Info on recording

[bassetman]

Is there a good place to get enough to knowledge to do a decent recording?. So far I've done well at recording the exact sound of a guitar played in a bottle about 20 feet away.

[Buc McMaster]

I'm guessing you're speaking of home recording.........yes? What kind of recording do you want to do? Guitar & vocal live? Multi tracking? You'll need to be a bit more specific to get helpful replies.

[bassetman]

At this point just a natural sounding guitar would be great. Yes at home but can have a dedicated room. Want some tracks for personal videos .

[Lars68]

What kind of recordings are you aiming for? Do you want to do multitracking, or just capture yourself playing and singing. I think I get decent results at the latter, using and iPad and an Apogge mic about two feet away. Nothing fancy, but very, very simple. I point the mic at the top part of my chest, kind of between mouth and guitar.

 

Here is my latest recording.

 

https://soundcloud.com/lars1968/northern-star-1

 

Lars

[bassetman]

Multitracking...............somekind of Mic thingy............;) assume I've never plugged a whatsit into a thingamabob involving guitars or sound systems......I can take decent pics though.

[Cougar]

Multitracking...............somekind of Mic thingy............;)

 

It's amazing the home studio you can have these days for around a couple hundred bucks (mic is extra). Actually, I've heard some good stuff from guys just using garageband, which is free, or is that just with Macs? I sprung for cubase elements and got a focusrite scarlett 2i2 audio interface, which will take a mic jack or a guitar jack, or one of each. You'll likely want one audio interface or another to cut down on the latency when you're playing back and recording a new track, which you'll want to be in good sync.

 

I got a fair Shure "instrument mic" for $50-60, which I haven't used that much. Other guys here will likely recommend a better one. I like to plug my acoustic/electric into my modeling amp and take a line into the scarlett anyway.

[MorrisrownSal]

Do you have an iPhone or iPad? I record at home solely on these using a Shure MV5 USB mic. I either use the phone's camera, or GarageBand.

[vacamartin]

My 2 cents(or less)....

 

In my arsenal is a Behringer daw, some mikes, yada,yada.....and darned if I can't figure out how to use that daw for mixing, etc. So yesterday I opted to pull out my old Tascam DR7 and voila....actually read the manual and discovered how to do overdubbing, and a host of great things without hooking up to a website w/daw.

 

I recommend finding a hand held, inexpensive unit like mine for a good price and learning how to do simple voice and acoustic recording...then move on to mixing. That is of course if you are as techno challenged as this old cahoot is

[Fullmental Alpinist]

Here's a good place to start:

 

Music Production Basics

 

 

Then check out gearslutz for technical info.

 

Go to YouTube and search "recording guitar vocal."

 

That should keep you busy.

[62burst]

Oft times, the best tool for the job is the one closest at hand, and iPhones don't seem to be too far from most people's hands these days. When I stumble into a rhythm I want to corrupt a perfectly good song with later, I can be in the Voice Record mode on the phone in less than 10 seconds. From your info, it sounds like you'd like to keep it simple to start, and as Sal & Cougar suggested, the Mac/ios route will amaze you; just listening to some of the recordings shared here is proof enough.

 

If you'd like to listen in the room when you're mixing/testing mic placements (which can make all the dif in the world), or just want to take your enjoyment of recordings/videos shared here and on YouTube, an interface for your 'puter and a pair of studio monitors will up the quality of that experience dramatically.

 

It sounds like Sal's moved on to another mic, but before he did, his recordings with the Apogee MiC 96K sold me on their recording quality, and their convenience of quickly plugging into your iPhone/iPad. Just slip it in your gig bag with a table top mic stand & you're mobile. Best part, as it sounds like you'd like to do some video, the HD quality of the latest iPhones are pretty amazing, and you could mic those videos up close with the Apogee. I set the MiC 96K up for a side-by-side recording with a spendy AKG condenser mic, and the difference was fairly noticeable.

 

Also, with the Apple products, you can have some fun playing around with multi tracking in GarageBand.

 

Looking forward to hearing some recordings from you!

[MorrisrownSal]

for what its worth, I think the Apogee MiC edges out the Shure MV5 in recording quality. I still have both. The Apogee comes with its own proprietary connection to USB. You have to pay extra for a cord that goes to Lightning.

 

I have been experimenting with both, and the Shure is just "there and easy" with all the plugs you need, at less than half the cost of the Apogee. Apogee = A sound quality. Shure = A- sound quality.

 

For hacks, the Shure is just fine, but no doubt the Apogee is a little better.

 

Everything you need...

 

[Murph]

Hey Sal, if you use the Shure on an iPad with garageband, do you still use the "microphone" setting? Does the Shure through the lightning jack kill the internal mic?

[kidblast]

everyone has a different way as there are 100s of ways to do this.

 

here's two that I do often.

 

1: A zoom handy MP3 recorder, and using the "TAPE OUT" (stereo) feed from my sound board as input. Vocal and Guitar into the sound board, headphones to monitor.

 

This just takes everything as it comes off the sound board into the MP3 recorder.. get your levels right, press record, play/sing, done..

 

2: an old (1990's vintage) Roland VS800 multi-track (8 track) hard disk recorder/workstation. this can record 4 tracks simultaneously, and you can over-dub to do a lot of stuff on these. you can probably buy one of these in good condition for a song. (150 / 200 clams)

 

I have samples on sound cloud I can offer so you can hear the quality of each method.

 

and here's a sample / sound bite of the Zoom Handy recorder put about 6 inches in front of my acoustic guitar amp with my nylon string.

[MorrisrownSal]

Hey Sal, if you use the Shure on an iPad with garageband, do you still use the "microphone" setting? Does the Shure through the lightning jack kill the internal mic?

 

As soon as you plug in a USB mic into an iphone/ipad lightning jack, it is used instead of the internal mic... I am pretty sure?

[62burst]

As soon as you plug in a USB mic into an iphone/ipad lightning jack, it is used instead of the internal mic... I am pretty sure?

 

That's correct. At least for the iPhone, it does cut out the phone's mic.

 

Pretty sure the Apogee MiC96k comes with their shorter Apogee cable with the Lightning plug at the other end for the iPhone. I purchased the 3 meter cable from Apogee directly for ~$35(?) to capture more in the frame for video when the mic is located on the boom. Tried one of those clip-on wide angle lenses for the phone, but it was a bit too psychedelic.