I'm recording my own album? What do I need next?

[paynez]

What I'm doing...

I'm getting ready to do my own album. I mainly write rock/emo/folk music (ie david gray, badly drawn boy, ryan adams, etc.) I will be doing all the instrumentation (guitar (acoustic/electric), bass, keys (using reason samples) and drums. I don't have much of a studio. Just my bedroom...

Currently using...

Protools LE 6.9 / Digi002 Console / PWRBOOK G4 -1 GB/1.32GHZ/40GB

MIDI - REASON 2.5/Evolution MK44 Keyboard

PRE'S AND COMPRESSORS - (1(RNC/(1)RNP

MICS - Shure KSM32 / Octava MK012 (pair) / (3) 57's / (1) - 58

event - TR8 Monitors

Cabling - Mogami 2534


Let me know your thoughts on the following

1) I am trying to record a decent album. If I'm going to go through all the work of doing it, I want it to sound good. Are there any major holes in my system that you can see and how would you improve it. (I don't have much of a budget to work with, but am open to suggestions)

2) Any suggestions for engineering your own recordings?

3) How would your record a basic drum set for the sounds I am going for with what I have?

4) If I had $5000.00 to spend to upgrade this studio, how would you do it? (Keep in mind I am going to stick with the 002 and protools for a while, so using that as my base system, what would you add on?)

5) To get a good acoustic guitar sound (strummed), much like what I hear on the coldplay album/ David Gray, where its really earthy sounding, but not too brite and not too bassy...That might be too vague, so disregard that if need be. How would you setup the mics and mix?


As usual, you guys and gals are awesome and your thoughts are much appreciated.

-Zach

[I play in a ban]

- What kind of music are you doing?

- What is your room like...treated?

- What are your source sounds....what kinds of amps/guitars, etc. Are you good at finding appropriate tones?

- I would suggest using drum samples because you are in a bedroom. There are a few options out there, I personally use a program called BFD. It's just going to be hard to get a good drum sound unless your bedroom is a big room with high ceilings.

You could look into drum replacement software like Drumagog if you really wanted to track; I am pretty sure they are actually working on a program to replace your drums with BFD samples which would be really good.

- I would also suggest treating your room with broadband absorbers, realtraps would work or you can make them yourself.

- With that 5k it might be wise to rent gear, hire an engineer, track some of the record with a talented guy. Engineering your own record is something even most professional engineers wouldn't do; you really want to focus on being the musician. However, I am sure it's possible. I hope you find the best road for you and make a great album...good luck!

[SparkyCanada]

You need a timeline...

I am in the same position now as you are about to begin. I started working on my album last April - and well - it's now December and getting closer to being done. I really thought I'd have it finished in a couple of months - but when you have your own studio - the only expense is time.

I'm sure if I would have gone to a commercial studio & paid for the time - I would have been done a long time ago...

Good Luck & Have Fun!

SparkyCanada

[ncCountryMike]

There is so much room for improvement in your setup. Not to say that you don't have a great start, but to record an album that sounds really good, unless you're a complete stud behind the console, you probably won't be satisfied with the sounds you'll get from your setup.

I tend to agree with ban, I might either rent gear or just sink that 5k into someone who can get you a great deal on studio time. IMHO I believe that if you're splitting your time between engineering and being a musician will leave with you half as good of a performance on both ends.

BUT! Good luck to ya if you decide to proceed further. I would first improve my mic collection especially if you're planning on tracking drums. AT 4033 and 4047 are a few good choices for the money that range from $300-$500 on ebay. You might check into getting a pair of akg's. I got a set of TLII's online for just over a grand. Your oktava's will be fine for recording your guitar. you might try one around the 12th fret and one centered more towards the sound hole. They've got a pretty dark sound but I would imagine that that would give you a david grayish sound - not too bright. you may have to eq out some of the bass.

Of course if you're going to track your drums, you'll want to get something for the kick. An AKG d112 shouldn't be too expensive and you'd sure be glad you spent the money for a nice kick sound. depending on how many toms you've got you'll need some more mics for drums. Never used them, but i hear the sennheiser e 609's are really nice on toms.

you might wanna get a few more outboard pre's too. Old School Audio makes some really good pre's for something like $450 a piece.

The list can go on forever but hopefully it's a start.

[paynez]

Keep it coming! This is good.

I really am wanting to do this myself, for a a couple reasons. One...it helps me write/compose and two, I want to learn and get better at it, and that only comes through practice.

