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Geek Culture / So a group of friends and I started a band...

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Happy Cheesecake
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Posted: 9th Aug 2012 08:58
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And although it might be a simple question to ask, we'd like to know how to record what we play so we can share it with other people. It's nothing spectacular, what we play, but we'd still like to get a better quality than what an iPod microphone covered in a blanket is giving us, haha.

As far as current equipment goes, we're almost bare. We've got the essentials such as amps for the stringed instruments, the cords required to play on the amps, a simple double bass drum set, and a PA System with microphones, but that's all we've got. We're not wanting to spend a lot of money on equipment to record ourselves, either. Again, we're just hobbyists without a clue where to start.

I know a few of you are especially knowledgeable when it comes to music and everyone is knowledgeable when it comes to technology in general, so does anybody have some suggestions for some cheap recording options? Any advice would be outstanding.
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Kezzla
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Posted: 9th Aug 2012 09:31 Edited at: 9th Aug 2012 09:40
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get an old tape recorder and get someone to walk around the room and find a point where everything sounds nicely mixed. place the tape recorder's mic' at the position of the persons head and facing in the direction they were facing.

The way sound records to tape offers some natural compression which can sound quite nice and it's very low budget.

record the line out from the tape player straight into windows sound recorder(making sure to set levels to get maximum volume without clipping)

That's about the lowest budget recording I can think of.

edit:

looking at your gear list...

how many channels is your pa?

plug the line out's from your amps into the line in's for the pa channels.

put your vox mic straight into the pa.

get another 3 mics, put one inside the hole of the bass drum,
one on the snare
and another one facing the kit from a small distance.

im assuming you have an 8 channel PA

1 vox
2 guitar
3 guitar
4 bass
5 drums kick
6 drums snare
7 drums room
8 - whatever else

you can then hook your line out to your computer for a mono recording of the mix (once it is balanced, which may take some trial and error)

Sometimes I like to use words out of contents
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Kevin Picone
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Posted: 9th Aug 2012 09:35
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Back in the day, i'd often record rehearsal with just a open mic an cassette recorder. Giving us a one track live recording of the session. It's cheap and cheerful but can give fairly reasonable results if you get the positioning of the instruments just right relative to the mic. The position and orientation relate to the volume in output recording. Which is pretty much how the first recording artists recorded albums.

Today i'd just use a laptop/pc as the recorder. If you can get separation between the players, or the players know the parts well enough, then you can make multi track recordings much the same way. If you've just making demos, then it's often best to record most instructions together, as the separation tends to alter the feel.


Mobile Platforms Are Coming
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 9th Aug 2012 13:12 Edited at: 9th Aug 2012 13:14
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I use this...

http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/0440580/details.html?kbid=1582

It records straight to MP3, and also has built in Guitar effects, so does two jobs in one. It's not just for guitars, it will work with keyboards, and straight from a mixer as line in. It also has a built in mic, so will work on batteries as a stand alone recorder. It saves to SD card.

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Travis Gatlin
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Posted: 9th Aug 2012 20:07
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Well, we use a direct input from our guitars, through a pedal, into the computer, which gets good sound... But your best bet is to get a nice 8 track (or more) mixer, which are pretty darn cheap now, and just record directly that way. The most you'll have to spend is around $400 for the mixer and the instrument cables. But I understand if that's too expensive.

http://www.3dartistonline.com/user/Travis%20Gatlin
You can find my latest work here. Please comment on my work and tell me what you think!
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Happy Cheesecake
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Posted: 9th Aug 2012 20:12
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I really love seeing such great feedback, haha.

I like the idea of using a cassette tape recorder just because it's so cheap. And you're sure it'll give an okay sound? I imagine once it's recorded the music onto the tape then there'd have to be a way to plug it into the computer and I'm not sure how to do that. Any suggestions on what tape recorder I could get for the best results?

Concerning the PA System, it has 8 channels, just like you guessed, heh. What I'm wondering is how to plug the line-out into a computer. I'm just not very well acquainted with the hardware associated with music, but it doesn't take an expert to know that a quarter-inch cable won't plug straight into my computer, haha. Are there adapters for using it like that that I don't know about?
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Kezzla
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Posted: 9th Aug 2012 21:10
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the problem with covering your mic with a blanket like you did is that the high frequency energy is dampened by the blanket so it will sound muffled and boxy. all this while doing nothing to stop the lower frequencies which just punch through it like a wet paper bag and distort your recording.

you really need the mic in the open air to capture the smaller wavelengths which is where the clear or pristine sound is.

so you have 1/4 inch line outputs?
your mix will be mono so you only need one of them outputting(just dont pan anything on the pa) get a big to small adapter (about 2$) it will work fine. this will give you a pretty clear dry mix(dry as in no room reverb noise) but you will get more signal hum.

The tape player will have less signal hum and more natural reverb from the room which will be pleasing to the ear. but you will have to sacrifice some of the pristine clarity of the instrument signals.

you will be surprised by the quality of a run of the mill cassette recorder. maybe wont sound so flash coming out of the tape recorders speakers, but play the tape through something decent and you will have a not too shabby garage mix. my old band got some very pleasing recordings out of an old tape player my mum had owned since before i was born... I wonder where that tape went?

go to an opshop and see if you can track down something really old.

...on second though, it might be harder to find a tape these days!

Sometimes I like to use words out of contents
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Le Shorte
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Posted: 10th Aug 2012 08:23
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I use Mixcraft with my *cough* "band." Only $75, so not bad. Plus, you can demo some things out with the built-in MIDI writers and even hook up MIDI instruments if you don't want to wake up the neighbors. We use standard mics (Rock Band and other generic types) for my drums and a cable that makes the guitar and bass inputs. There are also a lot of effects you can put on the tracks and such, and our guitarist even started using Mixcraft instead of his actual amp

There's also a free trial that last for two weeks, I believe. After that's done, you can keep using the full program, just not mix the track to a file-type other than a Mixcraft file.

And sorry if this isn't what you're looking for. I'm rather tired and skimmed over the thread, mostly.

Cheesehead for life.
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Happy Cheesecake
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Posted: 10th Aug 2012 08:35
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Quote: "so you have 1/4 inch line outputs?
your mix will be mono so you only need one of them outputting(just dont pan anything on the pa) get a big to small adapter (about 2$) it will work fine. this will give you a pretty clear dry mix(dry as in no room reverb noise) but you will get more signal hum."


Ahh, I believe this is what we'll end up doing. The tape recorder does sound like a valid option if we're not satisfied with everything, though.

@Le Shorte

MixCraft looks pretty nifty, heh! In fact, we might give the trial a go and see how we like it. Thanks for the suggestion.
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