Where Do I Start With Home Recording?

[Deleted member 271037]

Latency can also be an issue of course. If you're gonna use midi/softsynths you'll need a pc that's powerful enough to handle low latency when the plugins/tracks start to add up. If you're not using midi, just make sure the interface has direct monitoring and latency should be an issue (although the metering on all plugins will have a delay with high latency, which can be VERY annoying...).

Also, I STRONGLY recommend getting a pc with a grounded power cable. Consumer level laptops with ungrounded plugs combined with an ungrounded usb-interface can be an absolute nightmare (hum/noise).

You should also get about 3x as much storage space as you think you'll need. If you're gonna install any sample libraries, even more!

 

[Deleted member 271037]

A Mac or PC with Focusrite and Reaper along with YT tutorials will get you there. At least it did for me and thousands of others but YMMV, good luck.

Reaper is great! It's just a matter of personalizing the setup. I came from years with Cubase (and to some extent Pro Tools) when I started using Reaper. I didn't like the workflow at all with Reaper's default settings. But if Reaper is your first DAW I guess this shouldn't be an issue. Even so, Reaper's default setup has a lot of potential for improvement (IMO) if you're willing to dive into the menus. At least it did for MY preferred workflow.

Cubase is still my favourite DAW but that's mostly about workflow. Reaper is great and it's also so cheap it's practically free! They're also really great with regular updates! You get a lot of DAW for your money with Reaper. It's the best bargain out there for sure!

 

[ThinCrappyTone2]

Use the search feature.

I'm not sure what I am searching for. I don't know what questions to ask.

A smidge of background:

I used to rake out a song on guitar, chart the measures, program an Alesis drum machine and throw a cassette in the Fostex 4-track & have at it until I liked the tracks I laid down. Mixed them down to assembled songs and called it good. Built from scratch type stuff.

I started reading up on multi-track recorder types and went to a GC and got smacked with the digital interface stuff and now I'm not sure what lends itself to ease of use, data storage and organization. And, how to store the data.

Buy a digital multi-track recorder or use a software alternative?

I'm looking for suggestions as I want to home studio for fun and creation but still make quality tone multi-tracked music.

Pros/Cons, anything that y'all could suggest would be helpful.

avoid digital recorders, imo/ime

get a laptop/desktop, interface, daw software and some way to monitor. i use a mac laptop and Logic pro. Can be an older machine.

Get an external drive to store project data, as you don't want to fill up your onboard drive. You can work directly off the drive.

Just about any interface will do these days. Focusrite is great bang for the buck.

Good luck! Home recording is hella fun

 

[TheSeagoats]

It's already been said but download Reaper, it has a free trial. I use Power Drumkit 2 which is also a free download, with it you can drag and drop premade drum parts, and there's a ton of them, including fills. You can also program it yourself once you get comfortable with it. Here's an example of a cover I did with Power Drumkit so you can hear how it sounds outside of their example clips.

You'll need some kind of interface, I have a Behringer U-PHORIA UMC404 but this is mostly personal preference and there's a ton of good options out there. You could plug directly into the interface but I've always liked using a DI box of some kind first. This will get you most of the way there to home recording. If you're planning on recording guitar and/or vocals then you'll most likely want a microphone of some kind if you don't have one already. SM57 would be your best bet for an all around mic.

 

[Barticus]

Gonna try these tracks on my PC. Seems the iPad doesn't want to engage them. Thanks.

So why not just use your iPad/GarageBand? It’s absolutely one of the best writing tools out there since it has the ability to do sections (intro/verse/chorus/etc) and is multi-user so you can collaborate with others to write/record. It also has a number of built-in drummers to easily lay down drum tracks, and those could be changed per section as well. So it sounds like you already have what you need just maybe lacking a USB interface.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Use the search feature.

I'm not sure what I am searching for. I don't know what questions to ask.

A smidge of background:

I used to rake out a song on guitar, chart the measures, program an Alesis drum machine and throw a cassette in the Fostex 4-track & have at it until I liked the tracks I laid down. Mixed them down to assembled songs and called it good. Built from scratch type stuff.

I started reading up on multi-track recorder types and went to a GC and got smacked with the digital interface stuff and now I'm not sure what lends itself to ease of use, data storage and organization. And, how to store the data.

Buy a digital multi-track recorder or use a software alternative?

I'm looking for suggestions as I want to home studio for fun and creation but still make quality tone multi-tracked music.

Pros/Cons, anything that y'all could suggest would be helpful.

I bought a Steinberg UR-12 interface (relatively inexpensive) and subscribed to Cubasis (also not real expensive or difficult to operate). The finish product is very good. We have recorded 5 LPs, 3 released, to the satisfaction of our record company.

