Since there are lots of folks here with recording gear, does anyone want to post some music they've made at home? Maybe post one song at a time and give a bit of spiel about what you were doing, the gear you used and how you used it to avoid a giant splurge of "look at me" stuff all at once. It might add to the interest, generate some discussion and give the thread a bit of longevity.
Maybe youtube links would be best since the forum handles that code nicely?
Who's first?
Not a bad idea at all. Would love to see how others are putting together their own stuff. In Third Island, we do everything ourselves so i'll have a nosey at one of the more recent recordings later and give it a run down - Liamish can help out here since he did the majority of it too.
Jaysus I'd be nearly afraid to upload stuff. I'm shit at mixing and there's clipping all over the shop! And that's just for starters.
You upload now! :laugh:
It's not about dazzling anyone with hits, more about hearing what people are up to and discussing recording or mixing techniques or how people are using their gear, any interesting musical ideas people are doing in and outside of their bands, that kind of thing, even offering suggestions about mixes, etc.
Ya, could be a good learning exercise. Not for ye, obviously, but I might pick up a tip or forty two.
Bellaras is a doom solo project I've been working on
The entire setup is fairly small and simple. 1 guitar and 1 bass which both run directly into an M-Audio Firewire 401 (https://c1.zzounds.com/media/productmedia/fit,2018by3200/quality,85/fw410-front-back-9a1c45ab5082e885d6be51a594bf771d.jpg) audio interface. From there, everything is recorded using Cubase SX2 as the DAW with software amps. Drums are all programmed within Cubase too. Vocals are recorded using either a Behringer C1 condenser or an XM8500, which are amazing mics considering they're insanely cheap.
Mixing and mastering is all done using a few plugins within Cubase. I'm fairly happy with the sound considering the half-assed setup, cheap equipment, and no professional knowledge or assistance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxmLURbTkDU
That's got heft, fair play. What is the drum plugin you use?
Aye, good job indeed, fella.
Addictive drums. Great piece of software with a large variety of sounds available. Can be a double edged sword, as sometimes there's too much customisation available and it can be a bit overwhelming.
I'm happy enough to program drums, but I'm aware it can sound a bit stale and robotic at times. I try to key in each drum hit individually with different velocities to make it sound more human, rather than everything being robotically perfect.
I'd like to learn a bit more about drums so I can add fills and more variation. There's pre-made drum fills you can copy in, but I feel like that's cheating and I'd hate for somebody to ever point out "Hey! That's 4/4_HardRock_Groove_Fill from addictive drums!"
I only started using programmed drums in the last couple of years. It's filled with endless possibilities but also amazing frustration. I used to play drums to a fairly moderate standard and, after I moved to the sticks, could record acoustic drums for home stuff without any neighbours close enough to be bothered. I could never play to a standard I was happy with, though, and sold the kit and bought the Slate Drums plugin. Like you, I spend a lot of time trying to humanise it and trying to remember the kind of thing I would play if I was really drumming. It's tedious. It's really, really tedious. I leave some hits slightly off the beat and faffing around with velocities to do whatever it takes to not sound like programmed drums and sometimes I spend so long doing that I lose any motivation I have for the music in the first place :laugh:
What did you use for guitar and bass tones? The bass sounds properly filthy.
Recorded the Coalinga demo in the most basic way possible a few years back, and it shows
http://coalinga.bandcamp.com
Basically this was all done with a 4 channel USB mixer with a €20 mic from Maplins into Reaper - thing is, you couldn't seperate the tracks with it so for example there were four drum mics going in but they only came out as one track. Vocals were run into a reverb pedal that had a "Swell" function, guitars were a mic on a 10 watt practice amp , bas was straight into the mixer.
It sounds like shit.
I do a solo drone thing called Otterans which is just a guitar/pedals straight into Reaper, and it suits that much better.
http://otterans.bandcamp.com
Ill throw this on for the laugh if anyone cares
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P5uzgNgzIc
It's not exactly "home" recording but it was done in a storage container and 100% diy by myself and the band.
