OK, I finally got all the things I think I need to make semi professional if not a professional sounding CD in my bedroom, since nothing else goes on there now. :( .
I have the Roland VS 2400 with expansion board, Antares pitch correction, UA compressor bundle with the Massenberg EQ and IK mastering plugins coming from Roland(rebate). Plus a mouse and monitor.
Speaking of monitors I have a pair of Alesis powered ones that surprisingly sound clear, clean and flat. I was surprised at how good they do sound and they don't make this model anymore.
For preamps I have a UA Solo 610, Summit 2BA-221 and a great River ME-1NV. Yeah I know nice stuff and probably overkill.
Mics are for my vocal only and I have a Shure SM58 and a RODE NT-1A.
For drums I have a Roland HPD-15 and a Yamaha DD-55 with some out board stuff like dbx 166 compressors, Ashley and Rane EQ's, an old Orban para EQ, Aphex 204 to try and make them sound as real as possible.
For guitar I am going to use a POD 2.0 and have 16 guitars and bases to choice from. Along with a rotosim(kind of highend Leslie repro pedal)and voodoo labs chorus.
Plus a Microboards unit to make copies.
For my first attempt I will try and keep it simple, as I mentioned before, just guitar bass and another guitar or two. This might take a little time to get everything up and working. That Roland book sucks and is very hard to understand. I almost sent the thing back.
Wish me luck since this is territory I am not familiar with. I'm totally used to having only knobs, sliders and switches. I'm used to tape at studios and cassettes at home.
Yes I sold my soul and I owe. spent a pretty penny and a lot more than I wanted to, those cables alone. .hundreds of dollars. I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself and I expect nothing but as high a quality product as my equipment allows me.
If anybody thinks I missed something PLEASE let me know. I would really appreciate that.
Since I'm using power off of an apartment complex I have a tripplite iso transformer and power regulator so I will see clean 120 volts no matter what.
Did I miss anything? If anybody has one of those talent pedals I could use that too. :lol:
Hopefully my body and health holds up long enough to make some nice CD's and leave some type of legacy. For all those years of playing and all that money buying and selling guitars and amps for close to 40 years.
Wish me luck!
Comments
Well, since you're in an apartment setting, I noticed 2 things y
Well, since you're in an apartment setting, I noticed 2 things you didn't mention:
Headphones: Nice comfy ones like Grados or Sennheisers.
Sound containment: I use a few of those office cubicle panels that have some sound absorption on one/both sides. That, and some moving blankets can make a workable vocal booth where the neighbors don't hear me as much. Plus it keeps the "room" out of the mic, especially with the Rode.
Are you in an upstairs apartment? I have one of those Yamaha DD55's, and beating on it can drive the folks downstairs crazy! A moving blanket laid out on the floor under the stand can dampen that some.
Good luck!!
It sounds to me like you'll never emerge from your apartment aga
It sounds to me like you'll never emerge from your apartment again? It certainly doesn't sound like you're singing the blues? On the contrary, I was told that Hanukkah comes early this year (since I'm Jewish and I don't keep up with this myself). It sounds like you've already been paid a visit by old St. Nick Goldstein? Goldberg? One of those guys.
Happy ThanksHanukkah!
Can't wait to hear what you come up with. Will it be ready Tuesday?
Ms. Remy Ann David
Thanks for you support I really appreciate it, more than you can
Thanks for you support I really appreciate it, more than you can know.
Yes I like that, my own little time machine...LOL....awesome.
On the DD-55, I use the out and it cuts off the speakers. I can go direct and use processors. The kick sounds good but the snare sucks. The snare on the Roland is better. It will take time to figure it all out.
I was going to work on some stuff today...no go. My back is killing me from making a turkey. Just bending and moving around knocks me out a few days. I just have to restring my favorite guitar and I am going to hit that Roland 2400 and start recording in a day or two.
I hope to have something in a few weeks barring any incidents with my back.
I tried to sign up for soundclick but it seems they are not sending me a activation code....it's always something.
I fooled around a bit with those preamps and I will say the great river is fat and toneful...wow. That's one piece I'm glad I picked up.
bigdaddybluesman wrote: On the DD-55, I use the out and it cuts
bigdaddybluesman wrote: On the DD-55, I use the out and it cuts off the speakers. I can go direct and use processors. The kick sounds good but the snare sucks. The snare on the Roland is better. It will take time to figure it all out.
Try MIDI, BigDaddy? 8) Apparently, the Roland looks like it would be much more expressive, but the Yamaha looks easier to hit the different pads,
instead of that big circular pad...but I don't know...just looks that way.
