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gotly
Oct 28, 2007
Economy-Sized
I'm looking for a really simple setup that wouldn't be used for professional recording in any way, shape or form. Something akin to a tape player but done through my computer. I have decent Realtek integrated sound (it has two mic ports and a line-in port) and an older microphone that I don't know how to use. It's a no-name dynamic microphone with dual impedance (500 Ohms and 50,000 Ohms) with an XLR (I think, 4 prongs) output that plugs into an XLR to 1/4" plug. It works great out of my amp for karaoke but if I plug it into the microphone port it's extraordinarily quiet and plugging it into the line-in port produces no sound.

I honestly don't care about quality, I just want a way to record song ideas on my computer.

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Elder
Oct 19, 2004

It's the Evolution Revolution.
Sounds like you just need a cheap mic pre-amp to boost the level of your audio to line. Then you can plug it into the line-in port on your sound card.

gotly
Oct 28, 2007
Economy-Sized
Any suggestions? The ones in the OP seem to offer a bit beyond what I need. Google turned up some inexpensive "professional" ones for ~$50, is that the best I'll find?

Steiler Drep
Nov 30, 2004
what?
There's the Art Tube MP which is incredibly good and will work great even when you get a good interface in the future. It's cheap and "pro quality"

WanderingKid
Feb 27, 2005

lives here...

RivensBitch posted:

Vista is actually the "best windows yet" and I say this as someone who has always waited to upgrade my OS (I think I was running 98 up to 2 years after XP was released). Once the hardware and software catches up I think everyone who has held back will be pleasantly surprised. However some people might not be happy with how long that catching up takes, I spoke with a contact at Mackie that I knew through my old job and his estimate for vista drivers was "weeks, maybe months... I know they're writing one, at least I'm pretty sure they are".

Of course he's the top guy in their tech support department... (/me pulls hair out of head while staring at $1,400 paperweight)

I went home over christmas and my parent's computer has Vista on it. Without my rig I basically just used software that I burned onto CD when I left for home and everything worked great. Which I didn't expect.

Pretty much everything in Vista except for UAC is better than XP and after initial reservations I want to upgrade. When I went back to XP a couple of days ago it just wasn't the same. :(

I want my weather monitor, sidebar, aero glass etc. back again.

gotly
Oct 28, 2007
Economy-Sized

Steiler Drep posted:

There's the Art Tube MP which is incredibly good and will work great even when you get a good interface in the future. It's cheap and "pro quality"

Perfect, thank you.

Elder
Oct 19, 2004

It's the Evolution Revolution.
I'm going to go check out monitors pretty soon, and I thought it might be polite to tip the guy who's setting up the speakers for me. Would this be weird or insulting? I don't think he makes any money from the sales because he's just a tech guy, and he redirects people to a salesman when they're done. I was there before and felt kind of bad because he does all this work and someone else gets the commission. Also, how much would be appropriate?

ReDiNmYhEaD
Mar 17, 2006

Elder posted:

Also, how much would be appropriate?

He's onsite installation, and is likely aware its a pretty thankless job. I might recommend a case of good beer. Nothing as impersonal as money, and the encouragment to relax would likely be received well.

But I would give it to him at the end of the appointment, tips after service and all.

fishstik
Jan 3, 2004
A Winner is You!
So I've been thinking about buying this M-Audio MXL package thingy for recording, but I want to know if my setup would be retarded:

Basically, I want to record into it, take the 1/4" output, convert it to 1/8", plug that into my MacBook's audio-in port, and then record with GarageBand or something.

I'm mostly worried about maybe some 1/4" -> 1/8" conversion issues and my MacBook's audio card not really being up to the task.

USB/FireWire interfaces are a bit too pricey for my taste at this point in my recording "career," plus this set up is more than sufficient for my needs -- multitracking some instruments, primarily acoustic guitar.

So yeah, any thoughts on my proposed set up would be great. If you feel like suggesting a different set-up, just know that I'd really like to spend less than $150, ideally less than or around $100.

