[nooms]

Im with Kafla with songs the thing, sink or swim,

agree on the manuals Tinam, cant read them myself...
this might help you understand...stop me if youve heard it before

The old record turntable had a pre amp. it boosted the signal to your hi fi amp..
Pre amps in recorders and interfaces do the same and some do it better than others...
Therefore to get a better quality signal, depth, you use a phantom powered pre amp which is either built into the recorder or interface unit.
I use an old shure 58 which i like for some vocals, bit of edge or something and an AKG414 condenser mic.
the shure 58s a dynamic mic so goes into a line input jack..
The AKG s a condenser with a chunky xlr plug on it, it needs voltage to drive it and gets it from the desk or interface via phantom power.

Also agree that most people, including myself, cant tell the difference, its not what you listen to first time you hear something, your listening to the song, i think we only hear the ‘data’ when somethings amiss...or a hit.! .

Most my gear is ancient, acquired over the years and based around a tape machine.
Was two tape machines, the old B16 lives in the cupboard now, heads worn to zilch, but i retain and cherish the surviving Tascam 388 and will weep the day it doesnt answer me..
Ive got a lite version of protools on a pc which i use to edit with and an HDR recorder thats replaced the B16.
old Seck desk, very basic but it works in a simple fashion.
outboard fostex compressor and alisis midiverb.
Ive been fortunate and grateful to a close mate for the HDR, cos i couldnt have afforded it but o course i never learn and burned the card recently buying a beautiful kurzweil pc3x., i wanted the closest i could get to a real piano and wow was it worth the ear bashing...  however the manual is a phonebook and competely unreadable,  i just glaze over, but the piano sounds fantastic..

Understand your dream of a studio Ramshackles, really do,  if its supported by your community of players to do your own thing then thats beautiful, but if you rely on booking in bands and artists its another story, bad bad time for working studios, dying quietly in the forest...
people like us wont pay anymore, its sad cos as you say the right room is magic
 

for enthusiasts only..
(

  )  tascam388, found on you tube., .

[Kafla]

That videos class nooms

Yeah tinam you can plug anything you want into it, mines has 2 inputs plus 2 midi inputs so you can plug guitar, bass or keyboard into it.

But my keyboard is USB so I just plug that straight into mac

You don't need a mixer, your DAW will do that , I believe you use reaper.

So plug focus rite into pc/mac through USB. Reaper will recognise focus rite and your good to go.

I live the ride mic, will pick up a whisper !

[nooms]

morning kafla
yeh, great narrator,  dont know if he's taking the P or not !
bit like david brent !

[tina m]

thankyou nooms im pleased to hear someone else cant understand manuals!
thanks kafla im probly going to buy the rode & focusrite..... the only thing thats stopping me is ive always been rather proud that we have got so far with realy basic gear!

[Ramshackles]

Thats some groovy old stuff nooms 
It's definetly a nice signal chain (the focusrite and nt-1a), but you might want to do a bit of research before taking the plunge - there are a tonne of options at that price point. The saffire is an interface as well as preamp - if you already have an interface you might only want a preamp etc etc

[tina m]

oh well ive ordered it now ...my hubbie kept pestering me to buy it last night if that was what i wanted.... so i did & i will be having it for christmas
so youll all be telling us how good our singer sounds for a change when the new year comes!

[jim morrison]

My friend uses guitar rig and i must say i've never heard that quality before from software.Unless anyone can suggest anything better than this i think i'm going for it. Just think the equivalent in hardware i.e amps etc. would cost a fortune unless your jimmy page.
Whilst on the subject i would highly recommend watching 'it might get a bit loud' ,you can find it in bits on Youtube or just download from itunes.

[tina m]

My friend uses guitar rig

my brother said i should try guiatr rig it seemed realy expensive but i downloaded a demo version & i just could not get it to work proprly i spent ages fiddling around with it & the latency i got made it totaly unusable... i was extremley disapointed & glad i tried it first
see if you can get a demo version to see if it will work on your pc first
i am back using my Berringer Vamp2 ...cheap & simple & its not software so no latency

[Ramshackles]

I have gtr from waves which is pretty good...no substitute for the real thing, but useful when I want a different tone...

[jim morrison]

At the moment it's a case of boarding out our loft ,starting from scratch and then getting all my gear some where practical ,after this stage it could get interesting and expensive

[DailyDean]

My "studio" may just get a big boost. Found this RAM deal on Crucial. Have been having problems recording tracks with lots of recorded instruments but this may just help!

[Schavuitje]

Guitar rig is a good piece of kit there is no doubt about it. I have used it before. I think we are up to guitar rig 3 or 4 now.
I don't use it anymore though. Only because I bought a line 6 pod farm for my guitar AND for vocals as there are a lot of
vocal oriented stuff in it too. My guitar, vocals and Bass all go through the line 6.
It has a jack input for guitar plus your standard mic input. There are many many variations of effects, amps
and gear that you can use to get the sound you need, plus of course you can tweak everything. There are also tons of presets that you can
mess about with and tweak. Plus you don't need to spend a fortune on an expensive soundcard (If you are recording on a computer) because it
has it's own inbuilt which it uses.
I still have have guitar rig... Just never have to use it anymore.

[drewbonham]

...here's where i am with the home studio...currently converting single stand alone(ish) garage in to a studio...now the kids are finally playing music I can use the excuse of a "music room" (make funny gestures with fingers)...but its a studio ..end of:)

so it's only one room as can't stretch to a control room...and probably wouldnt need one as it will be mostly piano/guitar/midi stuff..

