I recently moved and parted ways with my band buddy who owned and operated all of our recording equipment. I am a musician, so while I freely used all of his stuff, I never took notice of what any of it was or how it worked. Now I am in a spot and I need some recommendations on getting some of my own stuff. I play several instruments and songs typically consist of guitar, vocals, piano, synthesizer, and a host of other less used acoustic instruments. I would like to have everything that doesn't need mic'd plugged in all the time. As far as mics I usually use at least three at a time, two on the instrument one for vocals, sometimes two on vocals. I just need recording equipment that will allow me to go from instrument to instrument recording different sections and layers to the songs, I really have no other fancy requirements other than I want to get the best sound possible as my instruments are very nice and I need the recordings to reflect that.
Lastly, please folks if you could dumb down the answers that would save me the trouble of asking you what you mean, thanks.
Comments
I think my budget requires I go the MTR route, because of the co
I think my budget requires I go the MTR route, because of the cost of buying another computer dedicated to audio (can't use this one). I really need a 16 track but 8 would suffice, w/ cdr (recommendations please), I don't need effects or drums. Also I use 57's and 58's so what if any preamp should I buy. My buddy's setup used a nice Mackie mixer, I thought that was really convienent but is having a mixer for what I want pointless?
mics: 57s are pretty standard instrument mics, theyre on the che
mics: 57s are pretty standard instrument mics, theyre on the cheap end. 58s are basic vocal mics. if you have a live kit you could invest in a couple condinsers (i dunno where but theres a video on how to set up condinsers to be in phase using string or something)
daw: if you chose to use so, theres a lot of good ones on the cheap end. i use logic express ($300 but i think its mac only), im not entirely sure what a windows equivalent would be for budget.
other than that its just preamps, mixers, and computer interfaces, and usually the interfaces have preamps in them (and your daw works as a mixer of course).
you really dont need much to get started and i would highly suggest starting off minimum. its not necessarily the studio, its how someone uses it. any pro could get far better sounds out of my setup than i could in a studio any day. id suggest 1 mic on one instrument, track it, then repeat for all other instruments, then when you get it down and are use to YOUR equipment start adding mics (careful of phase, i forget but isnt it 1ft = 1ms? or is it 1 inch, youll have to look that up), then start adding equipment and effects and what not. youll end up knowing your setup like the back of your hand.