Edit: I guess in general, would it be troublesome to record through my line-in or not worth the money invested into a decent mic/preamp?

fishstik fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Jan 10, 2008

Steiler Drep
Nov 30, 2004
what?
I recommend you get a decent interface, either the Art Tube Pre USB or the M-Audio Fast Track (the $100 one) plus that mic. The problem with the M-Audio one is it doesn't have phantom power so that means no condensers, but I think the ART does 48v.

I'd say you better spend $200 total on the Art Tube and an SM57, although I'm not sure how Dynamic mics work with acoustic guitars.

Elder
Oct 19, 2004

It's the Evolution Revolution.

ReDiNmYhEaD posted:

He's onsite installation, and is likely aware its a pretty thankless job. I might recommend a case of good beer. Nothing as impersonal as money, and the encouragment to relax would likely be received well.

But I would give it to him at the end of the appointment, tips after service and all.

I didn't mean to say that he's coming out to my house to set up the speakers, what I meant is that I'm going to the store and he's the guy that switches out all the monitors in their listening room. When I went before I was there for a good 30 or 40 minutes just trying out different speakers, and he had to set them up, adjust the levels, add a sub, etc. It seemed like a fair amount of work for no gain. But then again, he could be paid a very good hourly wage, I dunno.

The beer idea is a good one though, I'll definitely do that if I'm ever in that situation.

cmerepaul
Nov 28, 2005
That's not chapstick!

Elder posted:

I didn't mean to say that he's coming out to my house to set up the speakers, what I meant is that I'm going to the store and he's the guy that switches out all the monitors in their listening room. When I went before I was there for a good 30 or 40 minutes just trying out different speakers, and he had to set them up, adjust the levels, add a sub, etc. It seemed like a fair amount of work for no gain. But then again, he could be paid a very good hourly wage, I dunno.

The beer idea is a good one though, I'll definitely do that if I'm ever in that situation.

Since when do you pay sales people to demonstrate their product for you?

Do you tip car salesmen for coming along on your testdrive?


Sales people are supposed to try and butter you up, not the other way around.

Elder
Oct 19, 2004

It's the Evolution Revolution.

cmerepaul posted:

Since when do you pay sales people to demonstrate their product for you?

Do you tip car salesmen for coming along on your testdrive?


Sales people are supposed to try and butter you up, not the other way around.

He's not a salesman, though. If I decide to buy something, he directs me to a salesman who makes the actual order and (I assume) makes commission from it. That's why I felt bad before...he does all the work and someone else makes the profit. I'll have to ask next time I'm there though, he might make a really good hourly wage or something.

nah thanks
Jun 18, 2004

Take me out.
I'm in the market for a DAW with audio and MIDI out support (to compliment Reason), since my version of Ableton Live is less than legitimate. Honestly, I love the poo poo out of Reason 4's sequencer, and I was playing around with Cubase LE today and discovered that its sequencer is nearly the same as Reason's. As much as I like Live for jamming and goofing around, the sequencer and MIDI editing workflow just feels all wrong to me. Its MIDI composition features have always felt light to me, and Cubase's MIDI composition capabilities seem to be really robust.

However, in looking over the features of Cubase Studio 4 (which I can get for $199) their comparison between it and Cubase 4 suggest that it can't control external hardware. Does this mean it doesn't do MIDI out? That'd be a real buzzkill because I'm loving Cubase's MIDI composition, but I need MIDI out to control hardware. There's no way I can justify spending $400 on the student version of Cubase 4, either, when I'm buying an audio interface too.

I'm going to be really annoyed with Steinburg if this is the case. $400 is a ridiculous amount for a student version of a program, and there's no way I'm spending that when Live and Logic are both in the $200 range and Protools is $500 with and audio interface. It's a bummer that Logic 8 will supposably run like rubbish on my Powerbook G4 1.5ghz.

nah thanks fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Jan 11, 2008

gotly
Oct 28, 2007
Economy-Sized
I'm doing something wrong. I got my Art Tube MP yesterday and attempted to record something. Here's how I have it hooked up:

Mic into Preamp using 1/4" input. Generic guitar cable (1/4" male to 1/4" male) comes out of preamp and goes into the Line In on my computer using a 1/4 to 1/8 converter. I'm getting no sound whatsoever. I also tried it in my mic port with no success. If I take the converter off and plug it into my guitar amp input it sounds great. I'm using Realtek integrated HD audio. I know the ports work (at least the mic port) because I have a computer microphone that works just fine.

