what is the average home-recording setup like for a full band (drums, keyboard, guitar, bass, vocals)? what equipment do serious but not seriously rich musicians have in their studio?
depends on what you want to record, and how ya want to do it. Lotsa folks have a computer dedicated to recording their tracks before mixdown. You can also use a more old fashioned approach and go with a mixer board and some type of recorder, be it digital or analog. This is where your four track, eight track, 12, 16, or 32 or more track recorders come in. You will also want a few microphones, again depending on how you make your recordings it can take between one to twenty or more mics. Separation of the instruments is a hassle when recording "live" sessions, as is the layering of tracks one-at-a-time. Its a choose your poison there. Basically, its an expensive trial-and-error situation for most beginners. Try recording.org for excessive info on recording equipment and techniques, those guys are deeper than steven hawkins thinktank!
You can buy a cheap microphone and an adapter for $10 and record all of those individually. The adapter allows an amp to be plugged straight into your line-in and a microphone can be plugged into that amp or into the microphone outlet.
Some programs that are voice activated and may be useful recording what goes on at a home jam season. VRS Recording System The VRS Recording System is designed for automatic logging of 1 to 32 channels of simultaneous audio, including both radio and telephone recording. It can work in voice activated or continuous mode and is designed to run 24 hours a day. Audio compression reduces the hard drive requirements. Typical applications include general voice logging, radio station logging or multiline phone call recording. the complete read is on http://www.nch.com.au/vrs/index.html
Our producer isn't particuarly rich but he was willing to spend a lot on equipment. His set up is, includes, but is not limited to: A good set of drum mics (bass drum, and toms) 2 Good condensor mics (used for vocals, acoustic guitars if they're done with no vocals at the same time and overheads) An SM57 (snare drum, close miccing amps, acoustic guitars) or 2 A Vox effects processor A shiny silver Macintosh computer A Digirack002 and Protools (software) Logitech gaming speakers (curiously, better than the actual professional monitors he bought) A second screen (one for editing, one for mixing - this is for the production phase) I small black 8 track mixing desk for submixing drums, don't know how this fitted in exactly - I think it came with the drum mics and was more for EQing them really accurately. Reason (software) A Korg Midi Controller Bits and bobs - guitar tuners, infinate supplies of (assorted) leads, plectrums, ebows etc etc etc God knows what else - I'm sure as hell he has more stuff than that, that's only what he used for our album THAT I'M AWARE OF and can recall! I think the bones of it was the Macintosh, the Digirack002, Protools and the condensor mics really. Everything else was the stuff that made things sound that bit more professional. Bare in mind that set-up was only Olli's set up and by no means representative of home recording standards. He only has that exact set-up from trial and error and from having built his way up. He started with a laptop, Qubase, a mic or 2 and not a lot else and just kept on upgrading.
i hear pro tools are a worthy investment. however i record my own little ditties with just a 4 trak and it does the trick just fine. a good way to record things cheap is GARAGE BAND on a mac.
I guess it depends what quality you want. If you want a rough demo just to give people an idea of what you're like, programs like Garage band are fine. However, Protools really does get you professional level stuff. Also, a four track, as you say, great for ditties. When you want 3 tracks for Toms, one for a bass drum, 2 for symbols, one for a snare, one for a bass guitar, up to about 5 for guitars, 1 or 2 for vocals and then god knows how many auxillary tracks... well... 4 tracks isn't quite enough.
I think Cubase is much trickier. I tryed it and ended up wanting to smash the computer. I really think that the extra money is worth it.