With the 002...what needs to be my next upgrade? Do I need better converters?

[ncCountryMike]

No. For what you're doing, the 002 converters are fine. You'll notice a bigger margin of improvement with improvement in other areas instead of better converters. Another thought that won't improve sound but relieve some headaches later. You'll want to get an external hard drive to record to. You're not supposed to record to the same drive that pro tools is running off of.

In your situation, I wouldn't spend the money for a bunch of outboard gear. If you find the need for a bunch of toys, go with a small pack of waves plugins or something like that. It'll give you enough to play with and get comfortable with until you really get goin enough to upgrade your rig again.

[paynez]

what's your recommendation on hard drives?

[ncCountryMike]

I built one. It's cheap. Many people will recommend glyph or lacie but if you get a maxtor hard drive and an enclosure that won't blow up on impact (if dropped), you'll be good to go. Someone here told me to look for an enclosure with an Oxford Chipset. If you do all that you hsould be able to sneak out for less than 200. just make sure that since you've got a powerbook you get an enclosure with usb AND firewire.

[paynez]

bump

[David@MVS]

Originally Posted by paynez

What I'm doing...

I'm getting ready to do my own album. I mainly write rock/emo/folk music (ie david gray, badly drawn boy, ryan adams, etc.) I will be doing all the instrumentation (guitar (acoustic/electric), bass, keys (using reason samples) and drums. I don't have much of a studio. Just my bedroom...

Currently using...

Protools LE 6.9 / Digi002 Console / PWRBOOK G4 -1 GB/1.32GHZ/40GB

MIDI - REASON 2.5/Evolution MK44 Keyboard

PRE'S AND COMPRESSORS - (1(RNC/(1)RNP

MICS - Shure KSM32 / Octava MK012 (pair) / (3) 57's / (1) - 58

event - TR8 Monitors

Cabling - Mogami 2534


Let me know your thoughts on the following

1) I am trying to record a decent album. If I'm going to go through all the work of doing it, I want it to sound good. Are there any major holes in my system that you can see and how would you improve it. (I don't have much of a budget to work with, but am open to suggestions)

2) Any suggestions for engineering your own recordings?

3) How would your record a basic drum set for the sounds I am going for with what I have?

4) If I had $5000.00 to spend to upgrade this studio, how would you do it? (Keep in mind I am going to stick with the 002 and protools for a while, so using that as my base system, what would you add on?)

5) To get a good acoustic guitar sound (strummed), much like what I hear on the coldplay album/ David Gray, where its really earthy sounding, but not too brite and not too bassy...That might be too vague, so disregard that if need be. How would you setup the mics and mix?


As usual, you guys and gals are awesome and your thoughts are much appreciated.

-Zach

Well this answer could be 18 pages as what you are asking is what this industry is constantly perfecting the art of....Recording.

So I will be brief:
You can make excellent recordings with the gear you have. It looks like you have done your homework as these are very versatile and useable pieces.

You are ready to go. BUT.....

If you have some money, the get your recording space some acoustic treatment....at the very least some bass traps.
Then expand your pre/compressor count to allow you to record more than two tracks at a time ( for drums ) (Sytek and some more RNCs, RNLA for example).

Then try to LEARN YOUR ROOM. Listen to commercial stuff you know very well to see how your setup (room, monitors) affects the sound.

Then start recording.

For drum and guitar micing techniques, search the internet...there are tons of them....I am sure this site has a post devoted to that subject.

Hope this helps.

BTW, if it seems there are not alot of responses to this post, it is due to the open-ended ness of it.

Regards,
David

[moon_unit]

In terms of gear, you probably have just barely enough to get by, and I'm sure a decent record could theoretically be made with what you have.

What I would recommend would be to change / evolve how you view your project.

Rather than thinking of it as recording "your album," think of it more as a learning experience. Like a class project. If this is your first real stab at this kind of thing, then adjust your expectations. Your first few "albums" will probably sound like crap. Think about it like this ... the first cake you ever baked probably wasn't very tasty, and your first time in the sack, you probably didn't make your girl scream with delight. Expecting your first experiments to actually sound "good" would be a bit optimistic. Judge the quality of your product not on how it sounds, but rather on how much you've learned and improved since the start of the project.