Any advice would be appreciated and if I haven't explained it well I can MS Paint the setup for clarity.

cmerepaul
Nov 28, 2005
That's not chapstick!
Go into the windows volume control and make sure line-in isn't muted.

gotly
Oct 28, 2007
Economy-Sized
It's not, I also set it as the default device.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den
Any way you can test with another 1/4" to 1/8" converter?

RivensBitch
Jul 25, 2002

cmerepaul posted:

Since when do you pay sales people to demonstrate their product for you?

Do you tip car salesmen for coming along on your testdrive?


Sales people are supposed to try and butter you up, not the other way around.

There is a difference between going to a salesman to buy a car and having a mechanic bring a car to your garage and start adjusting it in front of you. One of my biggest pet peeves at Guitar Center was meeting customers who wanted to talk to someone who knew a lot about the product, giving them an hour of my time with demonstrations and blind A/B tests, and then having them haggle me to the point of making no commission. Suffice to say I don't work at guitar center any more, and I know for a fact that they've yet to find and hire someone who had my level of expertise.

This reminds me of a recent discussion I had with the owner of a large commercial studio in the bay area and one of his mastering engineers. The next time you take your car into the shop to have some engine work done, take a look at your bill. It costs you $75/hr to have a mechanic work on your car, and that doesn't include any parts. That mechanic owns less than $10,000 of his own tools, and only needs 12 months of training at a trade school. Conversely look at a recording studio. You're looking at $30k-$100k of equipment and YEARS of internship for each engineer before they're considered "good".

What we have in the recording world now is the equivalent of a bunch of amature mechanics with $2,000 worth of cheap tools running around and putting the real mechanics out of business. With a car that wont fly because if the car isn't fixed you'll know. But with recording and mixing music the results are more subjective, you might not realize your engineer isn't good enough until it's too late and you now have a final mix that sucks. At that point you probably will have to re-record everything, since your budget engineer made half of his mistakes during the recording process.

The dynamic between making music and recording music is eroding, and it sucks. I think it's great that there are now options for people with low budgets who want to work on their own music at home, but the DIY mentality is becoming less of an option and more of a forced standard. It's also forcing some really skilled people out of the recording business.

The owner of that large studio I mentioned? I counted the CDs from his mix sessions the other day. In the past six years he's mixed over 400 different clients. He's a really talented guy and I can say with 100% confidence that his mixes stand out and are better than most of the other studios and DIY recordings in the bay area. But product quality standards are being lowered. The attitude from the distributors and labels is that the end user doesn't care for quality and the records aren't selling enough product to justify paying more for it. The DIY musicians usually don't have the studio experience to know/afford what they're missing, and the musicians working with labels aren't given a choice. Even worse, many labels are now relegating the task of recording to the musicians themselves. Some musicians think that this is a bonus, when it is actually more work and pressure being dumped on them.

The whole point of having recording engineers whose only job was recording was so we could have skilled people making our records sound good.

My friend, the owner of the studio? He's going to close the studio, mix at home in his spare time, and find a job working on high end sports cars.

gotly
Oct 28, 2007
Economy-Sized

nimper posted:

Any way you can test with another 1/4" to 1/8" converter?

How the hell can a loving converter silently break? I tested it with a 1/8" to 1/4" converter going back into my amp and got no sound. Picked up another yesterday and it did the trick, thanks a lot.

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

gotly posted:

How the hell can a loving converter silently break? I tested it with a 1/8" to 1/4" converter going back into my amp and got no sound. Picked up another yesterday and it did the trick, thanks a lot.