The drums were EZDrummer programmed by the sexy Ochoill himself. Synth was something in fruity loops which was ochoill again coz I get annoyed programming midi. Two guitar tracks were recorded double tracked through both D.I. and SM57's set up in front of the cabs, the bass was DI'ed and ran through BOD which is a great freeware emulation of a sansamp bass driver if anyone knows it. The vocals were recorded through a Rode NT1a. All plugged into a M-audio profire 2626 connected by adat to a focusrite scarlet for 16 channels into Reaper. Everything was recorded live off the floor except for the vocals which were dubbed in later and the programmed stuff obviously.
Wish I woulda spent more time on the vocals. These were a big improvement over our EP but I think a bit of double tracking the vocals could have made really polished it.
I cant think of anything else to say about it. Go buy our album lol.
Quote from: Juggz on December 13, 2018, 08:26:37 AM
I only started using programmed drums in the last couple of years. It's filled with endless possibilities but also amazing frustration. I used to play drums to a fairly moderate standard and, after I moved to the sticks, could record acoustic drums for home stuff without any neighbours close enough to be bothered. I could never play to a standard I was happy with, though, and sold the kit and bought the Slate Drums plugin. Like you, I spend a lot of time trying to humanise it and trying to remember the kind of thing I would play if I was really drumming. It's tedious. It's really, really tedious. I leave some hits slightly off the beat and faffing around with velocities to do whatever it takes to not sound like programmed drums and sometimes I spend so long doing that I lose any motivation I have for the music in the first place :laugh:
What did you use for guitar and bass tones? The bass sounds properly filthy.
Programming drums to be realistic is definitely tedious. Sometimes I feel like it'd be easier to just learn to play drums than spend hours clicking away at a drum map to make everything sound imperfectly perfect.
Guitar and bass were all run through Amplitube and Overloud
Quote from: Pentagrimes on December 13, 2018, 09:01:50 AM
Recorded the Coalinga demo in the most basic way possible a few years back, and it shows
http://coalinga.bandcamp.com
It sounds fairly decent considering the setup. Other than the snare being too loud it's easily passable as a demo.
Quote from: liamish on December 13, 2018, 12:59:13 PM
The drums were EZDrummer programmed by the sexy Ochoill himself. Synth was something in fruity loops which was ochoill again coz I get annoyed programming midi. Two guitar tracks were recorded double tracked through both D.I. and SM57's set up in front of the cabs, the bass was DI'ed and ran through BOD which is a great freeware emulation of a sansamp bass driver if anyone knows it. The vocals were recorded through a Rode NT1a. All plugged into a M-audio profire 2626 connected by adat to a focusrite scarlet for 16 channels into Reaper. Everything was recorded live off the floor except for the vocals which were dubbed in later and the programmed stuff obviously.
As a whole it sounds really good. My only complaint is that I despise EZDrummer. In particular the kick always sounds weak and plastic, and the snare sounds like it's played by a shitty drummer who keeps hitting it too close to the rim (that's a criticism of the drum software, not the song itself or drum machines in general). The handy thing about MIDI drums is you can always run them through different software at a later point and have a completely different sound. The mix sounds great though!
I'm shiting around with drum hits from my keyboard lately. I will post something if I can get it to sound nice
QuoteAs a whole it sounds really good. My only complaint is that I despise EZDrummer. In particular the kick always sounds weak and plastic, and the snare sounds like it's played by a shitty drummer who keeps hitting it too close to the rim (that's a criticism of the drum software, not the song itself or drum machines in general). The handy thing about MIDI drums is you can always run them through different software at a later point and have a completely different sound. The mix sounds great though!
Thatnks. Im pretty happy with how it turned out. Weve got a drummer since so Ill have the joys of real drum recording to deal with next time. I have a shiity tbone drum mic kit that ill be playong around with in the next recording session.
I recorded this about 10 years ago, when the Gigsmart podcast wanted music about superheroes for some reason. At the time, I had moved into a remote bungalow with no neighbours, so was able to set up the sitting room as a home studio, pretty much. I moved all the furniture out and had an old Pearl Export kit mic'd up and would fuck about most evenings recording bits and pieces. The setup was a DigiDesign 002 rack unit with a Behringer ADAT 8 input mic preamp going into ProTools, which allowed me record 12 mics simoultaneously. It was mostly a cheap Audix drum mic set with a couple of SE pencil condensers for overheads and the snare top mic was a Beyerdynamic M201. The room was actually really nice to record in, surprisingly, and we recorded the first Acrid Nebula demo in that room too. I'll put up something from that later.