The amount of time it takes to learn to be a good recording engineer is right about in line with how long and how much effort it takes to become a good guitar or piano player. And some people I know have been playing for 5-10 years or more, constantly practicing, before they truly became masters of their instrument. It's no different with recording. The deceptive part is that it seems like it would be so much easier than it actually is.

Just have fun with it, and learn some things. Experiment. Throw everything at the wall, and see what sticks.
.

[Jason Poulin]

The only thing you need is a boat and a 50 pound weight to attach to yourself when you through yourself overboard.

Just kidding... a loaded gun will do the same.










honestly, it's a lot of work being the artist/engineer/producer



but... a timeline can really put things in perspective. That and perserverance.


Good luck man!


Jason

[nathanvacha]

hate to jump on the bandwagon, but yeah, acoustic treatment. And not the auralex kind. Look around here for details on fiberglass insulation, i won't bore you with it, it's allover gearslutz. Check ethan winer's stuff. Real traps. And you could actually skip the kick mic if you wanted and consider your 012's for overheads, a 57 on snare and maybe toms if you need, and you could get away with doubling up the 58 up close and the sure a foot or two in front of the kick. It's more important that your drums themselves sound good. Plus, overheads kick and snare may very well be the only mics you want in your kind of setup. Kinda like you'd do jazz drums. And this is if you insist on live drums. Oh, and time align your drums to your overheads... you will notice a difference. Even if there's a lot of ring and bass nodes/cancellation in your room, you should still hear them tighten up. Um... Keep in mind too, that you'll need preamps for channels 5-8 on your 002. A small mixer could prove to be a versatile tool for you in the beginning. There's a lot you can do with that. Hope my 2 cents was of a little help. Oh, and I almost forgot: if you can get a friend to help you along, if you can't hire someone to engineer it that is, having a separate set of ears (and hands) and can help keep things in the real world.

[DHD]

Hi paynez,

I think you have a nice little set up there and you have bought wisely.

The trouble with advising you here is that I really don't know what the standard of your musicianship is. So I can't say to you to hire a session drummer etc.

It is quite possible to record acoustic guitar a vocals well in almost any space such as a home studio but drums are always best done in a propper tracking facility. Things like low ceiling, room reflections and lack of experience tracking drums really lets down the sound.

If you want to track drums and can play I would suggest that you buy a Roland Vdrums set such as the TD3 system and linking it by midi to a plug in call Drum Kits From Hell Coustom and Vintage. This runs off a Native instruments plug in engine and can be run as a Rewire plug in with your Protools LE Rig. But if you are good at programming drums then you could go down that route with Reason. Professional sound percussion and drums are a big help in making a release quality Album at home.

I really don't know what your ear is like for mxing. I know many wonderful musicians who have excellent ears for music, pitch, intervals and tuning etc but they can't mix or choose pre amps and mics for their voices etc. People tend to pick things that are more forward sound and louder sounding rather than hearing into tone etc. So my advice is to read the Studio SOS articles at the www.soundonsound.com web site and look for the advice they give for recording acoustic guitars and vocals.

People talk about the RNC as a great compressor but it is in actual fact a coloured sounding compressor so be careful tracking through it.

If you want to take your equipment to the next level then I would get a pre that is neutral but good for acoustic guitar and vox as it will sound great on most things if it can be used for that purpose. Try a DAV Electronics BG1 pre. I say this because I really don't know the RNP. Apart from that some more good mics will make the biggest audiable difference. I think electric guitars and bass sound good through Tech21 Sansamp products. And lots of guys like to put their drums and percussion through them also. You can buy them as a plug in for Protools so a nice DI into your 002 and then use the plug in and you are away. But The actual Tech21 pedals are cheap and well worth the money just straight into your 002. They can really add rich harmonic distortion/speaker emulation to your bass DI tracks wich is another thing to acheiving a pro sound.

Don't be afraid to take your recordings to a local facilityto you who are working with local artists and who've worked on cd's you've thought are good for the mix.

Another thing about recording acoustic guitar is that the guitar itself is responsible for the earthy sound you describe in your post. As it happens the singer in my band has an old washburn guitar with a solid wood soundboard that has aged well and your guitar just might not be able to produce that sound.

Something you should know is THE SOUND AN INSTRUMENT MAKES IN THE ROOM IS HOW IT SOUNDS! So if the source ie your voice or the acoustic guitar etc isn't making the sound you want then you had better consider training or buying a new instrument. Don't try to rewrite nature ie the sound that is being made. Listen to it critically. If it is very close to the sound you want or is actually making the sound you want then all you have to do is capture it. Tracking with the idea of mangling the sound into something else almost always sounds like dogs balls and takes the quality of your recording into the amateur.