..the kits pretty basic yamaha p80, assorted guitars, sax. cubase and a couple or rode nt1...which are the start of a mic collection. The room is big enough to do drums if need be so am working to a 4 mic setup on that.

the point i'm at in the build is treating the room to make it work acousticly...very low ceiling and not massive. I'm building floor to ceiling bass traps out of rock wool (RW3) in all four corners as i want to kill the bass..i'm also using the same slabs of rock wool to create half a dozen acoustic panels for the walls and ceiling to cut down on standing waves...whatever they are. I have a friend who runs a studioand was really keen to have a look at the space and help me do it cheaply. I was looking at spending way too much on fancy acoustic tiles, but am assured that this "superchunking" bass traps will be even better and cheaper....and can even look ok too...so total acoustic treatment about £100

the room isn't particluarly soundproofed but am hoping the thermal isnsulation i have put in will help in both stopping sound get in or out.


completely agree with earlier comments on not needing a desk..i have one from the old days...and have picked up a cheap newer one as a swap..because it came with active monitors too... and apart from a convenient way of switching sources to my monitors its not much use....

... i still have the big "which interface to buy" question to answer...any advice.....must have midi and paontom power....unlikely to be doing a band  anytime soon so probably only need a couple of inputs but worried about buying something that i will grow out of too quick.....but then dont want to overpec/overpay for channels i will never use....any tips/advice greatfully received....



 

[estreet]

Hah Nooms! I had a Tascam 388 for many years. I bought it on HP in the mid 80's and it was the most expensive thing I've ever bought..... £2,500 was a lot of money in 1985! I had a lot of gear then based around a MIDI studio and I did a lot of recording for other people to help pay for it. I still do some recording for other bands - sometimes live gigs sometimes here - but I fall short of having a 'proper' studio although I did have a room for drums until I had to take in a lodger recently.

One thing I would say to anyone who dreams of having a commercial set-up is be careful. When you are in the situation of recording other people in order to pay for your gear that can have a big damping effect of your own enthusiasm for music. I don't think I ever finished more than a couple of things of my own in all the years I had the 388, and after recording streams of amateur singers who had won karaoke competitions and thought they were the bee's knees, I sold all my gear, not to write or record another thing for almost ten years. It was recording 'The Wind Beneath My Wings' three times in one week that had been the final straw.

When I got back into it I vowed to keep it simple and actually finish stuff: unlike before when all my own recordings were in a state of permanent flux and tweaking. Now I have more of a 'finish it in a few days' philosophy.

All my recent songs here - ie: Sad About Us, Your Light Will Shine and Rainsong were recorded on this set-up:

Korg D888 (wonderfully simple Hdd recorder that can do 8 tracks simultaneously)
Yamaha MX-16 mixer (for monitoring only really - wav files are dumped via USB and everything is mixed in Garageband).
I have an upmarket Roland pre-amp that I bought in a sale for £100 down from £500, but I often use the Korg ones on the recorder.

Mics:

Rode NTK-1 Valve Mic - overhead drums, acoustic guitars most vocals.
Rode M3 - this is actually my favourite mic for my own voice.
Several SM57, 58 and others for toms, guitars etc.
I use a 'Yoga' (Maplins) mic for bass drum - I have two . cheap as chips. Good for amps too.

Guitar amps
I'm a guitarist by trade so I do have a fair few of these:

Vox AC15 handwired - just changed for a Blackstar HT-50 last week.

Peavey Classic 20 - very unlike the ubiquitous Classic 30, The 20 has almost no very clean sound and breaks up early. This is my favourite recording amp - and many other people's (Beck (not Jeff) swears by his). Only made for a short period, they crop up now and then on e-bay. Amp of choice on most recordings.

Peavey Delta Blues - an old favourite

Roland Cube.

Fender external spring reverb unit. '63 re-issue. Essential for surf -'that' sound.

I'm not going to list my guitars. I have a lot.

Bass is nearly always a Ibanez Sound Gear 900 with active Bartollini pickups, DI'd. This bass records so beautifully. It cuts through on even the smallest speakers. I also have a Japanese Squier precision I use for Mic'd up bass sounds.

Garageband Garageband Garageband - I love it. Is there anything that can compare for free? Comes with every Mac. I mix everything in it. I resisted the urge to go to Logic in the spirit of keeping it simple and that works fine for me. Sometimes I record demos or non-drum things in just that.

[nooms]

hi estreet,
the old 388 is still running though its only a matter of time, its part of the family and the eq's brilliant i reckon but the heads are going, it hates rewinding sounds like an old tube train till it warms up...if i could afford to renovate it i would, found another recently on ebay, was in scotland, thought i could break one down and refurbish etc but i wouldnt know where to start so...
i bought it in 88 or 89 second hand from a bloke in notting hill for 1200 quid which was the most expensive thing id ever bought in my life... weighs about three ton but its a living thing...bet it gave you a turn if you watched that blokes vid of it...
...beats me why they cant just recreate its simplicity for a digital age, i guess its my problem though...just not into screens and nonsense that gets in the way...
QUESTION
ive now acquired a D888 which im finally getting to grips with. my problem with it is with what we used to call the trim pots, theyre  rubbish, on mine any way, only seem to wake up at full whack...ive since read a few reviews (after the event) which highlights the same problem...
did you notice this and if so what do you use to get around it, another di box unit whatever theyre called now...?
also doesnt seem right the channel select is a physical move of the incoming signal cable, ie if you want to record on another channel you have to physically move the cable...
i may be missing something here as im almost dyslexic with manuals and only read them on the way to the clinic..
any thoughts appreciated..
cheers
nooms