Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

Hey, I feel for ya brotha about the hissing and all, but I'm getting the hissing through my recorders. They are reliable recording sources and they can be figured out. I just haven't dne it yet. My input to you if any is, first, are you getting the hiss in your line out or monitor listening device(i.e. headphones or jacked straight out to your amp)? If so, you are where I am , go from there. Its got to be a devided line I haven't been able to identify, but my drops are corded through my modelers. Gonna check that next to see if that is my unwanted input.Thx!

Start here first: http://www.tweakheadz.com/

Lots of choices. Lots of questions to answer before investing in gear. How many inputs do you really need at one time? how many recording tracks at one time? mic inputs? line level? do you already own a mixer? guitar direct inputs? Do you have a very modern computer with tons of ram (4g)? How will you use your final music product? demos? Broadcast? CD Distribution? Is ProTools compatibility important?

For reference, I have been recording since 1970, everything from simple cassette demos to 24 track reels in high end studios for video and television production . I am a musician and not a recording engineer. A lot of this modern digital technology is still way above my pay grade. My current setups are a Roland VS2000CD stand alone digital workstation and a MBox Pro interface with ProTools for computer based recording. Both have pluses/minuses and can deliver excellent results. The quickie demo quality clips on my page were essentially recorded live in one night on the Roland and then mixed/mastered the following night.

The ProTools setup works great if I am doing small projects with only 2 tracks at a time but will overwhelm/crash my computer resources easily with too many live tracks or effects plugins.

Do some homework first. Good luck!

Cakewalk, the Producer's Edition. Has lots of cool plug ins and so on, outside of Pro Tools, it's pretty decent if you know how to work it.

Chaeya

Evenin lads,
mic input = baaaaad

you desperately need something like:
http://www.presonus.com/products/Softwa ... twareId=11
coupled with something like even their 2 input usb(or even better firewire) interface.

I've used the light versions of both cubase,cakewalk, and another or two.
While there's strengths of each, for me Presonus S1 software has proven itself as the most stable, and EASY to use.
I used to struggle with the complexity of the other DAW packages.
Just too many dropdowns & buttons & what not.

I am able to get a very clean signal on my HP PC.
I got lucky and found a fellow on the Presonus forums who was upgrading to the Pro version,and so he offered up his Artist version to me for 50 bux.
And Presonus also transferred the registration to me.
Interface box can be had for very cheap, esp if you're just doing USB.
At the rate folks are bying & then selling for the next better thing, you can get this stuff pretty cheaply.

Well, good luck mate,
my .02

Rich

Celtic is right - the stock audio cards in computers are intended for quality digital to analog conversion for optimal sound, but their analog to digital converters (recording sound in) are as cheap as possible to keep production costs down.

You'll want either a sound-card made for recording or better yet, get a USB audio interface so you can bypass your mic-input. These Audio Input (like presonus) devices are built for recording and will improve the quality of your recording alot.

As for DAWs. If you're going to recording more than one thing (instrument + instrument or vocals), then you'll want a DAW. Downside is, they aren't simple. There's a learning curve - I've been working with Cubase for over a year now and I have the basics down, but there's *alot* of things yet to learn. This will be true of any DAW, wether it's Reason, Cakewalk, cubase or protools. There'a language barrier too - learning the lingo of recording will be essential in understanding how to work with your DAW.

Go read up on Tweakheadz.com per TheJohnny7Band's recommendation - it's a great learning site for sure - probably the best starting point you'll find.

Good hunting!
Chris

I go extremely stripped down, and it works! No mixer or plug-ins used...period. I'm worth about $150 in recording equipment.

I use the first generation Audigy Sound Blaster interface. Use a mid 90's Shure Beta 2.0 dynamic mic. Edit with Cool Edit Pro 2(Syntrillium Version). A 92 DOD Bass Juice Box pedal(line in). Line in Roland. SWV(sound wave volume) to keep the frequencies as equal as possible while recording. This feature goes with my interface software.

That's it. I'm all ears...literally. I rely on panning, volume, and decibal cuts(to get rid of hiss).

I did a song trying out my soundcard for the first time. A little instrumental song. It's clean. If I got it mastered you couldn't tell what was used at all.

The forefathers before me had it a lot tougher than me. Of course, having more stuff is cool just as long as I use it.

MendoJazzman wrote: I just bought a Digitech Loop Pedal, but have to learn how to use it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHbfifn5d3o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joVg0pnneuo

I use Cakewalk Producer (an older version 4) and Cool Edit 2. I like using a modeling preamp direct to the sound card, but one of the songs in my profile was recorded using an old Peavey 500 PA preamp. It had a good flat blues sound. I just used the preamp out. I use Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones out of the sound card for monitoring.
If you set your levels properly, about any pre amp will work good, or if you mike an amp, be sure you have a clean high signal to noise ratio.

I use the Cakewalk Sonar 8.5. It took a while to learn, but I’m totally satisfied with the capabilities and sound quality. A better interface helps, but I was recording on a SB Live platinum previously and still had decent results. Although the 44100, 16 bit is limiting. Most built in motherboard sound hardware is garbage, if that’s what you’re using I would get the better hardware first and use something like Audacity in between, before the DAW purchase.