Home Recordings

[if6was9]

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.

[ochoill]

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.



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.

[Drought]

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.

[ochoill]

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

[Drought]

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!

[Emphyrio]

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?

[Giggles]

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.

[ochoill]

If you're looking for cheap and cheerful, look at Behringer's lower priced interfaces on Thomann - they should definitely do the trick.

[ochoill]

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.

[Emphyrio]

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!

[Giggles]

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

[CorkonianHunger]

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.