Home guitar record and sharing

[Turn7]

How can I record some riffs for instance, and then share online with a few people ?

Without spending any money very much.

Something like Audacity maybe ? But then I need a hosting site ? (i think?)

TIA.

[davepoth]

www.soundcloud.com

[Whitester]

You need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Audacity is utter ste, Reaper is excellent and free. Get a decent sound card.

Then you need an interface, you want a couple of XLR inputs and maybe a 1/4 inch jack input. Maybe get one with phantom power.

Then you need either some microphones or a standard guitar cable. You can just plug straight in to the interface using your guitar cable, this is called DI (Direct Input). This will just be the standard sound of the pick-ups so you will need to use an amp simulator for distortion. http://www.kvraudio.com/ has a ton of plug-ins, Reaper uses VST. If you're on a Mac make sure you get the mac plug-ins.

An alternative is to mic up your amp. Doing this you can get all your effects from amps, pedals etc and get the extra tone of the microphone. Different microphones have different polar patterns and frequency responses so each one will sound different. If you're miking guitar amps I would recommend a Shure SM 57. This mic is used in professional recordings and sounds amazing.

And finally the best way to do it - a DI box. These things allow you to get the DI signal and the sound of the mics without recording multiple times. You then blend each together but I wouldn't suggest you do this unless you have professional training.

As for recording, make sure you're in a room with decent acoustic treatment. Record somewhere where you have some form of fabric on the walls, stone walls will sound st and give you a ton of natural reverb and make recordings sound horrible. Experiment and see what sounds best. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR AUDIO DOES NOT CLIP WHILST RECORDING. THIS WILL DAMAGE YOUR AUDIO.

If you want to get some drums on it then I really would not recommend recording them unless you have 5+ plus mics. Recording drums requires a lot of effort and money and isn't worth it unless you have access to good equipment. Use EZdrummer or Addictive Drums, they will give you a decent drum sound.

I'm not going to go into too much detail on mixing or mastering, but if you want to have at least a decent volume, make sure you put a limiter and maximiser on your stereo out channel. These won't get you up to Redbook standard but will be close.

Export as a 24-bit .wav, this is CD quality. Never export in 32-bit as the files are huge. The ideal quality for uploading to YouTube is 192kbps MP3.

Upload to SoundCloud, they take .wav files and you get 2 hours free.

Hope that helped.

Edited by Whitester on Saturday 25th February 17:30

[Whitester]

I forgot to mention, if you aren't willing to do all that, it is much simpler to download either TuxGuitar, PowerTab or GuitarPro which allow you to write in riffs and then share them. A lot simpler than doing all the recording business.

[Turn7]

Thanks guys.

Can I not use the headphone output to record from ? Im not looking for massive quality, just want to show some friends/family what Im up to.

[tom77]

Whitester said:

You need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Audacity is utter ste, Reaper is excellent and free. Get a decent sound card.

Then you need an interface, you want a couple of XLR inputs and maybe a 1/4 inch jack input. Maybe get one with phantom power.

Then you need either some microphones or a standard guitar cable. You can just plug straight in to the interface using your guitar cable, this is called DI (Direct Input). This will just be the standard sound of the pick-ups so you will need to use an amp simulator for distortion. http://www.kvraudio.com/ has a ton of plug-ins, Reaper uses VST. If you're on a Mac make sure you get the mac plug-ins.

An alternative is to mic up your amp. Doing this you can get all your effects from amps, pedals etc and get the extra tone of the microphone. Different microphones have different polar patterns and frequency responses so each one will sound different. If you're miking guitar amps I would recommend a Shure SM 57. This mic is used in professional recordings and sounds amazing.

And finally the best way to do it - a DI box. These things allow you to get the DI signal and the sound of the mics without recording multiple times. You then blend each together but I wouldn't suggest you do this unless you have professional training.

As for recording, make sure you're in a room with decent acoustic treatment. Record somewhere where you have some form of fabric on the walls, stone walls will sound st and give you a ton of natural reverb and make recordings sound horrible. Experiment and see what sounds best. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR AUDIO DOES NOT CLIP WHILST RECORDING. THIS WILL DAMAGE YOUR AUDIO.

If you want to get some drums on it then I really would not recommend recording them unless you have 5+ plus mics. Recording drums requires a lot of effort and money and isn't worth it unless you have access to good equipment. Use EZdrummer or Addictive Drums, they will give you a decent drum sound.

I'm not going to go into too much detail on mixing or mastering, but if you want to have at least a decent volume, make sure you put a limiter and maximiser on your stereo out channel. These won't get you up to Redbook standard but will be close.

Export as a 24-bit .wav, this is CD quality. Never export in 32-bit as the files are huge. The ideal quality for uploading to YouTube is 192kbps MP3.

Upload to SoundCloud, they take .wav files and you get 2 hours free.

Hope that helped.

Edited by Whitester on Saturday 25th February 17:30

Good advice with the exception of the drums....

We've recorded some pretty decent drums with two condenser mics, one close to the front/bass drum and one overhanging the kit.

Saying that, lo-fi is our thing so weren't seeking full on drum sound.

Still very impressed with the results though.

[Whitester]

Turn7 said:

Thanks guys.

Can I not use the headphone output to record from ? Im not looking for massive quality, just want to show some friends/family what Im up to.

Are you talking about from the amp? Look for something along the lines of auxiliary or line out, that should get you sorted.

tom77 said:

Good advice with the exception of the drums....

We've recorded some pretty decent drums with two condenser mics, one close to the front/bass drum and one overhanging the kit.

Saying that, lo-fi is our thing so weren't seeking full on drum sound.

Still very impressed with the results though.

You're never going to get a particularly good sound with just two mics. It reduces options in panning, volume control and individual drum mixing. A better idea might be to use the two condenser mics as overheads, one on each side. When you're doing this, you want to align it so that the bass drum and snare are an equal distance away from each overhead.

As for using a condenser in front of the bass drum - bad idea. You're putting a mic that is not designed to sustain high SPL in front of the loudest part of the kit, this is going to break the microphone especially if you are using a low budget mic. Always use a dynamic for the bass drum.

I used to record with one overhead, a kick and a snare mic. Never again.

[Turn7]

Whitester said:

Turn7 said:

Thanks guys.

Can I not use the headphone output to record from ? Im not looking for massive quality, just want to show some friends/family what Im up to.

Are you talking about from the amp?

Yes, I am. Headphone socket out to pc line in is what I thought would work.




eta formatting

Edited by Turn7 on Saturday 25th February 22:53

[Whitester]

Should work, give it a try. I actually do that myself to "store" ideas.