Anyway Happy New Year and good look to ya.

Peace'
DHD

[Henchman]

What you relalay need is someone to bounce ideas off of, and someone to mix it.

Other than that, you have, IMO, enough to do what you want to do. Personnally, I would get a faster computer with a bigger harddrive, dump Pro-Tools LE for Cubase SX so you'll ahve more tracks, and thus more artistic freedom.

I've decided to do my own albm finally, and I'm using my PC laptop. A firebox interface, and a Apex 460 mic for Vocals.
So far, I'm quite happy with the results.

[Diablo]

Originally Posted by paynez

2) Any suggestions for engineering your own recordings?

Decent minimum setup. Read up all you can find on engineering. Ask questions if you get stuck. Use a reference recording to check your mixes.

Originally Posted by paynez

3) How would your record a basic drum set for the sounds I am going for with what I have?

I wouldn't worry about any drum sounds (assuming you are going to record your own drums in your room), just get a nice isolated hit, and then I would get Drumagog to replace sounds as needed.

Originally Posted by paynez

4) If I had $5000.00 to spend to upgrade this studio, how would you do it? (Keep in mind I am going to stick with the 002 and protools for a while, so using that as my base system, what would you add on?)

Hmmm, might want to get an external 7200 rpm firewire drive to use as an audio drive. Laptop harddisks are very slow.

Might want to consider a new desktop computer to get more native power for plugs.

But, as you learn more about engineering and as you get into your own recording, you will dislike some sounds so intensely that you will want to spend money to improve them.

Originally Posted by paynez

5) To get a good acoustic guitar sound (strummed), much like what I hear on the coldplay album/ David Gray, where its really earthy sounding, but not too brite and not too bassy...That might be too vague, so disregard that if need be. How would you setup the mics and mix?

Try the usual acoustic method: Shure KSM32 or Octava MK012 three or four inches from the 12th fret then an Octava MK012 positioned off the body of the guitar.


Just my .002 cents.

[AlphaDingo]

I'm recording my own album? What do I need next?

Psycological help.

[tomwehrle]

I read your post and felt like it was worthy of finally signing up on here and saying something, seeing as though, I've done pretty much what you're trying to do 2 times now

First off, all these peopel doubting that you can't get good drum sounds in a small room are wrong. I have a room that's probably 12x12 ft in a basement, so the ceiling is low too. I'm not saying I get amazing drum sounds, but if you heard my stuff, i doubt you would have guessed that. I also own some of the same mics you got, here's what I did for most of my last project, as far as mics go:

Shure SM57 - top of snare
Audix D1 - bottom of snare
2 Okatava's - overheads, about as high as I could get them from the kit, space at about 2-3 feet away from each other
AKG D112 - Kick
Shure KSM32's - on the toms (only used a two tom setup)

I used to have a digi001, but it's been awhile, I now have a TDM setup, so my pres were:

HHB Radius 10 - both snares and overheads
DBX 386 - toms
Joe Meek Studio Channel - kick

If you wanna hear some of my stuff, here are some links:
www.tomwehrle.com
www.myspace.com/tomwehrle
www.milkskakestudios.com - that's my lil studio

This is not an add, it's just for the doubters (and be sure to download stuff if you wanna hear the clarity as some of the stuff you might hear is smaller sound file mp3's, etc). On first try at doing the singer/songwriter and playing a lot of instruements, it was a total of 3 guys that played everything you heard, some of the songs I did everything. When I decided to do another project, I knew I wanted to get more people in to help me, a drummer on all the songs, a bass player, different guitarist, etc...for variety's sake and just to mix it up seeing that I knew a lot more people after the first cd. Anyways, personally for me, having other people come in and play on my tracks was like a breath of fresh air sometimes, it would really motivate me and inspire me to keep going...cause sometimes doing everything on a song, you really start to wonder "is this really what should be done with this instruement part?" Hope that makes sense. Some of the songs I did all by myself, I wish I could have had other people play on them as I'm not that great of guitarist, and drums that were programmed, I wish I had real drums on them, cause I think they pretty much always sound better.