Several things you could try. If you can map the sounds of one to match the other, you can trigger both units from one. Then, record each into seperate tracks. Mix'n'match. I doubt the Yamaha pads will send all info necessary to make the Roland's play most expressively, and I doubt the Roland's apparently expanded expressiveness will be replicated by the Yamaha, were you to use either to trigger the other.
You'd probably do yourself a favor by getting at least one item "missing" from your setup, if you don't already have it. A computer MIDI sequencing program, and the physical MIDI I/O.
If you don't plan on doing any, or not a lot of, audio recording into a computer, then you should be able to pick up a fairly capable MIDI sequencing program pretty cheap, or even perhaps free. Why would you want that?
Seperation and/or replacement of the drum sounds, and more control.
You can bang on the pads to record the data into the sequencer. Then, you have it backed up, and it can probably be synced to your recording device to play back, saving tracks on your recording device, since you don't necessarily have to put drums on yet.
When it does come time to put drums on, you can run them all at once stereo into the recording device, or you can record each piece of the kit seperately by soloing each piece out of the sequencer to trigger only, say, the kick on the drum module(s). Use whichever kick you want, treat it however you want. Instead of having all the drums going through the same compression, you can compress the kick more, and compress the snare, cymbals, whatever...differently. Mix and bounce them down to stereo after they are in the recording device.
Or, you could do all the drum mixing, bouncing, etc., first, and just play along until you are confident that is is how you want them to sound. Maybe record a scratch guitar to the recording device, and sync up the computer MIDI sequencer as slave to the recording device as master. (MIDI follows audio better than audio follows MIDI).
Another advantage is that you can tweak each MIDI drum track instrument in an Event List or Piano Roll editor in the sequencing software.
I'm not sure what kind of MIDI messages the Roland pad might send and react to, but it's possible that a decent sequencing package will recognize and store all or most of the expressive performance settings once recorded in. This gives you a backup of your performance,which can be edited...instead of an audio-only backup. A year later, you can connect whichever drum module you want, bring up the sequence, and there it is. Once it is audio, though, it's audio. You can't easily replicate the performance, and there's only so much you can do to the mix and sounds.
If you decided later to use computer plug-in instrument drum sets, the performance is there. You simply select which drum set, in or out of the computer, you want to use, and try different sounds. Try mixing the same basic sounds from two or more. A snappy, beater kick from the Roland, a round VST plug-in one, and a roomy Yamaha one. Mix'n'match at will. A combination of sounds MAY give you what is missing from one. AND, it always follows the recording device, so you can do it over and over and over again, until you like it. Also, while it's playing, it leaves both hands free to perhaps audition different drum sounds from any modules.
If you don't have one, you could use a small mixer, or just use the recording device mixer to record all in, and bounce down. It's limitless what you could do.
You can also back up your MIDI device's programming and settings using System Exclusive messages, if the sequencing program allows it. You then may be able to send a message to the module(s) to reset to the parameters for each particular MIDI song file, if desired.
Backing up MIDI device settings and parameters also has one more benefit. If an internal memory-storage battery dies, all data may be lost.
If you have all that backed up, you may be able to simply replace the battery, reinitialize the unit, and hopefully be able to dump all that back in, if it lost it all. Yeah, it can get complicated, but what good is a MIDI device with no functionality? The sequencing program has to be able to do all of this, though, or you can find Sysex Librarian utilities that can do it.
Worth checking into, maybe?
Just throwing stuff out to see if anything sticks.
Kapt.Krunch
I thought about midi drums and since I never worked with midi I
I thought about midi drums and since I never worked with midi I figured the other stuff would be difficult enough. eventually if I do not get the sound I want I might have to pursue that road. But I have the Roland hand pad which does have some great drum sounds and the DD-55 along with a lot of processors both analog and inside the VS 2400 itself.
The DD-55 actually has a nice sounding kick and toms...the cymbals and snare are horrible and I don't think I can do anything with them. That Roland HPD was expensive and has a lot of useful sounds, nice high hat too.
I like the sound of a 60's Ludwig kit, you know typical 24" kick, chrome snare and old Zildjin cymbals.....can I make them sound that way.....who knows.
My head phones are Sennheiser HD 280's.
My room is small and filled with wood furniture. On the wall with all my stuff I have a lot of Auralex foam. The room is dead but has a nice sound to it. I will only be doing vocals and maybe a tambourine, everything else is direct.
Good Luck Bigdaddybluesman! Don't forget to get lost in the mom
Good Luck Bigdaddybluesman!
Don't forget to get lost in the moment, and enjoy it all. Even if that moment involves throwing the manual across the room.