This song was a departure for me because it was the first time I recorded all the guitars and bass without using a real amp. They were all done on a Pod DI'd into ProTools. For the verses, the drums are just one mic in the corner of the room, compressed to bejesus and the close mics come in during the choruses to give it a bit of pep. There are usually two or three guitars on the go at any one time, sometimes fighting each other, sometimes backing each other up. The Hawking voice was done using a Windows application called Talk Any, which I have used for all kinds of shite over the years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuJJI0nRhKU
This is a more recent one, all recorded at home. Drums are programmed Slate Drums, guitars and bass are both DI'd through a Digidesign Eleven rack and the vocals are the only thing which went through a microphone. No real fancy business, one guitar left, one right and then a subtle additional filth guitar in the middle to boost the choruses a bit. With most of the heavy stuff I mix, the guitars are pretty thin to give space for the low end to come from the bass so, even if the bass doesn't sound like it's that big, you really notice it when it's not there. I spend a bit of time EQ'ing getting the bass and guitars to sound like one big instrument rather than going for separation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85jdalXfgCM
I'm liking the sound of those drums. Don't think I'd have noticed it was a drum machine unless you had mentioned. Nice work!
What's SS Drums like to work with? Take much tweaking to make it sound natural? I've always kinda overlooked it because the interface looks like some late 90s/early 2000s RPG
I write everything in guitar pro. drums, pianos, synths, choirs.
Then my brother records the guitars for me on his laptop as di tracks.
All thats left to do is record the vocals which i do in a studio. having everything recorded before you go to a studio is brilliant as it costs less to just record the vocals and you aint dicking about trying to get the guitars perfect in a studio as this could take me fuckin ages.
I recorded an entire album this way and it worked a treat.
Heres one of the tracks from it.
https://youtu.be/dfyfVt3E5r0
That sounds really good, fair play. You wouldn't try recording the vocals at home too?
Quote from: Hambeast on December 20, 2018, 11:25:05 AM
I'm liking the sound of those drums. Don't think I'd have noticed it was a drum machine unless you had mentioned. Nice work!
What's SS Drums like to work with? Take much tweaking to make it sound natural? I've always kinda overlooked it because the interface looks like some late 90s/early 2000s RPG
Thanks. I went with Slate because the drum sounds were so good. I'd imagine there are easier systems to work with but I bought the Slate pack as I was selling my kit, I don't have experience of any other drum plugin. The interface is pretty clunky for sure. Essentially, you've a section where you choose the kit and sounds, etc, but the flexibility of how you can send them to close mics, overheads and room mics and, from there, the ability to send it to different outputs which you can then have as individual tracks in PT is amazing. For the groves, you get a load of midi grooves with the package, broken into verse, chorus, fills, intro, bridges, etc and I piece them together in the midi editor of PT. You can also import other drum grooves in midi format, which is nice. Some are quite mechanical, some loose, depends on who created the midi files. I do all the tweaking in the PT midi editor too which, I'm told, isn't great, but it's all I know. I don't think I've ever used a drum groove without personalising it. I've been using PT for almost 20 years, I'm not changing now :laugh:
The new version of Slate Drums came out a few weeks ago and seems to expanded on the ability to tweak the sound, the mic and channel options seem endless now. I haven't had time to play around with it yet or use it in anger but hopefully will get stuck in soon.
we tried recording some vocals in my brothers but there was serious clipping going on so i just taught it would be easier to get someone else to do them.theres a few female vocals in the album as well and even they were clipping like mad when we tried recording them.
i dunno what thats all about.
i was actually only thinking as well, its mad what you can achieve with just a laptop in your bedroom these days.
makes demos way more enjoyable than the crap that used to be thrown out.
Quote from: blessed1 on December 21, 2018, 09:38:11 PM
i was actually only thinking as well, its mad what you can achieve with just a laptop in your bedroom these days.
makes demos way more enjoyable than the crap that used to be thrown out.