If the original was from Radio Shack, that'll do it.

I remember an article years and years ago when somebody cut open Radio Shack adapters with a Dremel. One right-angle connector had the interior conductor made out of a loving STEEL SPRING.

Edit: My Echo Layla has balanced ins/outs and is being patched into an unbalanced system. Do I need to set it for -6dB input / +6 dB output if I want to keep levels equal through the chain?

Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Jan 15, 2008

ReDiNmYhEaD
Mar 17, 2006

RivensBitch posted:

My friend, the owner of the studio? He's going to close the studio, mix at home in his spare time, and find a job working on high end sports cars.

This discourages me greatly, coupled with the fact I too live in the SFO Bay Area...

Ator
Oct 1, 2005

This is a great thread.

Let's say I wanted to make electronic music on my PC. I'm assuming I don't need any of these fancy audio interfaces, since I'm not recording any live instruments. Is this correct? If I buy a MIDI keyboard or synthesizer, can I just plug it directly into my PC using firewire?

What is the difference between 1/8" jacks/cables and 1/4" ones? Is the audio quality difference detectable only by audiophiles? A friend of mine thinks buying an audio interface and monitors is overkill for casual musicians. He also makes the point that most people will listen to my songs with crappy speakers or headphones, so there's little point in investing in expensive production hardware. How can I convince him otherwise?

Steiler Drep
Nov 30, 2004
what?
So I bought an M-Audio Fast Track, and even though i haven't been able to try it out a lot mostly since I'm currently out of my country (I live in Costa Rica, I bought this in Boston, I'm currently residing in Boston until the 20th), but anyways. I have a Yamaha MG102c at home which I will output to my M-Audio and then into my computer. Me being horrible at not saving money when I have the oportunity to buy stuff that is going to come out really expensive if I buy it back home, am interested in buying a pre.

Problem is, I only know the Art tube MP as a good cheap pre, and Guitarcenter doesn't carry it (only music store I know around Boston). They carry a PreSonus tube pre which runs across $100, but I really want to keep my budget low. The dude kept insisting I get the presonus instead of the cheaper options because basically "I should get something I wouldn't throw away in the coming future". True that, but I also should have enough money to feed myself this last week.

So I come here and ask, what sub-$60 pre can I find in Guitarcenter or music stores around Boston/Cambridge? Should I REALLY go for the Presonus or is this guy just wanting me to buy something really expensive? Welp?

Edit: poo poo, by explaining the story I didn't get to ask what I was originally shooting for.

So should I remain how it currently is:

either Shure SM57->M-Audio Fast-Track->Logic 8 / SM57(and other mics)->Yamaha MG102c->Fast-Track->Logic
or ^^one or each of both of these with a pre before the Fast-Track (should it make a noticeable difference?
or have the pre BEFORE the mixer whenever I'm mixing several microphones in a recording oportunity?

Steiler Drep fucked around with this message at 08:16 on Jan 15, 2008

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Aenovae posted:

This is a great thread.

Let's say I wanted to make electronic music on my PC. I'm assuming I don't need any of these fancy audio interfaces, since I'm not recording any live instruments. Is this correct?
Since you aren't recording real instruments, then you -probably- don't need an interface. You might want one in the future if you want to get in to making your own samples.

quote:

If I buy a MIDI keyboard or synthesizer, can I just plug it directly into my PC using firewire?
Most new MIDI keyboards have USB, not firewire, but the idea is the same.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Steiler Drep posted:

So I come here and ask, what sub-$60 pre can I find in Guitarcenter or music stores around Boston/Cambridge? Should I REALLY go for the Presonus or is this guy just wanting me to buy something really expensive? Welp?
Guitar Center isn't the only drat music store in Boston.

http://www.daddys.com/search/gear.php?query=art+tube+mp

WanderingKid
Feb 27, 2005

lives here...

Aenovae posted:

This is a great thread.

