We've been playing together for 3 months now. We cover various crap from metal/rock/Country/Reggae/Classic Rock and even bluegrass.
I'm on bass, and I've never touched one until 3 months ago, so give me a break. I also play the guitar, and am the sound engineer (if that's what you call it).
I'm not happy with the sound, but it's the best we can do at the time. IMHO the best quality songs are "Say it ain't So", "Gone to Carolina", and "Acoustic Jam (which is really me improvising Yellow Ledbetter somewhat ). Thanks for listening!
http://www.soundclick.com/band...94854
Don't read the following unless recording interests you:
Since recording has been such a pain in the *** for me, I'll share my exact recording set-up with you guys. Even though it may not work perfectly, I think it's a good place to start with minimum money or equipment. I'm still not happy with it though.
Mic:AKG Perception 150 Condenser. (I wish I'd bought a Shure SM57)
Basically, we are running the mic through a cheap Samson mixer via an XLR cable with Phantom power enabled. It is sitting on a mic stand about 5 feet tall, placed about 6 ft. directly in front of the drum kit, and the guitar amp is at a 45 deg. angle to one side of the kit. The bass amp is right beside the guitar amp.
Diagram:
You really have to play with the guitar/bass volumes and EQ's to get them about level with the drums.
We now play the song as an instrumental, and record it. To do this, we have the mixer running into our PC's soundcard, and are recording the input with Audacity recording software (It's free, just google it).
After the instrumental is recorded, just go into Edit>Preferences>Audio I/O, and click the "Play other tracks while recording a new one". Now hook some headphones in place of the speakers, and have the singer listen to the instrumental while recording only their vocals.
The good part about this is that you can adjust the singers volume to the music, but it's not as fun as playing live, and takes a while for the singer to get used to it.
You can also go back and record in leads if you only have one guitarist.
For having only one microphone, a cheap mixer, an old P.O.S. PC, and a cheap pair of headphones, I don't think it is possible to get much better of a sound.
It will also be to you benefit to learn how to use the compressor, amplifier, and EQ in audacity to get a well rounded sound.
If anyone has any questions I'll try and help. This recording thing is starting to really interest me and I have been trying to read and learn much about it.
Might as well introduce my band with no name...
I am a home recording nut dude. It sounds like you are right, that sounds fairly decent for what you have.
Check out Tweakz Lab. It is a great site for learning about home recording and has the second best forum to NICO in terms of niceness and willingness to help.
Your first step in upgrading would probly be getting a better sound card, something by EMU or another company, doesn't have to be expensive, just have better A/D converters than your consumer level sound card, and little to no latency between recording and monitoring playback. The mic you are using is a condenser which is great for room recording like you are doing now, which is why I imagine it sounds as good as it does. An sm57, which is a god among mics, is a dynamic mic. It is good for instrument or amp recordings and in a pinch can even be used as a great vocal mic. It is not however very useful for recording a whole roomful of instruments like you are doing now with the condenser. So for mics, you might try adding a second condenser mic and research setting them up as a pair and the angles you should use. There have been some AWESOME recordings just using two condenser mics in a pair recording a whole band live. Simple doesn't have to mean crappy. Or you could mic each cab, throw a mic on the bass and snare, using dynamic mics and get a good sound too.
Check out Tweakz Lab. It is a great site for learning about home recording and has the second best forum to NICO in terms of niceness and willingness to help.
Your first step in upgrading would probly be getting a better sound card, something by EMU or another company, doesn't have to be expensive, just have better A/D converters than your consumer level sound card, and little to no latency between recording and monitoring playback. The mic you are using is a condenser which is great for room recording like you are doing now, which is why I imagine it sounds as good as it does. An sm57, which is a god among mics, is a dynamic mic. It is good for instrument or amp recordings and in a pinch can even be used as a great vocal mic. It is not however very useful for recording a whole roomful of instruments like you are doing now with the condenser. So for mics, you might try adding a second condenser mic and research setting them up as a pair and the angles you should use. There have been some AWESOME recordings just using two condenser mics in a pair recording a whole band live. Simple doesn't have to mean crappy. Or you could mic each cab, throw a mic on the bass and snare, using dynamic mics and get a good sound too.
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iwantans13
- Posts: 3116
- Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:31 am
- Car: Lamborghini Diablo VT
Re: (thekage)
Say it aint so was pretty admirable. Although your guitarist plays some of the notes in the intro riff out of order. Its bugging me, haha.
Re: (iwantans13)
Ha, I noticed that also after we recorded it. The singer was off a bit in some of the parts. I think we're going to redo the vocals sometime.iwantans13 wrote:Say it aint so was pretty admirable. Although your guitarist plays some of the notes in the intro riff out of order. Its bugging me, haha.
I put up another song we just recorded a bit of acoustically that my guitarist wrote called Bourbon Suicide (He also wrote and arranged Long Road). Let me know what you think.
http://www.soundclick.com/band...94854