Side bar, the UR-12 requires power from whatever technology (computer) is running Cubasis. It will run on an iPad but since the connection from the iPad to the UR-12 is the hot wire, you are running off the iPad battery, So sessions last about 20 minutes before the iPad needs recharging.

Further, I would recommend if you are using a Mac, I would check with Steinberg to make sure your operating system is compatible.

 

[brianrost]

Buy a digital multi-track recorder or use a software alternative?

Software is typically much cheaper and has more functionality as well. You are tied to the computer but if you need to be mobile (like recording in a rehersal space) just get a laptop.

Since you are familiar with the old tape 4-track proicess, there are still machines like that out there and dollar for dollar they are stupid cheap. Tascam sells Invalid Link Removed that costs $650, less than what I paid for one of their cassette 4-tracks back in the 1980s.

Zoom makes similar machines, the current R20 for $450 has 16 tracks, an onboard drum machine and an onboard synth that can be played by plugging in a MIDI keyboard

You can buy even less expensive machines with fewer tracks, here's a $300 Tascam with 8 tracks.

They all come with onboard effects and have a DI input for your bass or other electric instruments.

Some handheld recorders can multitrack, too. For instance, the Zoom H6 which is a 6 track (doh) machine for $280.

You can buy older, discontinued machines for even less. I have a Boss 8-track from about 15 years ago that I don't use. It's similar to that Tascam 8-track above except on the used market it's only worth maybe $100 max. Plus it has a CD-R burner for backups or burning playable CDs, something more recent machines can't do.

Like I wrote, software is cheaper (free, even) than a hardware recorder if you ignore the money you spent on the computer or tablet. You can buy audio interaces for under $100 and they all come with recording software. Then you just need a mike (if you plan on singing or miking up instruments or amps) and some headphones. You can plug your bass into the interface without needing a DI. The free software is usually track limited (8 tracks being common) with a path to buy the "full" version later at a discount. If you happen to own an Apple, you get Garageband for free which is even more fully featured than the free "lite" packages that come with interfaces.

 

[eulogy77]

I was on the same boat, I ended up getting me some used gear, except the laptop, I got a focusrite scarlett 8 channel interface, and reaper software, and or course mics cables and that, I ended up paying about 250 to 300 with all (software, interface, and a couple of mics and cables) the laptop I already had, as for drums I mostly use youtube, you can find some bassless tracks that you can use with out paying any rights,

 

[P. Aaron]

Years ago I had a Fostex 4-track. I recorded some demos on it. Then nothing for about 35 years. Then about a year and a half ago I bought a digital multi-track recorder. I took it out of the box and haven’t touched it since. I’m really more interested in the musical part than the engineering part. It takes a lot of time and I rarely have more than an hour or two at a time to devote.

I feelz this. The tech comes at you in the middle of the conversation too. But, once I/we get the fundamentals, we can make recordings and adapt to the extraneous tech as we 'get it'.

 

[socialleper]

First you need a decent PC. Not super duper, but decent, with a good amount of storage. Audio is big.

Then you need an interface. The Focusrite stuff is very popular, and mine works fine.

Then it gets tricky. There are a lot of recording software programs out there (DAW), but most require money and all of them take a while to get used to. Reaper is free and so is Bandlab Cakewalk.

That will get you started. The rest is seriously an unending rabbit hole. The plugins. The techniques. It is a lot. But start slow and build up your knowledge. And most of all, enjoy being creative. Don't let the work of learning how to do this stuff weigh you down. It is an means to an end.

 

[plankbadger]

I did everything on these two archives at home through a Focusrite Scarlett and Sonar.








Regardless of the quality of the music, it all sounds decent for homebrew. Minimal mixing, no mastering.

Impressive.

 

[plankbadger]

Use the search feature.

I'm looking for suggestions as I want to home studio for fun and creation but still make quality tone multi-tracked music.

Pros/Cons, anything that y'all could suggest would be helpful.

I would go the computer and audio interface route. Do you have a PC or a Mac? I have a PC and use Cakewalk Bandlab which is freeware resurrection of Cakewalk Sonar - which was a DAW a few years ago but the company went bust.

So, I have a PC, software and an audio interface. You can get by and get quite good results with enough just a cheap USB interface such as Focusrite Scarlett as you will initially only record one or two inputs at a time.

 

[pbass2]

I'd stay away from stand-alone mutitrack recorders unless you enjoy menu-diving.

If you have a PC or Mac a simple interface like Focusrite and a DAW will get you going and be much easier to use, at least in my experience.

Yep, don't even consider a digital multi-track recorder these days, not with what you can do on a laptop far easier, more efficiently, with the ability to upgrade easily, work to video if you want, share files with other people--the list goes on and on. Plus you get the visual component--the graphical representation of the gear. If you're on a Mac, Logic is $200 and is so full-featured it's ridiculous. The best music production bang-for-buck out there. Get some kinda interface - Focusrite, MOTU, etc---and a midi keyboard controller of some sort (you can get them for way less than $100) and you're off to the races.

