The Songwriter Forum - songwriting reviews, tips and chat
Songwriter Forum => Recording => Topic started by: mr_T on July 01, 2009, 09:10:12 AM
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I've got a Tascam digital 4 track portastudio a bit like this one only older http://www.tascam.com/products/dp-004.html
is it any good for making song demos or do I need to save up and get protools or something? Sorry for the noob questions but I am new to making music and I really want to be good.
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hey mr_T
I don't really know much about recording, but a friend of mine told me that any digital recorder is capable of making a decent recording, and that the things you use to capture the sounds (eg mics) and instrument quality are actually the more important factors.
My own recordings are done on my PC with a medium priced vocal mic, and they sound pretty rubbish, but then, I don't really know how to use the gear very well. My friend has promised to teach me :)
I'll post my new knowledge when I acquire it :p
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It depends on what you are planning to do with the tracks once they are recorded. The main advantage to getting something like Pro Tools is for the advanced sound editing features. A digital recorder such as the one you're looking at usually has some built-in effects (like reverb, compression and sometimes amp modelling), which will allow you to make the recording sound a bit more professional but the quality of these effects will be noticeably worse.
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I've got a Tascam digital 4 track portastudio a bit like this one only older http://www.tascam.com/products/dp-004.html (http://www.tascam.com/products/dp-004.html)
is it any good for making song demos or do I need to save up and get protools or something? Sorry for the noob questions but I am new to making music and I really want to be good.
If you want to record guitar and vocals then something like that should do the job just fine.
Keyboards, bass and even drums should record ok onto a Portastudio as well though you'd want to use all four tracks for the drums (one mic. per track) then bounce them onto one leaving the others free to record guitar, vocals etc.
Software like Pro-tools can certainly be good for pottering around with the sound. Putting effects on it, copy and pasting to correct mistakes etc. but it can be very complicated to use and is very expensive, so unless you want to do a lot of production and polishing it may be a tad over-zealous.
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I agree the quality of the sound coming in is in many ways more important than the device used to record it. So long as the machine is reliable, I would spend more time probably moving mics, and changing settings than actually capturing the sound itself(well, maybe not more, but a considerable time nonetheless).
It's amazing the difference a couple of inches or a change of angle can make to the sound that comes through a mic.
Here's an interesting beginners guide to mic positioning (http://www.mediacollege.com/audio/microphones/placement.html)
Here's a more detailed guide, but be warned you will need to create an account to view it properly Mic positioning guide (http://www.musictechmag.co.uk/mtm/features/10mm-115-mic-positioning)
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if you love the music then buy the best you can afford to get. once you have whatever your budget will stretch to, learn to use it. people take much more notice once the sound quality reaches a certain level.