The power of a cheap laptop and a cheap Behringer audio interface is unbelievable, compared to even 20 years ago. The first recordings I made were by putting a tape deck in front of an amp and recording that. Then playing back the tape and playing along, recording that into another tape deck and so on. Forget four-tracks, even by comparison what you could do in your average recording studio is beaten by it. I remember recording demos in 16 and 24-track studios to 2" tape. You were physically limited by the desk, the tape machine, the limited outboard gear the studio had and, of course, at the mercy of an engineer who most likely wouldn't have had a clue of the type of music you were trying to record.
What was the clipping issue? Could you not just turn the volume down a bit, or was the whole setup completely fucked?
yeah they were completely fucked. we were doing them in a tiny room with no soundproofing or anything so that could have been causing the problem.
Juggz i just listened to those two tracks you put up. loving them vocals and i just smoked a joint so the music is going great with that ha. seriously good job on the drums making them sound realistic.you really wouldnt tell unless you knew.
Hambeast had a listen to the track you postedas well and while im not a massive fan of funeral type doom it sounds great for something you recorded yourself. i love those deep death vocals as well.
Ha ha thanks man, glad they went down easy :laugh:
Was using a Lite version of Guitar Rig but songs that are VST heavy were causing stuttering in Reaper. Guitarguitar were doing a sale on the Line 6 Amplifi TT so I ordered one. Can be used to record direct to DAW so that should be much lighter in processing. Looking forward to seeing the results.
Cool. Hadn't seen that before, nice piece of kit. When you were recording and getting the stuttering, were you recording the effected tone or using Guitar Rig as a plugin on a clean track in playback?
Clean track with Guitar rig providing the effects/tones.
I like to record the distorted tone to the track when I'm recording which makes undoing bad decisions harder and rules out re-amping, but I just like to commit to the idea and tone at the time. I'd still add any other effects when mixing but the distorted tone always gets recorded.
Right lads. Looking for a bit of advice with home recordings.
I've decided to go ahead with a one man project and was wondering what would be the best drum program to go for. I've used ezdrummer before which was ok. Not an official version though, so it was limited. I'm going to be running cubase on a new computer. Also, could someone recommend monitor speakers, headphones and a guitar program. I want to record with my amp and with a program.
Cheers
As a free alternative to EZ Drummer, I use MT Power Drumkit. If you're looking to do decent quality recordings you might need something better. I only need it for demos. https://www.powerdrumkit.com/
I use 2 of these speakers. No complaints.
https://www.thomann.de/ie/m_audio_bx5_d3.htm
All depends how much you want to spend.
I wouldn't be an expert on headphones.
I was using Guitar Rig on Reaper but if you have too many tracks running Guitar Rig, it can get laggy and glitchy, so now I'm recording with an amp and pedalboard.
Cheers man, much appreciated!
Might be a bit of a dumb question but I'm new to home recording.
When you guys are laying down a track where do yis begin, do you program drums that you can use when recording bass/guitars, or do you just record guitars first and try to keep a consistent rhythm or record a scratch take?
With sequenced drums, I'd usually record the riff or part to click and then get the drum pattern together and build the song like that, putting whatever sections together, then only recording finalised guitar and bass tracks once the whole song structure and drum track is in place.
Juggz's way is probably the best. I do a more simplified version. Record main guitar to a click track for each section. Then decide on suitable drum patterns. After that it's usually keys or second guitar track. Bass is last, as it's generally only a place holder. If I was more conscientious I'd have proper basslines figured out at the start.
Sound lads I'll give recording with a click track a go.
Enjoy, details soon,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwdyTuJLRko
sottr drmt
T'was,,,, then A jam then a song, Signia Premier Drums, Musicman Stingray Bass. tbc...
sounds good man. did you mix that yourself too?
Sounds well Johnny - is that still the big double kit? where are you recording the drums now?
Here's something did a wee time ago....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe0_lBiE9Q&list=RDMM2Fe0_lBiE9Q&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZllceJIc7jM
hyperbolic nightmare ends?????
