the gear to get the audio into the computer.

 

I use it too, easy to use, and can do about everything with it, really good

 

For a four peice band, make sure it can record 4 tracks at a time. Unless you want to play the song 4 times and record a different instrument each time.

 

I bought a 16 track digital work station. Read enough in the manual to record a little bit, and off I go. I'm still learning how to run the recorder, especially because i'm not an engineer be any means. But once you commit to doing it you just dig in and I think you'll find it fun, and challenging.

For what it's worth.

 

I have the same unit and love it. I bought on the 3 month deal from AMS also.

One of the things I love about it is the built-in condensor mic. It does a good job of capturing rehersals/jams/practice very nicely without the use of any external mics. I use it to record everything I do, just so I can listen back and critique what I'm doing. Just plug it in, turn it on and leave it alone until we're done rehersing/jamming etc... It's an invaluable device for me.

Good luck and have fun!