Home recording advice

[TameScrapman]

Here's a few attempts I made. Don't laugh, I'm only learning the past 18 years lol

http://soundcloud.com/barra-macniocaill/smells-lik...

http://soundcloud.com/barra-macniocaill/breaking-t...

http://soundcloud.com/barra-macniocaill/dig-up-her...

http://soundcloud.com/barra-macniocaill/saturday-n...


What I was using was a crappy external mic, recording and mixing in drum tracks stolen from YouTube with Audacity. It's ok but I'd like to attempt a decent effort. With minimal cost lol.

Ideally, I'd like some way of plugging the headphone output from my FX unit straight into the laptop, preferably hearing what I'm playing through headphones at the same time. I tried plugging straight in using an adaptor jack but it wouldn't pick up at all.

What do you all us for home recording equipment, software etc.? And more importantly, what is the next step I should take from here? I have no interest in making music for money, I just do it for fun but I'd like to make something half decent.

[Steffan]

Good question which I cannot answer. I too am looking for elcheapo but good recording software. Any ideas??

[TameScrapman]

Audacity is free. I'm not knocking it for a second, it's a really good place to start and find your feet but once you get onto it, you'll want more. It's like a drug.

[GetCarter]

I've thought for a while about your question and my honest answer is to join a band. You can obviously play and would benefit from other muso's and their recording equipment. Sitting at home doing what you do, whatever software you have will only make better recordings of the same stuff.

Get out there and do it.

IMHO of course.

Edited by GetCarter on Wednesday 11th December 19:04

[Disastrous]

GetCarter said:

I've thought for a while about your question and my honest answer is to join a band. You can obviously play and would benefit from other muso's and their recording equipment. Sitting at home doing what you do, whatever software you have will only make better recordings of the same stuff.

Get out there and do it.

IMHO of course.

Very well said.

OP, I played in bands for years, got into engineering a built a home studio and then vanished into the rabbit hole of unfinished 'ideas' on my own. Then I lost interest.

A couple of years ago I got back into a band and it caused me to dust off the studio with gusto and I'm now loving playing live again, and also have stuff to actually record. Massively rewarding playing with people.

[TameScrapman]

GetCarter said:

I've thought for a while about your question and my honest answer is to join a band. You can obviously play and would benefit from other muso's and their recording equipment. Sitting at home doing what you do, whatever software you have will only make better recordings of the same stuff.

Get out there and do it.

IMHO of course.

That's decent advice but I've played in a few bands before and it never worked out, it always decended into drink, drugs and debauchery. For me, music is an escape from reality, something I like to do alone, my own space, if you get what I mean? That's why I ask my question. Hoping to purchase a drum kit after Christmas then I can be a one man band, allbeit on 4 seperate tracks lol.

[davepoth]

Traverso is a step up from Audacity, and still free. It's a full featured (almost) DAW.

http://traverso-daw.org/

And perfectly fine for bedroom recording; it's probably more than you would need to be honest but it's simple enough to use.


You will also want either a pre-amp to take the headphone sound and amp it to line level, or use a USB Audio interface to turn it directly into digital bits. Both are pretty cheap (under £50 or less) for single inputs, which is I guess all you'll want.

[TameScrapman]

davepoth said:

Traverso is a step up from Audacity, and still free. It's a full featured (almost) DAW.

http://traverso-daw.org/

And perfectly fine for bedroom recording; it's probably more than you would need to be honest but it's simple enough to use.


You will also want either a pre-amp to take the headphone sound and amp it to line level, or use a USB Audio interface to turn it directly into digital bits. Both are pretty cheap (under £50 or less) for single inputs, which is I guess all you'll want.

Thanks for that, that is exactly the advice I was looking for

Can you recommend me a pre-amp or a USB audio interface?

[GetCarter]

TameScrapman said:

That's decent advice but I've played in a few bands before and it never worked out, it always decended into drink, drugs and debauchery. For me, music is an escape from reality, something I like to do alone, my own space, if you get what I mean? That's why I ask my question. Hoping to purchase a drum kit after Christmas then I can be a one man band, allbeit on 4 seperate tracks lol.

I can understand that. I was in bands for years but finally decided to go it alone (I've been a full time composer for 25 years). I can't really help with the budget options (My studio cost a silly SHED load - DP8, Omnisphere, Kontakt and as many plugings as you can count), but I would suggest using a piano keyboard as well as a guitar is the way to extend your musicality and to give you more fun. Understanding a keyboard gets you into the guts of composition in a way guitar never can.

G to G# on a guitar? Easy. Try that on a piano keyboard... then you need to understand why, not just move you hand up a bit!

Good luck... keep playing.

[timbob]

Reaper has all you need in a DAW, and for about £80, Tascam do a USB interface called the Us-122 MkII which will let you connect up a couple of mics and a midi keyboard

[davepoth]

TameScrapman said:

davepoth said:

Traverso is a step up from Audacity, and still free. It's a full featured (almost) DAW.

http://traverso-daw.org/

And perfectly fine for bedroom recording; it's probably more than you would need to be honest but it's simple enough to use.


You will also want either a pre-amp to take the headphone sound and amp it to line level, or use a USB Audio interface to turn it directly into digital bits. Both are pretty cheap (under £50 or less) for single inputs, which is I guess all you'll want.

Thanks for that, that is exactly the advice I was looking for

Can you recommend me a pre-amp or a USB audio interface?

USB is better for what you want; since it's going to be digital at the end you might as well make it digital early, since every bit of kit that you put an analogue signal through will add a bit of noise.