Time and circumstances being what they are, I'm looking at doing most, if not all, of our future synths/keys recordings myself at home. To wit, I need to learn about this midi lark. My interface has midi, my keys do too. I'll Youtube how to record midi but my question is, how do I record my keys going through my pedal board?
E.g. if I want to use an effect and record audio, it's straightforward , as your just use normal jacks to connect the keyboard - pedalboard - interface - DAW. But for midi wouldn't I have to put the pedalboard before the keyboard using a jack and connect the Microkorg to the interface? This would be ok but if I was using reverb or delay, shouldn't they be applied after the Korg, in the same way you wouldn't put reverb before distortion?
Quote from: Emphyrio on November 22, 2019, 07:02:19 PM
how do I record my keys going through my pedal board?
E.g. if I want to use an effect and record audio, it's straightforward , as your just use normal jacks to connect the keyboard - pedalboard - interface - DAW. But for midi wouldn't I have to put the pedalboard before the keyboard using a jack and connect the Microkorg to the interface? This would be ok but if I was using reverb or delay, shouldn't they be applied after the Korg, in the same way you wouldn't put reverb before distortion?
MIDI isn't sound though, it's basically just numbers being sent to the computer, you can't apply any realtime effects like a delay to a MIDI signal. If your Micokorg has a regular jack output, then you could go: Microkorg - Pedals - Instrument input on your interface.
Thanks for the reply, Mick, that's the way I've been doing it up until now. I only want to get into midi for editing and possibly using VSTs at a later stage. I was hoping midi would allow me keep the audio track but during the recording phase maybe changing patches, if necessary, without having to rerecord loads of layers.
Would it be easier to tab out the songs in Guitar Pro and export the midi, import it into the DAW you are using and then mess with velocities/bends etc etc? I do it that way myself, write everything on GP 5.2 (guitars/bass/drums/synths) and export the synth sections out. Some might find that time consuming and a pain to tab out every instrument (and painful to listen to) but it's nearly a destresser for me lol.
Quote from: The Butcher on January 31, 2020, 04:39:13 PM
Would it be easier to tab out the songs in Guitar Pro and export the midi, import it into the DAW you are using and then mess with velocities/bends etc etc? I do it that way myself, write everything on GP 5.2 (guitars/bass/drums/synths) and export the synth sections out. Some might find that time consuming and a pain to tab out every instrument (and painful to listen to) but it's nearly a destresser for me lol.
This is how I do it as well. Once you get used to guitar pro it really is the easiest way to do it.
Quote from: Emphyrio on November 26, 2019, 11:13:27 AM
Thanks for the reply, Mick, that's the way I've been doing it up until now. I only want to get into midi for editing and possibly using VSTs at a later stage. I was hoping midi would allow me keep the audio track but during the recording phase maybe changing patches, if necessary, without having to rerecord loads of layers.
It's as easy as this. Record the audio the way you have been AND simultaneously take the midi out of whatever keyboard you're playing on and record that onto another track in your DAW.
Then if you want to change patch later you just send the midi to a VST in your DAW or out of the box into your hardware synths.
It's an awful lot like taking a clean DI of a guitar and saving it for reamping/editing later. There's no reason to bring it into guitar pro for what you want to do.
Thanks Ciaran, ya I figured it was similar buzz to re-amping. Picked up a GT100 yesterday for a very good price so think that'll cover any pedals I'm selling/sold. That being said I could nearly hang on to a few bits now.
Yeah recording midi is the simplest way of doing anything in midi. Just set your track to record midi in on all channels and you're set!
Sending it back out to your hardware is easy out too. Just set the track to send out midi from your interface and into the midi in of whatever hardware you want to use and let it play as you mess with sounds. It's pretty good craic!
A ton of more modern stuff will let you do this over USB instead of going out through your interface also.
Midi is so awesome once you get the hang of it, it really is, I use it all the time and would be lost without it. The analogy of recording a DI for re-amping later is spot on.
It does look like the days of dedicated midi interfaces are fading alright... i have drum modules going back years that even had USB out on them then instead of 5pin DIN connectors for Midi... I have an old Lexicon interface that I never use anymore for audio but it had a midi interface and my old midi keyboard is 15yrs old and didnt have USB so its handy for that... but these days id say all midi related hardware directs people more towards USB.