Let's say I wanted to make electronic music on my PC. I'm assuming I don't need any of these fancy audio interfaces, since I'm not recording any live instruments. Is this correct? If I buy a MIDI keyboard or synthesizer, can I just plug it directly into my PC using firewire?

What is the difference between 1/8" jacks/cables and 1/4" ones? Is the audio quality difference detectable only by audiophiles? A friend of mine thinks buying an audio interface and monitors is overkill for casual musicians. He also makes the point that most people will listen to my songs with crappy speakers or headphones, so there's little point in investing in expensive production hardware. How can I convince him otherwise?

1/8" TS unbalanced is the same as 1/4" TS balanced with the only difference being the shape of the plugs. You can run an 1/8" to 1/4" TS jack to jack cable and it would be fine. You would use that if you wanted to connect 2 devices that have 1/4" I/Os and 1/8" I/Os. TS jack to jack cables have 2 conductors (signal carrying line and ground).

1/4" TRS balanced is different because there are 3 conductors instead of 2 - signal carrying line, signal carrying line (antiphase) and ground. This type of cable is used by systems that electronically balance for noise rejection.

All these different shaped plugs are just that - different shaped plugs. Square box. Square hole.

I maintain that it doesn't matter what you use so long as you are comfortable using it and you enjoy working with the tools you have. At the same time you don't want to have an attitude like 'gently caress it, it'll do'.

I think its a question of attitude more than anything else. If you are motivated and you think everything through and learn to improvise around the limitations of your gear you can make great music using cheap hardware and software. On the flipside you can have the most expensive spooge worthy gear in the world and if its obvious you don't really care about the end product then its going to show in the music you make. He is right about one thing though - if you do get a song released, most people will listen to it on crappy speakers and/or headphones. Even if you have expensive monitors you will at some point have to give your songs a listen on cheap as poo poo speakers to see how the mix translates.

Also. NS10. I rest my case. :colbert:

WanderingKid fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Jan 15, 2008

Fucktard Idiot
Oct 8, 2007

Quick software question:

I have used Adobe Audition for a long time now but I am going to get a MIDI controller keyboard to add some electronic stuff, so it's time to ditch Audition.

Would Cubase handle my audio recording and MIDI sequencing needs all in one app? If I used, for example, Reason for the electronic stuff (drums and synth instruments) how would I couple that with normal audio tracks?

RivensBitch
Jul 25, 2002

Aenovae posted:

This is a great thread.

Let's say I wanted to make electronic music on my PC. I'm assuming I don't need any of these fancy audio interfaces, since I'm not recording any live instruments. Is this correct? If I buy a MIDI keyboard or synthesizer, can I just plug it directly into my PC using firewire?

What is the difference between 1/8" jacks/cables and 1/4" ones? Is the audio quality difference detectable only by audiophiles? A friend of mine thinks buying an audio interface and monitors is overkill for casual musicians. He also makes the point that most people will listen to my songs with crappy speakers or headphones, so there's little point in investing in expensive production hardware. How can I convince him otherwise?

If you're going to use a midi controller and soft synths then you might want to get a firewire interface to reduce latency. Your built in sound card will give you a 1/4 second delay at least, that means you hit your key and 250ms later you hear your note.

Ator
Oct 1, 2005

Thanks for the replies so far.

All the synthesizers I've found so far use USB, not FireWire! I spent a while in Guitar Center playing and listening to their keyboards, and have narrowed my selection down to these two:

Korg TR61 61-Key Synth Workstation $999
Roland Juno-G 61-Key Synthesizer Keyboard $999

They both sound and feel great to me. I like the Moogs and Roland Fantoms as well but they're really expensive. I would love to hear some feedback on these two synths (or recommendations on different ones) before I plunk down the cash.

What about monitors? My computer speakers are $20 Logitech pieces of junk. For headphones I'm using Sennheiser's HD 280 Pro, which should be fine for now.