 

[DJ Bebop]

avoid digital recorders, imo/ime

Why?

 

[VoodooJazz]

I did everything on these two archives at home through a Focusrite Scarlett and Sonar.

@WG Plum I’m digging your ambient stuff. Thanks for posting it!

 

[Sevenmodes]

I have downsized from a sizeable (overblown if I’m being honest) home studio setup to simply using a Focusrite Scarlett Solo and an iPad Pro. The Solo (and I think the 2i2?) can both be bus powered with an iPad Pro or laptop, so you don’t even need an outlet… you can record anywhere or time an idea hits. Everything fits easily in a gig bag pocket… super mobile studio.

 

[Turnaround]

Where Do I Start With Home Recording?
My guess is home. Is this a test or something?

 

[Snarf]

Home recording? Throw a microphone in front of your house and see what you get.

 

[brianrost]

First you need a decent PC. Not super duper, but decent, with a good amount of storage. Audio is big.

Not really.

Stereo audio at 44.1k/16 bit takes up about 12MB a minute. If it's 24 bit, then 18MB. Jump to 96k/24 bit and it's 39MB. Mono tracks are of course half of that.

Now how many tracks will you be recording and how long will the song be? Let's say you go nuts and record 32 stereo tracks for a 5 minute song at 96/24.

39 x 32 x 5 = 6.25GB

Add another track for the stereo mixdown and it's 6.43GB. You could fit 155 such songs into 1TB of disk space. If you recorded at 44.1/16 (CD quality) you could store over 300 such songs.

You don't even need that much storage in the computer because you can copy old projects to an external drive. Go into a pro studio today and instead of shelves holding reels of tape you see shelves full of hard drives. A 1TB spinning hard drive can be had today for about $50. Storage prices tend to drop in price by 50% every two years or so whether it's hard drives, SSDs, thumb drives or SD cards. In another two years you'll get 2TB for that price. Unless your computer's hard drive is already nearly full you can get by with 512GB of storage. I wouldn't recommend 256GB though. 8GB of RAM is the minimum you'll need, I'd go for 16GB though.

As far as speed and latency, any Mac you buy today will do the job. In fact any iPad you buy today will do the job. With Windows machines, you need to be careful with the real cheap machines.

As an Apple fanboi I can't make Windows recommendations because there's so many different processors clocked at different speeds with varying amounts of RAM and every brand is cranking out new models about every six months it seems. That said, I was able to run Ableton Live on a Celeron based Toshiba laptop with only 2GB of RAM back in 2005 though I don't think I ever used more than 16 tracks.

EDIT
Took a look at a recent Logic project. 44.1/24, 16 mono tracks, 3:35 long. Includes the final mix on a 17th stereo track. In addition to the audio for the final takes there are a number of additional files, alternate takes and a couple of alternate mixes. 2.16GB

 

[funkinbottom]

A Mac or PC with Focusrite and Reaper along with YT tutorials will get you there. At least it did for me and thousands of others but YMMV, good luck.

Another vote for Reaper. The interface I bought (Steinberg UR44) came with Cubase. For whatever reason, I didn't care for it too much. Worked just fine and sounded good, but was a bit of a struggle for me. Downloaded Reaper, watched a couple of quick start tutorials on youtube, and I was on my way. IDK, just felt more intuitive, easier. And Reapers trial version is not limited, it is full version. I skipped the trial and just paid the $60 as it came highly recommended by an engineer friend of mine (former protools user) Reaper also gives you free updates as new versions become available.

For drums I use Toontraks EZDrummer 3. Simple, completely programmable, or use the tons of prerecorded tracks and fills. All sound are real drums played by real drummers and hi quality recorded, and a variety of kits. I can also use the pads on my midi keyboard controller for finger drumming. Also bought an Alesis electronic kit for recording full live rhythm section. Well, up to 4 tracks simultaneously as my interface is four channel. I guess it could be 5, because it has midi in and out.

I use minimal effects, so I just use the ones that came with my software along with a few free one I found online.

Keys I use toontraks EZkeys. Again, tons of prerecorded tracks of real keyboards, played by real players. A little more challenging than EZdrummer to get the right parts going, but doable. Lots of tracks you can use as is and just change chord values etc.. to go with changes you've written. I mostly just use the sounds (Rhodes, wulitzer, acoustic upright) and play keys on midi keyboard (Nektar Impact LX61).
I use Univeral Audio UAD waterfall B3, Hammond B-3 Organ and Leslie Emulation Plug-in. Absolutely nails that B3/Leslie thang. Very authentic. It has fooled a couple of my keyboardist friends.

And... one of the most fun things about digital recording is, you can have friends that live in other states/countries put track on you songs. (a subject for it's own thread)