Dead handy too for people that have amps with midi control on them (& who dont want to buy the own-brand expensive foot controller - looking at you Kemper) - buy yourself a generic midi controller for the floor, program it and your off.
Anybody have experience with Guitar programs? There are so many to choose from really. I have a guitar rig running through Cubase, but not entirely happy with the tones, even though there is quite a variety on it. Any advice much appreciated.
Red
We recorded a play through of our track "Dismal Grin".
https://www.facebook.com/DroughtEire/videos/2415063928804984/
Signal chain was LTD EC1000 into an AxeFxii on the standard 6505 setting, also used as the audio interface. This was blended with the studio audio which was a dual tracked Triple Rectifier.
Ah sick!
Did this about a week ago. My friend sent me the raw guitar tracks which he recorded with a pod ux2. He also sent me a midi with the synths, drums and bass tabbed out.
I used cubase to arrange it and add vocals.
Superior drummer 2 for the drum synth. Kontakt Shreddage 3 Abyss for the bass. Omnisphere for the synths.
I got my friend who plays bass to basically (lol) mime playing the bass for the video.
I wrote some lyrics and did a few growls into a cheap condenser mic into a behringer 1820.
Spend a few days making the mix sound nice (to my ears). And then about six hours putting together the video. I had high hopes for it, but at some stage I just got lazy and stuck the video parts together kinda randomly.
We had done another metal song last year together and this is kinda the second song in that cluster of potential music making.
The start of the video is kind of a piss take but if you bear with it, you'll hear the meat of the tune !
Any info about specific mixing etc I'm here now for the explanations
https://youtu.be/QCJjy9uFQMQ
Quote from: Athereso on April 17, 2020, 06:35:12 PM
Ah sick!
Did this about a week ago. My friend sent me the raw guitar tracks which he recorded with a pod ux2. He also sent me a midi with the synths, drums and bass tabbed out.
I used cubase to arrange it and add vocals.
Superior drummer 2 for the drum synth. Kontakt Shreddage 3 Abyss for the bass. Omnisphere for the synths.
I got my friend who plays bass to basically (lol) mime playing the bass for the video.
I wrote some lyrics and did a few growls into a cheap condenser mic into a behringer 1820.
Spend a few days making the mix sound nice (to my ears). And then about six hours putting together the video. I had high hopes for it, but at some stage I just got lazy and stuck the video parts together kinda randomly.
We had done another metal song last year together and this is kinda the second song in that cluster of potential music making.
The start of the video is kind of a piss take but if you bear with it, you'll hear the meat of the tune !
Any info about specific mixing etc I'm here now for the explanations
https://youtu.be/QCJjy9uFQMQ
That's a really cool song
Quote from: blessed1 on April 17, 2020, 06:52:06 PM
Quote from: Athereso on April 17, 2020, 06:35:12 PM
Ah sick!
Did this about a week ago. My friend sent me the raw guitar tracks which he recorded with a pod ux2. He also sent me a midi with the synths, drums and bass tabbed out.
I used cubase to arrange it and add vocals.
Superior drummer 2 for the drum synth. Kontakt Shreddage 3 Abyss for the bass. Omnisphere for the synths.
I got my friend who plays bass to basically (lol) mime playing the bass for the video.
I wrote some lyrics and did a few growls into a cheap condenser mic into a behringer 1820.
Spend a few days making the mix sound nice (to my ears). And then about six hours putting together the video. I had high hopes for it, but at some stage I just got lazy and stuck the video parts together kinda randomly.
We had done another metal song last year together and this is kinda the second song in that cluster of potential music making.
The start of the video is kind of a piss take but if you bear with it, you'll hear the meat of the tune !
Any info about specific mixing etc I'm here now for the explanations
https://youtu.be/QCJjy9uFQMQ
That's a really cool song
Thanks man!
Here are my first attempts at home recording. It's not mixed and mastered or any of that fancy stuff, but it came out ok (one take).