Digital is the cheapest way to go. Since you already have a computer (assuming that your computer is fast enough to handle high sample rate, uncompressed audio), you might as well use that to do your recording. In order to hook microphones and instruments up to your computer, you're going to need a FireWire or USB interface. An interface is simply a box with mic preamps and line inputs that connects to your computer and sends sound to your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Speaking of DAW's, you'll need one of those, too. If you're running a newer Mac, then you probably already have one: GarageBand. However, you'll probably want to upgrade to a more professional DAW such as Pro Tools, Logic, Nuendo, Cubase, etc. However, be aware that Pro Tools only works with interfaces made by Digidesign or M-Audio (M-Audio interfaces require M-Powered Pro Tools). If you go for any of the other DAW's, then you can choose from a wide array of interfaces from various companies. I myself have a MOTU interface and record into Apple's Logic software. A lot of smaller interfaces have two mic preamps with maybe eight or ten line level inputs. Basically, you'll want an interface with as many inputs as possible. If you have two mic preamps and eight line ins on your interface, then you can hook up, say, four external mic preamps into four of the line inputs; that would give you six mics to put on your drum kit (say... kick in, kick out, snare top, hi hat, left overhead, and right overhead). Then you would still have four line level inputs to plug in a bass, a guitar, and stereo inputs for a keyboard. Then you would just overdub vocals. So now you have your computer, your interface, and your DAW. Oh yeah, then you're going to need at least four external mic preamps. There are a few nice units out there with eight in a one-rack-space unit. They aren't too expensive, either. Then you'll need at least six mic stands to mic the drum kit. Then you need at least six mic cables and maybe a couple of 1/4" cables. And you'll need a 1/4" snake to hook up your mic preamps to your interface. Oh yeah, you'll need the mics, too. So that's a minimum of four drum mics (kick out, snare top, and two overheads), you'll need for sure one good vocal mic (probably a large condenser, or maybe a tube mic), and you might want to mic up a bass or guitar cab instead of going in direct, so then you might want an RE-20 for the bass cab and maybe a MD-421 for the guitar cab. So now you're ready to mix your record, right? Uh oh, well you're going to need some decent studio monitors to get that job done. And does your DAW have any decent plug-ins for mixing and mastering...? So let's see... Interface (let's say a MOTU 828mkII) - $750 DAW (let's say Nuendo 3) - $2,000 External mic preamps (let's say the SM Pro Audio PR8 MKII) - $200 Kick drum mic (let's say an AKG D112) - $200 Snare mic (let's say an SM57) - $100 Hi Hat mic (let's say an SM81) - $350 Overhead mics (let's say a matched pair of Rode NT5's) - $200 Bass cab mic (let's say an RE-20) - $400 Guitar cab mic (let's say an MD-421) - $350 A nice vocal mic (let's say a Rode NTK) - $500 Eight mic cables - $160 1/4" snake - $50 Eight mic stands - $400 (which includes two nice, large stands for overheads) Studio Monitors (let's go cheap) - $300 External hard drive to record to (let's say a 500GB G-RAID2) - $500 So now you can do some good-sounding home recording, and it only cost you $6,850 with tax. See where I'm getting at? It's neverending. If you really want to do the home recording thing, be prepared to spend a LOT of money and more time troubleshooting gear than actually recording and making the music. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against home recording at all, but it's not something that's easy to get into. To be totally honest, you and your band would probably be much better off finding a small local studio with good rates and letting them do all the hard work.
thanks for the info sam.....I was by here earlier but got sidetracked into pyschedelic gallery by your art.
I agree, it's cheaper to buy some studio time. Since recording is such an expensive persuit I suggest you think really really hard why you want to do it. If it's so you can do a demo then take the suggestions like getting some Garageband type software. It won't be particuarly great recording but it'll be enough to be able to say "this is roughly what we're about". My band did our first demo on a Pentium 2 with 1 microphone (and adapter so we could plug it into the soundcard) and Audacity (no USB interface, meant there were SERIOUS timing issues we needed to correct, that took a while). I don't want to sound like an advertisement but listen to whisper on our myspace, and that's from the old demo. The new stuff was done professionally, but only after ALOT of gigging and some serious effort into making some connections with the local music industry. If you're more interested in it to do a serious recording project then either you'll need a very big wallet or convince someone else (say a holding company that specialises in music [i.e. record company]) that you're worth the opening their wallet for you. Anyways - in any case, if you haven't already, my advice is get a job and be prepared to feel skint for a while.
I have recorderd at home for years and have made some descent demo's for me and my band. www.kreatives.org go here download kristal. its free and good. if you want the best program its gonna be adobie audition (spell?) it has the best fx and it has direct X so if you have any other plugins for other programs you can use them. on to Pro tools. Pro tools is the best if you want to read a few thousand pages (seriously five books) to learn how to use the software and then spend tons on the hardware (only compatable with software and vise versa) and then take a few classes. there is a software only version but thats still hard. It makes me a little iratated that every musician thinks he\she can just walk in and record, its hard. Its taken me three years to get a descent demo. and it has cost me 7 times more then just goin to a studio ($99 for three hours) but if you want to do it like that you'll need to have your songs down and have a gooooooooooood freind that runs a studio. www.myspace.com/dasspookez check out two songs from our studio demo. just by some time at a good studio. -rydns
Or have a record deal! I know it sounds to some like I'm saying "yeah, you could just go and get signed" and you'll probably think "Yeah, as if it's that simple!" but it's not as stupid as it sounds. If you're serious about your music then once you gig a lot for a while, do your own small release then you get to a point where suddenly getting signed doesn't actually seem like a huge jump. You've been on a constant course of knowing what you have to do next and it's all a case of "This is the next step" and then taking it. There just comes a point when getting signed is the next step, and then you take that. When I say, get signed I don't mean to a major neccesarily. There are lots and lots of indie labels out there. Much Love Sebbi
home recording is not that exspensive. buy protools with MBOX2 and some extra plug ins....get a few decent preamps....assuming you have some mics and instruments your on your way, for about 1000 dollars. and thats very cheap in the audio world. you won't be able to just spend a couple hundred dollars. unless its just to hear yourself and show your mom. if its for pure enjoyment, just go buy a 80 dollar four track digital recorder....and have fun. but for pro or even semi-pro you'll need to invest, over time. for the last 6 months i've been building my live sound rig. finding good mics and outboard gear on Ebay and just keeping an eye open for good deals....it won't happen over night...