Some other things I've learned while on the last project, I had this drummer come over and lay about 10 songs in 4-5 hours which was amazingly fast seeing that he had never heard the songs before...anyways, one of my Oktava's started acting up, which I had noticed when we first started recording, but I thought I had caught it everytime it had happened...well the next day after he was long gone, I noticed some of the songs we did, half way through the song, the mic would cut out or something, then come back in, it's my fault for not noticing it (bad enigeering) but since I'm bascially in the next room over and doing everything on headphones, I never noticed, I was more concerned about timing and producing the actual performance, so those songs were never really further pursued, haha.

As far as what I'd recommend on mics, I'm not really impressed with my AKG D112 and have just purchased a Audix D6 (which you can pick up pretty cheap on ebay, around 160), I haven't used it yet, but I love my D1, and have read so many good reviews about the D6 I'm pretty sure I'll be selling my D112 really soon. What I'm trying to say is, get a decent mic for you kick, it wont cost much and will be worth it. The KSM32 does a good job on vocals, and to mix it up use a 57 or 58 on the verses or chorus of a song, and the KSM on the other parts, I've done that once or twice and liked the effect.

So, my final tid bit...you can sit around and talk about gear all day, pre's, outboard compressor's/effects...those things aren't going to really make you write or perform a better song, sure it will make them sound more professional possibly, but a great song is always a great song, and a great performance doesnt have to be recorded in a million dollar studio for it to be amazing, I love songwriting and tracking ideas down, but for me, I have to think "what is my goal with this?" "what am i trying to say?" - not trying to get really deep, but, a lot of the stuff I hear coming out these days is bunch of poooo, people are more concerned about how cool a cd sounds as opposed to what's being said or the musical aspect of it, even friends I know, the bands they're in, I'm like...what!? it's just rubish noise to me that's already being done...find what you're trying to say through music or a song, and think "i have 3-4 minutes to get this 1 point driven home...how am i going to do it?" that's my theory at least

Hope some of that helps...it was long, sorry, but it was my first post!!
TW

ps...i'm horrible with leaving words out and spelling, it's just the nature of the beast i guess

[Henchman]

Originally Posted by joemeekfreak

First off, all these peopel doubting that you can't get good drum sounds in a small room are wrong. I have a room that's probably 12x12 ft in a basement, so the ceiling is low too. I'm not saying I get amazing drum sounds, but if you heard my stuff, i doubt you would have guessed that.

Well, I'm not saying your drumsounds are bad, becasue they aren't. But they are definitly the sound of a small room. Whenever I havee had to track in rooms with low ceilings, I hang something over the drums, and make sure there's a carpet as well. This stops that annoying slapback that is so recognizable in small rooms.

[tomwehrle]

Originally Posted by Henchman

Well, I'm not saying your drumsounds are bad, becasue they aren't. But they are definitly the sound of a small room. Whenever I havee had to track in rooms with low ceilings, I hang something over the drums, and make sure there's a carpet as well. This stops that annoying slapback that is so recognizable in small rooms.

Oh I know they're not world class, but they're a ton better then most indie ones I hear, and most the ones I hear coming out of other St Louis studios that charge quiet a bit, also...my room is carpeted and I have some foam stuff around the room (it's pretty dry), but i'll have to try what you said, cause I didnt put anything over the top of the drums, and if that would help, I'd do it, cause the only slap back I do get it from the ceiling...darn that ceiling, haha

[trident fan]

i like the song without you. what gear did u use on this tune? it's sounds very decent.

[AtlantaPowerPop]

Originally Posted by joemeekfreak

I read your post and felt like it was worthy of finally signing up on here and saying something, seeing as though, I've done pretty much what you're trying to do 2 times now

First off, all these peopel doubting that you can't get good drum sounds in a small room are wrong. I have a room that's probably 12x12 ft in a basement, so the ceiling is low too. I'm not saying I get amazing drum sounds, but if you heard my stuff, i doubt you would have guessed that. I also own some of the same mics you got, here's what I did for most of my last project, as far as mics go:

Shure SM57 - top of snare
Audix D1 - bottom of snare
2 Okatava's - overheads, about as high as I could get them from the kit, space at about 2-3 feet away from each other
AKG D112 - Kick
Shure KSM32's - on the toms (only used a two tom setup)

I used to have a digi001, but it's been awhile, I now have a TDM setup, so my pres were:

HHB Radius 10 - both snares and overheads
DBX 386 - toms
Joe Meek Studio Channel - kick

If you wanna hear some of my stuff, here are some links:
www.tomwehrle.com
www.myspace.com/tomwehrle
www.milkskakestudios.com - that's my lil studio