RivensBitch
Jul 25, 2002

I didn't mean the interface on the keyboard I mean an audio interface for your computer. However if you're getting an external synth rather than soft synths then you will definitely need a good audio interface to record the synth output

Laserjet 4P
Mar 28, 2005

What does it mean?
Fun Shoe

Aenovae posted:

Let's say I wanted to make electronic music on my PC. I'm assuming I don't need any of these fancy audio interfaces, since I'm not recording any live instruments.
You still do because you're listening to fancy software synthesizers.

quote:

Is this correct? If I buy a MIDI keyboard or synthesizer, can I just plug it directly into my PC using firewire?
MIDI travels at the speed of a 33k6 modem; if such a keyboard has a FW connection it's because there's an audio interface built in.

quote:

Is the audio quality difference detectable only by audiophiles?

The batshit insane audiophiles have no place in the studio anyway since all their "sound stage" and "warmer" is Haass effects and nonlinear distortion. If they had to use golden cables woven by virgin Ukranian models at full moon in Tibet they'd charge 20 times what they'd do now.

quote:

A friend of mine thinks buying an audio interface and monitors is overkill for casual musicians.
He's full of poo poo, ignore.

Audio interfaces are cheap. Good monitors don't have to be expensive, either. Of course you're not going to buy a bunch of Apogees with a pair of ADAM S3A XBOX hueg midfields, but the financial distance from on-board AC97 to reasonably OK is small enough to make it worthwhile.

quote:

He also makes the point that most people will listen to my songs with crappy speakers or headphones, so there's little point in investing in expensive production hardware. How can I convince him otherwise?
The reason you get an audio interface: low latency and good D/A conversion (that's sound to the speakers)
The reason you get good monitors: if you move from lovely speakers to good ones it's like getting a new pair of ears for free. Even if those other folks have a lovely method of playback (be it laptop speakers, earbuds or mobile phones), reference monitors will make it sound reasonable on all of them instead of only good on laptop speakers.

Aenovae posted:

All the synthesizers I've found so far use USB, not FireWire!

And they only use the USB for transmitting MIDI, exceptions being an Access Virus TI or a Roland SH-201.

quote:

I would love to hear some feedback on these two synths (or recommendations on different ones) before I plunk down the cash.
Pick the one that feels the best to you in terms of keys and sounds (each mfg has its strengths). Essentially you're buying a sampler with a bunch of sounds stuffed in. The Juno-G can be expanded with more sounds, the TR can be upgraded with a sampler.

See if they're getting blown out after the NAMM, Roland's releasing the Fantom G which kicks the Fantom X down a notch, which kicks the Fantom S down a notch. If you can get the S with 61 keys for a nice price, jump on that like there's no tomorrow. If you can score a nice Fantom Xa secondhand, get that. They're a step above the (already good) Juno-G.

quote:

What about monitors? My computer speakers are $20 Logitech pieces of junk. For headphones I'm using Sennheiser's HD 280 Pro, which should be fine for now.
Save up again until you have a thousand bucks or so, then go shopping.

Laserjet 4P fucked around with this message at 12:30 on Jan 19, 2008

RivensBitch
Jul 25, 2002

Yoozer posted:

MIDI travels at the speed of a 33k6 modem; if such a keyboard has a FW connection it's because there's an audio interface built in.

32,150 baud :eng101:

t_rf
Nov 24, 2006

RivensBitch posted:

The dynamic between making music and recording music is eroding, and it sucks. I think it's great that there are now options for people with low budgets who want to work on their own music at home, but the DIY mentality is becoming less of an option and more of a forced standard. It's also forcing some really skilled people out of the recording business.

The alternative way you could look at it is that the recording business forced musicians out of business, because demand for live music went down, and now the trend is simply reversing back towards the musician. If someone were to get the technical backend in place, musicians could give a live performance, every day of the week, to the entire internet. That's something that was never possible with the old model.

RivensBitch
Jul 25, 2002

t_rf posted:

The alternative way you could look at it is that the recording business forced musicians out of business, because demand for live music went down, and now the trend is simply reversing back towards the musician. If someone were to get the technical backend in place, musicians could give a live performance, every day of the week, to the entire internet. That's something that was never possible with the old model.