The guitar is direct to audio interface. I'm using Amplitube 4 plugin on my MacBook, Mesa Boogie Mark IV amp model, logic pro and final cut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm5oBD6VJqs
https://youtu.be/UkN51FILUU8
Recorded this Heaven and Hell cover at home over the last 2 days. It's programmed drums, real everything else. Used my Yamaha Cs2x and Moog Minitaur for keys. 3 tracks of rhythm guitars 2 Peavey 5150mh and 1 Orange Rockerverb. All the leads and extra guitars are the Orange. Bass is a Mexican Jazz with a Sansamp. Vocals all done with the SM7b. Guitars used were my Gibson Sg special mainly and my 1970's ibanez SG for some of the rhythms.
I didn't spend too much time mixing it so could probably have done a better job but I wasn't fussed other than a quick balance and a mastering chain.
Rejigged my home set up a bit lately, for a slightly more streamlined use and to help get ideas out a bit quicker. A photo from the weekend showing most of it there below, but I'll likely find a more fixed place for the amps later.
(https://i.imgur.com/tVvGTJX.jpg)
A quick rundown:
Guitar - Maverick species 7 into a 2 amp pedal set up:
Tuner > Noise Gate > Octave > Boost / Crunch (DIY) > LS2 for parallel dirt [1: Battlehammer, 2: Big Muff RU reissue] > DD7 split into two signals: L (Dry/SS) goes to DIY built preamp > Interface. R (Wet/Tube) goes to Oceans 11 > Canyon > Bugera 5w (on standby) > DI out > Interface.
The LR split signal is just volume matched on the Scarlett 18i8, then in Reaper they both are panned L 60 / R 60 and sent to a master bus just running NadIR with the stock cab sim on it, few tweaks, and monitored through the JBLs. Lets me track a thick and effects laden stereo guitar without much effort or running too much in the DAW on it.
Bass - some Harley Benton €100 left hand thing that I poorly converted to a righty by diming every tone pot then hiding them in the cavity and covering the holes in insulating tape. Needs a new nut. Effects chain is handy:
DIY clean boost > TC electronic Compressor > Palmer Bass OD > DIY Brutalist Jr > Artec Parametric EQ > DI (split signal) to Interface and 30w Vantage combo for monitoring.
I don't monitor it through the DAW but run it into a JS distortion, Compressor, Emissary and NadIR for playback, it sounds good. Need to add a clean blend into the Brutalist this week to make it more useable in this rig and I'll remove the dirt from the FX chain in the DAW that way.
Drums - Arturia Drumbrute Impact, set up on Midi In/Out, Used as both controller for MT Power Kit and for its own electronic sounds back through the interface. I write all the drums into the sequencer on this regardless of whether they're "real" (MTP) or electronic, and record them out to Midi into the DAW, or audio if I stick some effects pedals on the output of the machine. Stupidly versatile piece of kit and takes almost all the effort out of sequencing drums in software, I find it easier to get more complex ideas out of my head faster using this.
Mic - some thomann 30 quid vocal mic, it's purely for scratch tracks anyway, doesn't matter. Straight in.
All fairly cobbled together but works perfectly for writing.
Since our plans for a second E.P. got hindered by COVID, I picked up a set of JBL 104s for doing some home recordings and demo tracks. Really nice set of speakers/monitors and they're extremely clear and punchy for their price point.
Quote from: Drought on May 18, 2020, 06:26:24 PM
Since our plans for a second E.P. got hindered by COVID, I picked up a set of JBL 104s for doing some home recordings and demo tracks. Really nice set of speakers/monitors and they're extremely clear and punchy for their price point.
Good to hear they're decent - I have the 305s at home and they're grand but have a low level hiss that's noticeable at any level of playback - it's always the same volume mind so if you're working loud it's fine but you'd notice it a fair bit at low work volumes between listening. Common fault with them. Had I known it I would have bought the closest price rockits
Quote from: ochoill on May 18, 2020, 07:39:15 PM
Quote from: Drought on May 18, 2020, 06:26:24 PM
Since our plans for a second E.P. got hindered by COVID, I picked up a set of JBL 104s for doing some home recordings and demo tracks. Really nice set of speakers/monitors and they're extremely clear and punchy for their price point.
