Recording, what way is the best in terms of ease..

[Deneb]

This question has been asked by several a JCFer, and really I can't recall an awesome answer.

I've been thinking about a 4 Track, just so I can lay down some guitar lines and play over them.

What methods of recording do you use, and what do you feel is the best in terms of ease of use, cost effectiveness, and versatility?

I've mainly got 11 songs I want to take to the studio. Before I do that, I want to play them, get any parts together, hash them out, and then have the drummer listen to them. The reason I'm doing both of my guitar tracks first, is so the drummer can write to fit my riffs/leads.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to spend 0-250$ish getting a decent way to record my guitar, and maybe even drums in the room.

[paige]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ease..

I will probably get flake for this, but cakewalk guitartracks pro works great. It has drum and bass tracks that are decent, plus the record quality is alot better then any 4-track. A decent computer, a pod, and a good set of monitors your ready to go.

[Newc]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ease..

If your PC has a CD-R, then I'd definitely do it all on the computer, burn the drummer a CD, then get together to hash the details.
BUT, I'm a recording nut so my personal setup is to have a portable recorder as well as PC recording for mastering and such (and yes I consider an Akai DPS-12 protable - if I can put it in a padded hard case and carry it with one hand, it's portable [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img])

However, it doesn't seem you're interested in that kinda thing (it does get expensive), so for now I'd say try to grab an Akai DPS-12 from Ebay (but make SURE the LCD has no burnout!) or a Yamaha MT4X or MT8X cassette unit, or one that Stuka was selling a while back (Tascam thing that DM said he uses with Torquestra) - those units sound excellent, and the Yamahas can be had fairly cheap now.
I paid $500+ for my MT4X brand new about 10 years ago - saw one on Ebay a while back for less than $100 in great shape.
Paid $900+ for an Akai DPS-12 from AMS (Open-Box Special) about 5 years ago. Recently picked up another one on Ebay with the optional fx board and 60GB IDE hard drive with the SCSI/IDE conversion kit for under $400, and they're getting lower all the time.

[ApeDosMil]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ea

I use a POD 2.0, but i recomend a better input sound card. I don't know what.. but getting a better Music recording card would improve sound.

[Brad]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ea

[ QUOTE ]
i recomend a better input sound card. I don't know what.. but getting a better Music recording card would improve sound.

[/ QUOTE ]

M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 is a good one.

[Deneb]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ea

Well for amp tone, I'm covered. I've got all the sounds I love in my Mesa, and if I REALLY wanted, I could use the DI on my Spider 2 into my mixer, into my sound card. I've got a 24 channel EV mixer (big fucker) and I know it sounds big for computer recording...I mean it fucking is big, but Why buy another mixer when Id on't have to?

Newc, I've got CDR DVDR you know, the whole deal.

I'm not into super expensive. I've got good computer speakers (altec lansig 4 ways with powered sub) Would I still need monitors?

What software do you use Newc? I mainly just want something I can plug in, hit record, and play my ass off. Then after then, I want to be able to double track shit.

I'd love to get into recording, because it's awesome. I used to record into a VCR (ran a mic to my cab to the mixer used RCAs into my VCR...what a tone! But I just want to do it now to pretty much make the most of the songs I'm putting on cd in the studio, and make it so they are the best they can be.

[Ninja Guitar]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ea

Do NOT get a 4 track. They're obsolete.

Go to audacity.sourceforge.net and download audacity for free. It's a good free recording program, and it's great to use if you're new to recording on a computer. Just spend a week or two playing around with it.

[micha]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ea

I have good experiences with "cool edit pro 2.0".
it's easy to use and gives you pretty much all you need for beginning recordings. the results are quite good.
I always used V-Amp -> soundcard -> cool edit -> CDR.
and kinda like it.

if you need further "advice" on cool edit pro just pm, or send me an email. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
///

[markD]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ea

i have 32 tracks of ADAT and a nice rack of outboard gear, but i still use a 4-track. they aren't totally obsolete, but if that was going to be your ONLY way of recording, then yeah. i use a yamaha MT-120. it's cool because if i get a REALLY good idea and need to record fast, it's easier than firing up all the big stuff. and if the takes are REALLY good, the MT-120 has 4 individual out for each channel, so i can patch it into an ADAT and transfer the tracks to digital and continue to build on the idea from there. the 4-track is portable, the media is cheap, using modellers the sound is great. i bought MT-120's for the whole band so we could exchange ideas and i spent about 375 buying 4 of them used from e-bay!! great liitle machines.

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ea

Get an MBox.

[Newc]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ea

4-tracks may be technically obsolete, but they still work, and if you have a full band and are running everything into a mixer and then into the 4-track, and you're as tight as you should be, then you should be able to do a great demo on a 4-track, using two tracks for the stereo mix from the main mixer and the other two tracks for overdubs that can't be done while the whole band is playing.

I use Cool Edit 2000 with various plugins (EQ, fx, all that crap) for software recording with an SB Live 5.1 card. The audio stuff I've posted recently in the MP3 section was recorded using just CoolEdit 2000 and Winamp playing the backing track. The video stuff was done using a Canopus ADVC-55 video/audio capture box into Pinnacle Studio 8 (software that came with my ATI video capture card).
Unfortunately, Adobe bought out Syntrillium and absorbed Cool Edit into Adobe Audition, and of course jacked up the price.

[Deneb]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ea

I've just started DLing Cool Edit Pro 2.1 I'm going to take a few cracks that it.

Newc, right now my project isn't the whole band, it's a studio thing. I'll be doing bass, and guitars in the studio. What I meant is, I just want to record me, so the drummer can practice, and then maybe if all goes well, we can toss a mic in the room and record both of us.

The way it looks, is for myself and personal ease and affordability, it looks like I should be using something into my computer. I'm guessing if everyone is using PODs and shit, I could easily use the direct out of my spider 2, into my mixer, into my computer.

so...what's a good whatever to MP3 converter? Maybe I can have something figured out by Sunday.

[Deneb]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ea

I've also started a Dl for Cakewalk guitar tracks pro.

Wish me luck!

Any tips I should look out for?

[PowerTube]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ease..

My setup is:

Guitar into POD 2.0 into PC

1. Record a track using Total Recorder (Shareware)

2. Clean up the track using Goldwave (Shareware)
That is, remove the noise at the beginning between clicking Record and actually starting to play, set the volume, etc...

3. Play back the first track in Goldwave, while playing along and recording the second track in Total Recorder again.

4. Clean up the second track with Goldwave.

You get the idea. Record with Total Recorder, clean up with Goldwave, repeat as necessary.

5. Mix the tracks with Cool Edit Pro

Cool Edit Pro can actually act as the recorder and replace both of the other two programs, but I'm too lazy to get past the learning curve and I'm set in my ways. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

I usually "stagger" as I go. Once I mix the first two tracks, I'll save it as a new track and it becomes the one I now play along with to record Track 3, and so on. Just make sure that the mix is really what you want each time.

[Deneb]

Re: Recording, what way is the best in terms of ease..

Well the cool edit pro I got is password protected...I wish people wouldn't upload bullshit torrents.