I don't know if I agree with this, has the demand for live musicians really increased? Most of the clubs I see these days have DJs that are still spinning records from the 70s and 80s, with a few of todays hits mixed in.

My real concern is that as musicians are being forced into the role of producer and engineer, the art of recording is dying. The record industry has assumed that the end user doesn't care about quality and therefore they don't want to pay to involve someone whose primary talent is engineering awesome records. So instead the talent has to figure it out, and they can do an okay job but the bar overall has been lowered substantially.

A few weeks ago we received a copy of the protools sessions for some of Jimmy Eat Worlds songs on their latest record. Just for fun my friend Aaron put a few hours into a mix on our Amek and had it sounding 100x better than what's on the radio. This was a night and day improvement that anyone could hear, and I just wonder what kind of budget they were given that they couldn't shop around with a few different mix engineers to find the best results. Whoever they went with obviously mixed the record in the box and it shows, and this has become common. The majority of new bands have that same dull sound.

I was reading Slash's autobiography and he talks about how it took them a year and a half to find a producer for appetite, and how they went through almost every producer in town before they found one that worked. They would have a potential producer actually record a song of theirs and then they would listen to it, and if they didn't like what they heard they'd keep looking. At this point guns was unproven and Geffen was still investing money to get a good record. These days the label would just make them lay down the tracks with anyone and then put out the record.

Thieretical
Jul 18, 2007
Does anyone have suggestions for treating vocals, whether it's EQ/reverb/compression techniques, or a good plug-in I could buy? I recorded some vocals for a song I'm working on and I want to avoid that dead, middle of the mix sound. I've heard a lot of the sound of good vocal tracks comes from tape saturation, dunno much else about it.

Fucktard Idiot
Oct 8, 2007

Thieretical posted:

Does anyone have suggestions for treating vocals, whether it's EQ/reverb/compression techniques, or a good plug-in I could buy? I recorded some vocals for a song I'm working on and I want to avoid that dead, middle of the mix sound. I've heard a lot of the sound of good vocal tracks comes from tape saturation, dunno much else about it.

Compression is important. Someone smarter can fill you in, and you can fiddle with that in pretty much every software recording studio.

RizieN
May 15, 2004

and it was still hot.
Alright I've been loving around with home recording and stuff on and off for a few years now, and I guess I need help.

I was using logic pro to try and make songs, but I should probably explain our set up first.

Theres three of us right now, My brother plays everything, keyboards and guitar mostly, then we've got a drummer, and me on bass and vocals and keyboard. Because theres just 3 of us we need a decent way to record, but be able to recreate what we make live. I like how you can loop samples and things in ableton, but I can't seem to figure out how to activate all the channels at once so we can all be mashing on things.

I've got a macbook pro, an 8 channel interface (PreSonus Fireport), the latest Logic Pro and Live 5, 3 keyboards, bass, guitar, mic, drums and assorted other acoustic instruments.

I need a way to be able to record a loop my brother plays, and repeat it, allowing him to run off on other synths/instruments loving around. Or maybe a way that each of us can record our own samples and loop them.

Any guidance as to how we can streamline our creative process and get efficient? yet still be able to put on a live show with just us 3? (maybe a couple hands helping if we need to)

RivensBitch
Jul 25, 2002

Ableton live lets you record synth and audio to a metrenome or drum beat and loop it in real time. For example, as the last bar of your loop is playing, you hit record on your synth track, then start playing on the down beat. As you reach the end of your last bar you or someone else hits "stop" and recording will stop right before the next downbeat, at which point your loop begins playing in sync.

It's really, really cool.

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RizieN
May 15, 2004

and it was still hot.
Maybe I'm just missing it, but is there a way to activate more than one audio channel at once? So i can record each different channel whenever I need to, and they can just be playing on the channel until I snag a sample and loop it then they can move on to another instrument and it seems like he never stopped the other one.

Also, is there maybe a way to not have a metronome or set the bpm/bars/beats in program, and just go by audio and it just loop however long the audio file is...

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