Hello! The next few questions may seem pretty stupid to you more knowledged people in this field, but... I was looking around for a good recording interface for my band, and I came across the PreSonus Firepod, which I am 98% going to buy in the next few weeks. Before I do I have some questions though.
1. (Stupid Question) What do the inputs do and what can plug into them - also what do the outputs do and what can plug into them as well.
2. I have 4 mics for the drums, 2 for vocals, 2 for guitars, 1 for bass. Since this is computer recording, would I need other equipment such as a mixer, compressor, etc, or does all of that already come with the recording program (Cubase).
3. What other besides good tuning and correct placement of the mic, could better help the sound of the drums, specifically the kick.
4. What is better for over-head recording. X-Y or on both sides?
Thank you much!
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andrewcubbie wrote: 1. (Stupid Question) What do the inputs do a
Inputs - plug the microphones in. That'll get the sound into your computer. Unless you're talking about line inputs.. You would use those to plug in (for example) the output of a different preamp, like say the one on your bass amp head or something, or a different mic preamp, which you might buy later.
Outputs - plug 2 of them into your stereo amp (or powered monitors) so you can hear whats going on. Plug some more into outboard processors if you have them. You probably don't.
You can mix on your computer. You can use plugins for compressors, etc in Cubase, but eventually you may want to buy a hardware mixer, and that'll require a different (larger) interface with more outputs than the firepod has.
Good drum. Good heads. Good mic. Good player.
Specific tips that may not work: two mics? one inside, close to the batter head. one outside to pick up the "boom". EQ-don't go nuts, but sucking back a bit of 350-400 sometimes helps. Compress, then EQ. Compression will get you closer than a bunch of eq.
Up to you. Try em both! I prefer a flat spaced pair, but sometimes I use a closer spaced pair (there's a special name for this technique) about 1.5-2' apart and angled about 30 degrees apart. The farther the mics are apart, and angled will make the stereo spread wider and diminish the stuff happening in the center.
Spaced pair generally works better if you have an unmatched set of mics.. two different mics, or just two slightly different sounding models of the same mic, because xy relies pretty much soley on the frequency response (on axis vs off axis) of each mic to get a stereo image. No time delay stereo imaging like with spaced pair, since both mics are so close together that the sounds hit them at basically the same time. With spaced pair, the sound closer to one mic will hit it first, which sounds to the brain like it is coming from that side, whether or not it is actually louder in that mic or not. Make sense? Kinda?
Hope that helped. The most important thing is to just record as much as you can once you get this stuff setup.
Mike
Thank you much!