PunBB

Does anyone here know of a good pc based record program. I would like to be able to record guitar and vocals and be able to do some minor editing. As well I am trying hard to find a good mic for vocals any suggestions??

I do not use it much - but it may be what you are looking for.
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The most important thing you need to record is RAM! You will need at least 500 in RAM.

I use Cool Edit Pro 2.0 because its easy. Its an average program but easy for editing and tracking. But you will need a good sound card as well, so dont forget about that.

I would recommend buying decent stuff and not the cheapest stuff. You get what you pay for. I bought a couple M Audio soundcards cause they were cheap but after a while you would upgrade to get better sounds out of your recordings. So my advice is buy something decent in the soundcard area. I use the Presonus Firebox, its an external soundcard so I can use it on my PC and laptop. It has a built in mixer and latencty controls.

So my chain is:
Amp->Shure 57 mic->Firebox->Cool Edit Pro 2.0

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Im have some good knowledge of this stuff so ask any questions

as for a mic I asked around and was told this is a good one for the price. around $130 US

Sennheiser e825S

I think almost any multitrack editor would do as long as you're keeping it simple. For my money, the simplest and quickest running one out there is Sonic Foundry's Vegas Video. It is a video editor as well, but works great as a simple audio one and has lots of built in effects.

As for microphones, the standard mic that you can use for anything from recording a guitar to throwing at rowdy groupies in self defense is the shure SM57. Industry standard.

I concur. The microphone that has been recommended to you, Ballgame, is a decent microphone, but it isn't very versatile. For versatilities sake, the Shure SM57, is your best bet... or if it's going to be used more often for vocals than anything else, I'd lean towards the SM58.

You can get both for around $130 CDN here in Ottawa.

As far as recording goes, I would recommend Mackie's Traction (go to <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.mackie.com">http://www.mackie.com</a><!-- m --> for details) if your budget is very low.... otherwise, a good entry level (read: affordable) substitute is Sonar 4 Producers edition... which you can check out at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.cakewalk.com">http://www.cakewalk.com</a><!-- m -->

I use the Shure 57 for guitar tracking but never used it for vocals. I will have to try that

I just started fooling around with recording and find it a bit difficult to grasp. I would like to get good at some simple recording.
I have been trying recording 1 guitar track, playing it back and recording another guitar track for lead or fills, then after thats done play those back and do a vocal track. Is that the correct approach? I have no Idea about mixing the tracks properly.
I think I need to find a "Recording for Dummy's" book.

Sounds like you're on the right track to me.

The first thing you have to grasp is the mechanics of recording.... which it seems like you've done.

Once everything is recorded, you play with the mix settings until you find a nice mix.

After that, play around... you'll find lots of new tricks you can apply to your tunes.
And, if you're ever stuck.... there's something you want to do that you don't know how, or want to know something specific, throw a post or two down here. I'm sure someone here can help you out.

--edit--

And, there's NEVER a correct approach to recording. If it works, do it.

moejiles Wrote:I just started fooling around with recording and find it a bit difficult to grasp. I would like to get good at some simple recording.
I have been trying recording 1 guitar track, playing it back and recording another guitar track for lead or fills, then after thats done play those back and do a vocal track. Is that the correct approach? I have no Idea about mixing the tracks properly.
I think I need to find a "Recording for Dummy's" book.

I would assume you have a multitracker right?
Typically the way I do it is like this. There is no one right way to record because its all in what you want. Its music so you can do what you want. But most bands do it the way I do (Or I do the way they do)
Record one rhythm guitar to a click track (also called a scratch track) to make sure its in time. Then record drums over that. the you want to redo the rhythm track to fine tune it to the drum track. Then you do bass, after bass I like to do vocals and then record the fills. I like to do the fills last because I like to mimic the vocal lines. But this is just the way I do it so you might find a different approach.

I also demo songs to a drum machine for my band so they can get the full idea of what Im thinking.

Its all trial and error. A really big part of record is mic placement. The slightest movement can change the sound. It gets frustrated for me sometimes cause if I have to revisit a part I might not be able to find the sound I had. So I take notes of my settings and whatnot to try to find it again

At the end of the day its what works best for you, so be creative and try different things

This is a good book, I recommend it

schaggs Wrote:And, there's NEVER a correct approach to recording. If it works, do it.

I couldnt agree more, great advice!

Thanks for the advise guys... I'll keep playing around then. Like I said, I am keeping it simple with just a couple of acoustic guitars and a vocal.

what software are you recording with?

I personally use Sonar Cakewalk 4 Professional which I got off a Bit-Torrent site. Cakewalk is fairly powerful audio recording software, and I much prefer it over the Sonic Foundry software I got (legitimately) a few years back. When I was in a band a few years ago I ran the bass, guitar and drums (with three exlusive mics) through a Eurorack mixer right into my computer.

But for all purposes now (not being in a band), I just record my guitar, drums and bass through my line in on my external soundcard connected to my laptop.

Realistically, your best bet is just to take a few hours and find good software on a bit-torrent, experiment with it, try to understand it's language and go from there.

Sonar is really good from what I hear. What sucks is every program is a new language and time is hard to come by to sit down and learn. Cool Edit Pro 2.0 is basic but I know how to use it. I would like to upgrade to something a little better but wish there was a class at a local music store to show me how to run the thing.
The one thing that drives me nuts about CEP is that once I mixdown the volume is low. So if you mixdown a song and then add it to a play list of other professional songs there is a huge volume gap.

das_hips, any chance you would post the songs you recorded?