Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bobbyhanlon]

i would like to start recording music at home. nothing too fancy, mainly just some vocal, guitar, bass and drum tracks. however i don't know where to start. can someone give me some advice please? specifically, do i need a great soundcard? what kind of mics would you recommend? and how much should i pay for a good setup?
thanks

[SirFink]

It might be easier to buy a self-contained digital recording unit. There are some very affordable ones these days and it's very easy to dump what you record on them to your PC to burn a CD or make an MP3 to put on the Internet.

The advantage to the self-contained units is they are very portable, so if you ever want to record bands live or record yourself playing a gig somewhere or jamming with friends, they're a good option.

I've found recording direct to PC a bit too complex, but it's been a few years and I'm sure the software and technology has improved. Monitors do give off a lot of noise though.

You can get a very nice microphone for under $100. China has been cranking out some great mics (from stolen patents, no doubt). You want a large diaphragm microphone. For God's sake don't buy a crappy "PC" microphone at a computer store and don't bother with a Shure SM58. Great mics for live situations, but home recording you want something more sensitive. Two mics is very nice for a good "room" feel, but you can get by just fine with only 1 decent mic.

[tweeterdj]

good on you for starting! it's great fun. I am a trained recording engineer, and have some equipment here in Korea, though it's a very meager setup so far. I brought my Rode mic from home, and a preamp and my laptop.

The first place to start is deciding between Hard Disk recording and computer. I have never actually used hard disk (i was trained on digital tape and computer) Computer is cheaper initially, but hard disk has it's advantages. If you do go with computer, you have to have a DAW, although this can be had for free at http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/ . After that you need to decide on a mic and a preamp. Each are equally important: a cheap mic will sound cheap through any preamp, and a good mic will sound cheap through a cheap preamp. Sometimes, however, you have to sacrifice. I have a cheap preamp, unfortunately, but I'm learning to use it better. As far as mics go, you will probably either want a large diaphragm mic, as it will be good on vocals as well as most acoustic instruments. Another good idea is a smaller diaphragm utility mic, such as the Rode NT3 or the C1000 from AKG. They are better for the instruments, but can do the job with vocals as well. You may also need a good dynamic mic, such as the SM58 (don't discount it because it's popular, I've heard tell that all the vocals on Michael Jackson's BAD album were done with the 58 ). 57s are more popular though.

What are you planning on doing for drums? MIDI? That's what I do, using Cubase, though I would love to have the mics and room for acoustic drums. Anyway, I'd love to talk more, PM me if you have any more questions or just wanna chat about recording. I love it. Also, there's a good forum that I found, www.studioforums.com . It has lots of good advice, as well as lots of experienced engineers from around the world to answer questions on lots of topics.

[khyber]

for GREAT instrument mikes...i think it's a Shure: SM81.
They've been around since hte 70s and through that WHOLE time, they've been an INCREDIBLY reliable mike for relatively cheap. They've barely changed a thing on it and it sounds really REALLY good.

Another good forums is
www.gearslutz.com

My buddy will record songs there and then post them on the forum. The people on that forum are GREAT at helping each other with production ideas etc....

there is an AKG mike for sale in the for sale forum (though you could get one new back home for almost the same price).

LASTLY...there is one online store that you all have GOT to try.
They're based outta newyork somewhere. My buddy has ordered half a dozen things from them and everything was the CHEAPEST he could find (incl. in korea) and they "help you out" with getting it through customs.

do a search for "alto music"...the webaaddress is gone.

tweeterdj..what you would suggest for guitar preamps? acoustic style?
A friend of mine has the SansAmp for bass and i fell in LOVE with the thing. I can only assume that the Sansamp acoustic is as good.
Do YOU have any suggestions?

[Satori]

At minimum you will need a mic, a pre amp ( very important for quality ) and a dedicated hard disk recorder OR pc with a Digital Audio Workstation such a Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic etc and if you go the pc way you also need an external soundcard ( native pc ones are shi t ) and then you need monitors. If you go the hard disk recorder way you then wont be able to manipulate or process the audio, ie chop out bits that didnt work, correct timing, etc, so you'll have to get perfect takes from your players. You also wont be able to apply critical effects processing like reverb, delay, eq, and compression. You'll need dedicated hardware effects boxes for that.

In this day and age, I would go the computer way, it's taking over, and it's much more powerful. Plus, with a DAW you get to sequence midi for parts that cant be played, eg perhaps drums in your case, and you can add outrageous synthesiser parts too with VST's or virtual synth technology, and they are cheap, and there are also plenty of free ones.

Basically my man you're looking at a lot of money and a MASSIVE learning curve before you get your grammy. But it's a passion!

I don't record audio myself. I use an all in one software workstation package called "Reason" for making electronic dance music. But the principles of mixing audio remain the same.

[EFLtrainer]

This is bringing back old, old memories...

[tweeterdj]

[bobbyhanlon]

wow! thanks so much you lot.. there's so much to get through here. i'll report back when i've gotten started. i think drum sounds will be the biggest challenge.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

Do you intend to play with other musicians, or just to build your compositions track-by-track? If it's the latter, you might want to try something simple like n-tracks or Adobe Audition / Cool Edit Pro and just try plugging outputs into your present sound card. Get yourself at least one decent microphone and start recording and building your ear for music and for mixing.

After you have done that and feel more confident, I would then take the recommendations the other posters have made. I don't disagree with them, I simply feel that you should begin with simple tools and then replace them with better gear when you're more expert with doing this so that you don't feel overwhelmed-- and also so that you don't fall into the trap of fussing so much with the toys that you forget to practice. But yes, I think the first piece of pro gear you might consider is a little preamp as the mic plugin on your sound board will not give you good sound.

Listen widely to different styles of music, and try to listen for how the mix was made, and how levels, reverb, and positioning influence the sound. Try to train your ear for EQ levels. I spent years and years mixing together cassettes and 4-tracks before moving into digital. Learning how to mix will take you some time, but it's fun and your recordings will sound more professional.

My ameteur band site is http://keneckert.com/banjofish, and there are other posters on this board who have their own pages who might want to list their links too if listening to what others do helps you.

Ken:>

[tweeterdj]

Another online goody I have recently discovered is the Bruce A. Miller Audio School. It can be found here: http://BAMaudioschool.com and is totally free. There are also forums set up for discussion on it at studioforums.com. It is extremely helpful so far, and Bruce is posting new lessons every couple of weeks. Just thought I'd share that.