Good to hear they're decent - I have the 305s at home and they're grand but have a low level hiss that's noticeable at any level of playback - it's always the same volume mind so if you're working loud it's fine but you'd notice it a fair bit at low work volumes between listening. Common fault with them. Had I known it I would have bought the closest price rockits
Yeah I had read a few reviews of the 104s having a hiss when using the RCA cables over the TRS ones but they're absolutely silent when I'm using either input.
They really are great value for money and are small enough to fit in any space. Only minor (yet probably a good thing) gripe with them is they aren't as loud as I had expected.
I chose these specifically over the rokits as they're just so much smaller and are said to have a wider sweet spot!
Started to introduce my main pedalboard into home recording lately. So it's pedalboard into a cheap cab sim pedal into interface. I added a cheap preamp pedal on to the board early in the signal path to deal with whatever line level or whatever that does but I have the gain at minimum really and get my dirt from the subsequent pedals. Mic'ing a cab isn't an option and I've found this route pretty good I have to say.
I'm not using VSTs as between Reaper and my laptop perhaps lacking power, it causes a bit of a kerfuffle during playback.
1. Is there anything I'm missing that might improve the quality even further?
2. Is reamping worth looking into?
Can anybody recommend a reliable, cheap enough usb recording interface?
I've used an M-Audio Fast Track for years, which was alright, but I've updated to Windows 10 and it just won't work properly, and it doesn't seem like the developers are going to be rolling out any drivers to make it compatible.
I just want to be able to connect my guitar to my laptop, but I also want to use the interface to output audio to my stereo speakers/headphones, because my laptop speakers are awful and the laptop's headphone jack is busted.
If you're looking for cheap and cheerful, look at Behringer's lower priced interfaces on Thomann - they should definitely do the trick.
Quote from: Emphyrio on October 24, 2020, 10:20:44 AM
Started to introduce my main pedalboard into home recording lately. So it's pedalboard into a cheap cab sim pedal into interface. I added a cheap preamp pedal on to the board early in the signal path to deal with whatever line level or whatever that does but I have the gain at minimum really and get my dirt from the subsequent pedals. Mic'ing a cab isn't an option and I've found this route pretty good I have to say.
I'm not using VSTs as between Reaper and my laptop perhaps lacking power, it causes a bit of a kerfuffle during playback.
1. Is there anything I'm missing that might improve the quality even further?
2. Is reamping worth looking into?
If you're just demo tracking/writing stuff at home I wouldn't bother reamping, you might find it useful yourself to keep a clean DI for later use but it's not something I'd bother with unless whatever you were recording is going on a proper release. If that's the case you could always take a DI at the very front of your chain and record that into a separate channel on your interface.
For improvement in Quality, running one or two small bits on Reaper would help, you already have a preamp and cab sim pedal so that's half your battle for home recording without mic'ing anything up. Even if you're laptop is low powered, I'd recommend Emissary and NadIR. Emissary is grand to have spare in case you need an amp sim, but I run a preamp into NadIR as a cab sim and record that way, it sounds perfect. Even if you don't want to run it live while recording, just add it to the channel after the fact.
Sound John, after a day of researching with the odd beer I picked up a Radial JDX Direct Drive. Seems to be simple, with little in the way of necessary tweaking, and basically covers amp + cab sim all in one. Works directly after pedalboard and just before interface so no need to be pulling things apart. On the (very) plus side, looks like there may be room for an additional pedal on the board. Yay!
Quote from: ochoill on October 24, 2020, 06:15:54 PM
If you're looking for cheap and cheerful, look at Behringer's lower priced interfaces on Thomann - they should definitely do the trick.
Sound man, thanks for the recommendation
I agree about the Behringer interfaces, the cost is good for what you get. I recorded (Gealach) drums with a UMC1820 (8 channels) with an additional 8 channels for drums. Straight into Reaper (free). Guitar was just DI (for better signal) into the interface with decent amp sims, but I can re-amp if needed. Same with bass. We did it all ourselves for maybe 500 quid? Mixing been delayed cause of real life stuff but other than that, you can't really go wrong unless you misuse gear.