How come we never talk about home recording? (1 Viewer)

[Charlie Bucket]

Although one of my favourite tracks we did live and semi-improvised in a bedroom with just an overhead mic from the el cheapo t-bone drum mic set; we got lucky with a cracking performance and a fortuitiously placed mic.

homewreckchording is the way forward.
semi-improvised in a bedroom eh? eh? yeah that tiny t-bone is sweet! I've been having much acoustic joy with this 30 quid condenser - its magic - http://www.thomann.de/thoiw6_tbone_em_900_prodinfo.html
we have harnassed the means of production!

man, you've got a voice like a polished stone


so lets talk software.....i be lovin the ableton but some of you are protoolers or cubasers?

 

[Rogue]

Ya gotta love the Thomann!

I got burned too much by ableton that time, this time I'd love to try audacity but it just doesn't seem to have the features
, I'll explore it properly at some point. Protools isn't an option unless I buy the hardware, cubase is just horrible (irrational hatred) any other suggestions?

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

These :
http://www.thomann.de/thoiw6_behringer_ecm_8000_prodinfo.html
are supposed to be decent.

I use pro tools myself, cubase is a bit gnarly, but I've only ever done a few minutes here or there on it. I find Audacity a bit clunky, too, and it's not really set up for multitrack recording.
Apart from that, what is there.. Logic? If you're on Pc, maybe you could pick up an old copy of Logic on ebay or something. Nuendo? Samplitude? There's demo versions of some of those apps out there, might be worth a look.

 

[Rogue]

Yers, I was really disappointed by audacity's lack of multitrack facilities, still a useful app but maybe they'll get around to adding that later.

I didn't know nuendo was a multitracker, may give that a whirl. LOgic might be the best bet though, think I've an old demo about somewhere, Ta.

 

[snakybus]

I think with home recording the key issue is the microphones you use. Studios are often equipped with really good mics. Vocals through a bad mic sound horrible. I know that's not very technical but that's my experience.

I know the room is also an issue but you can work around that.

One good thing about home recording is that you can go at your pace, redo things, rework things, really go at it. You can mess around and you don't have anyone to answer to except yourself. In a studio you have other people and there's that added time pressure. Having said that, the studio is great for live stuff. We're recording the Groom album live in a studio and I disagree with the poster who said "why record live?", because you get different results, depending on the song.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Where are you doing it Snakeyes?

 

[snakybus]

Oh and I use Sonic Foundry Acid basically because it's child's play to use and I know it pretty well now. Plus it works with SoundForge, which is deadly. Tim showed me hoe to use it in like 5 minutes and I've been hooked ever since. I hate Cubase. Protools is excellent but I'd have to shell out for it. Ableton, Liam uses it, it seems quite easy to use. For sequencing/drum machiney stuff I use Rebirth sometimes and Fruity Loops, but that's just for basic stuff.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

LOgic might be the best bet though, think I've an old demo about somewhere, Ta.

I'd wouldn't mind taking a look at that myself.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

I got burned too much by ableton that time

"Ableton Live has encountered a copyright protection issue and needs to close"

 

[snakybus]

Where are you doing it Snakeyes?

out in colaiste dhulaigh where wil works

there's a pretty good studio there, in fact it's very good

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

out in colaiste dhulaigh where wil works

there's a pretty good studio there, in fact it's very good

Really? I'd be interested to know what kind of gear they have out there.. nothing on da net..

 

[snakybus]

You're asking the wrong guy, I'm like "this mic is awesome!" but I don't find out what kind it is or anything. Wil might know. They have a ProTools set up and all that lark. We recorded Life Upstream there.

 

[Deleted member 3435]

the biggest problem about home recording for me has always been the vocals. i find it difficult to be objective about my own voice. it's easier to be practical about everythinhg else, but the vox has inherent potential to be emotional or embarrassing.

the point for me is not to "achieve" studio style, but to document. I find that home recording can often lend a kind of timelessness or instant archaeology to recordings, sidestepping the "the more now you, the more then you'll be" factor slightly.

 

[MDR]

then you put the real studios and engineers out of work!

i think a happy medium between the two is the way forward....

As someone of average height and build i would describe myself as a happy medium.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

it's easier to be practical about everythinhg else, but the vox has inherent potential to be emotional or embarrassing.

and we wouldn't want any emotion slipping into music now, would we

 

[Deleted member 3435]

and we wouldn't want any emotion slipping into music now, would we

That's not what i meant and you know it Bucket!

 

[dudley]

i think the trick is finding a *good* studio with a *deadly* engineer, something that I think Ireland is sorely lacking in. In the US there are so many deadly engineers. Not that there aren't talented people here, just not as many as should be!

The guy who is mixing our record right now, is currently building a really nice studio in Chicago and has been a professional engineer for years. Home recording is a huge concern for someone like him, as it's putting his colleagues and studios out of business every day. I was expressing disgust that the LE version of protools is restricted to 32 tracks, and his retort is that thats the kind of thing that might just keep him in a job


A home recording will never sound as good as a recording done in a purpose built in environment by a great engineer, but as more and more studios close, it becomes more expensive to use them, so less and less records will get made that sound as well.

Also, I've always found that recording on decent gear totally improves my performance.

In Blackbox last year I got to do some singing into a Brauner mic, supposedly worth several thousand, and I swear that, while I can't sing terribly well, it let me give the most relaxed and best vocal performances I've ever done.

With the current Corpo record we're doing most of our *editing* and panning stuff at home, but all the making deadly sounds part is being done in proper studios. Actually, it's being done today in a studio in Chicago, aieee.

That said, home recording is the deadliest fun too. It's a no win thing, I guess

 

[dudley]

snakey, are you using acid as a multi tracker?
you should try vegas instead. it's by the same folk, and has much the same functionality, but is better for multitracking

using combination of Kontakt (which is awesome),Cubase, Vegas and Protools at the moment. has me nearly demented....

 

[snakybus]

cool, I'll check it out

I hope it's idiot proof though, I'm a dive-in-the-deep-end kind of home recorder.

incidentally, home recording has informed me on how to approach studio recording, purely from a musical perspective - going into a studio, you're used to recording all the time so you're like bam bam bam we do this this and this and you don't annoy the engineer with stupid questions. I love recording.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

I love recording.

So how come we never used to talk about it.. ok slight change of direction..

Regale me with your recording stories, techniques, queries, horror stories. Let's talk turkey!