This is not an add, it's just for the doubters (and be sure to download stuff if you wanna hear the clarity as some of the stuff you might hear is smaller sound file mp3's, etc). On first try at doing the singer/songwriter and playing a lot of instruements, it was a total of 3 guys that played everything you heard, some of the songs I did everything. When I decided to do another project, I knew I wanted to get more people in to help me, a drummer on all the songs, a bass player, different guitarist, etc...for variety's sake and just to mix it up seeing that I knew a lot more people after the first cd. Anyways, personally for me, having other people come in and play on my tracks was like a breath of fresh air sometimes, it would really motivate me and inspire me to keep going...cause sometimes doing everything on a song, you really start to wonder "is this really what should be done with this instruement part?" Hope that makes sense. Some of the songs I did all by myself, I wish I could have had other people play on them as I'm not that great of guitarist, and drums that were programmed, I wish I had real drums on them, cause I think they pretty much always sound better.

Some other things I've learned while on the last project, I had this drummer come over and lay about 10 songs in 4-5 hours which was amazingly fast seeing that he had never heard the songs before...anyways, one of my Oktava's started acting up, which I had noticed when we first started recording, but I thought I had caught it everytime it had happened...well the next day after he was long gone, I noticed some of the songs we did, half way through the song, the mic would cut out or something, then come back in, it's my fault for not noticing it (bad enigeering) but since I'm bascially in the next room over and doing everything on headphones, I never noticed, I was more concerned about timing and producing the actual performance, so those songs were never really further pursued, haha.

As far as what I'd recommend on mics, I'm not really impressed with my AKG D112 and have just purchased a Audix D6 (which you can pick up pretty cheap on ebay, around 160), I haven't used it yet, but I love my D1, and have read so many good reviews about the D6 I'm pretty sure I'll be selling my D112 really soon. What I'm trying to say is, get a decent mic for you kick, it wont cost much and will be worth it. The KSM32 does a good job on vocals, and to mix it up use a 57 or 58 on the verses or chorus of a song, and the KSM on the other parts, I've done that once or twice and liked the effect.

So, my final tid bit...you can sit around and talk about gear all day, pre's, outboard compressor's/effects...those things aren't going to really make you write or perform a better song, sure it will make them sound more professional possibly, but a great song is always a great song, and a great performance doesnt have to be recorded in a million dollar studio for it to be amazing, I love songwriting and tracking ideas down, but for me, I have to think "what is my goal with this?" "what am i trying to say?" - not trying to get really deep, but, a lot of the stuff I hear coming out these days is bunch of poooo, people are more concerned about how cool a cd sounds as opposed to what's being said or the musical aspect of it, even friends I know, the bands they're in, I'm like...what!? it's just rubish noise to me that's already being done...find what you're trying to say through music or a song, and think "i have 3-4 minutes to get this 1 point driven home...how am i going to do it?" that's my theory at least

Hope some of that helps...it was long, sorry, but it was my first post!!
TW

ps...i'm horrible with leaving words out and spelling, it's just the nature of the beast i guess

Nice songs. I'd rather hear your voice without such an excessive use of auto-tune, however. Auto-tune makes things sound too perfect, and too perfect sounds, well, unnatural.

[keithl]

I too agree not to worry about not getting a "world class" drum sound in a house. I am currently recording my next CD and thought about going to a big studio to lay down the drums. But I got a decent sound (good enough for me) in my basement..

1) saved cash
2) learned more about drums/mic'ing/mixing
3) have a nice grin on my face knowing that all the parts on the cd were done in my house

I think sometimes we get hung up on getting "THE" sound (I do it also!) and have to realize what we are working with and the capabilities of ourselves...once you are cool with that, the rest goes down much easier.

So my opinion, don't get caught up with "my ceilings are only 8 foot high, my drums are going to sound bad"....just throw some mics up and learn....The more you do it, the better you will become.

I do not have any samples of my new stuff on my site, but my last album was done on a VS1680 (admittedly, does not sonically sound the best!), but I was able to do a lot with that CD and getting them on television shows...it's a nice feeling that all of it was done in a basement.

Good luck with your new CD

Keith
www.keithlubrant.com

[tomwehrle]

Originally Posted by trident fan

i like the song without you. what gear did u use on this tune? it's sounds very decent.

All the stuff I mentioned above, i tracked all the drums the same way, for the most part on the songs, some were done at a different time, but yeah...for vocals I either used the KSM32 or Blueberry into the DBX or Joe Meek, can't remember what unless I pulled it up...thanks though

[tomwehrle]

Originally Posted by AtlantaPowerPop

Nice songs. I'd rather hear your voice without such an excessive use of auto-tune, however. Auto-tune makes things sound too perfect, and too perfect sounds, well, unnatural.

Yeah, sometimes it's just quicker when I get the performance I want though, cause seeing that I am recording it myself, running back in forth between rooms can get annoying, if I had someoen to do the recording for me, I wouldnt use it, I dont know what tune you're listening to, but I didnt even think I used it that much...hmmm, bummer

[Sol String]

You need a good soundcard to go with your PC, hopefully you've already got that. For your acoustic stuff, keep experimenting. I would not worry about the bedroom, some of the worlds greatest recordings were done in a home environment. I can't play the drums either so I have used Groove Agent for that. If you learn ALL the details of that software, it really rocks. If you want to use virtual instruments for, say, piano or strings, I think Native Instruments provides a good selection of cool programs and samples. The Komplete 2 bundle gives you lot of value for your money but is expensive ($1200). If you're not into synthesizers you may be better off just buying one or two of those instruments (Kompakt for instance).
There are plenty of free plug-ins which will at least get you started. My favourite free plug-ins are from Kjaerhus Audio. Check out their Free Series at http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php. Easy to use as well!

Good luck and best regards.

[teleharmonic]

one thing you might want to look at getting is a pair of headphones with good isolation (i use the 'extreme isolation' ones but i know there are others). It is helpful to get as little acoustic bleed as possible when you are trying to position a mic... the more you know what the mic is 'hearing' the better.

another thought i had is that i would use the fact that you have a small setup with a laptop to your advantage. for recording drums you can hook up with a drummer and find a nice big empty room somewhere... school, warehouse, parents on vacation, rent a room cheap... whatever... and have some fun playing with what kind of sounds you can get.

i have done this with a laptop and it can be an economical way of getting decent and unique drum sounds.

[Henchman]

Originally Posted by joemeekfreak

Oh I know they're not world class, but they're a ton better then most indie ones I hear, and most the ones I hear coming out of other St Louis studios that charge quiet a bit, also...my room is carpeted and I have some foam stuff around the room (it's pretty dry), but i'll have to try what you said, cause I didnt put anything over the top of the drums, and if that would help, I'd do it, cause the only slap back I do get it from the ceiling...darn that ceiling, haha

I think that having the carpet on the floor and something over the kit might be enough. Try not completely deading the room, remove the foam.
I've gotten great drumsounds in small rooms.
Try it, and let us know how it goes.

[prismtheory]

Let me know your thoughts on the following

1) I am trying to record a decent album. If I'm going to go through all the work of doing it, I want it to sound good. Are there any major holes in my system that you can see and how would you improve it. (I don't have much of a budget to work with, but am open to suggestions)

2) Any suggestions for engineering your own recordings?

3) How would your record a basic drum set for the sounds I am going for with what I have?

4) If I had $5000.00 to spend to upgrade this studio, how would you do it? (Keep in mind I am going to stick with the 002 and protools for a while, so using that as my base system, what would you add on?)

5) To get a good acoustic guitar sound (strummed), much like what I hear on the coldplay album/ David Gray, where its really earthy sounding, but not too brite and not too bassy...That might be too vague, so disregard that if need be. How would you setup the mics and mix?


As usual, you guys and gals are awesome and your thoughts are much appreciated.

-Zach[/QUOTE]



There's a couple of answers if you're asking.

My first: If I didn't know what I was doing and I had 5,000. I'd pay someone who actually knows what they're doing to record and do my record. It's an investment...and a high quality production will shine brighter than a mediocre one....unless the music sucks.



Secondly. Just start experimenting and talking with people who are better. If you want to be great...you have to surround yourself with greatness.
This stuff will rub off for sure.

Good luck.

[teleharmonic]

Another solution to this dilemna is to do a hybrid approach.

Rent some time at a good studio and prepare a few songs with a drummer. You go to the studio in a 'producer' sort of role. Let the drummer drum and absorb all that you can about the micing/recording process.

Take the drum tracks home and start overdubbing over top. You'll have good sounding drums tracks (which is a big part of the battle) and some good experience to get you running. Working with people who know what they are doing can help inspire you.