Tips on home recording.

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Permalink Reply by Phil Williams on 29 July 2008 at 8:05pm

Thanks Julia - wow, i'm so, so, so glad that it's not just me! i spent quite a few hours trying to improve my timing lol :-)

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Permalink Reply by Paul Kent on 30 July 2008 at 10:03am

Generally you can improve the latency by adjusting the buffer. (do a search for latency in the audacity manual)

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Permalink Reply by Julie Silversides on 25 September 2008 at 1:33pm

I have just bought myself a Boss Micro BR digital recorder which is about double the size of an ipod, extremely portable, will record 4 tracks with 32 virtual tracks, has effects, rhythms, mixing and mastering facilities. My mind is boggling with the manual, so I haven't actually tried it out yet!

It has a jack guitar input, a line in for mics, and an inbuilt mic. What I want it for is primarily getting stuff down with just vocals and electro-acoustic guitar, with possibly adding bass, keyboards, flute etc. and rhythm at a later date.

I wouldn't want to use the inbuilt mic (although I will try it to see if the quality is passable), because I prefer to record standing up with a mic in front of me. I was hoping to use my SM58 but notice that the line in is a stereo mini jack. I have XLR to mini jack connectors, but isn't my mic mono? Wouldn't I just get it recording on one side? Now I haven't tried this yet, so perhaps I ought to do that! But if that's the case, do I have to use 2 mics that somehow both go into one stereo mini jack?

Also, has anybody got one of these? I've read good reviews, so decided to get it, so if anybody out there uses one, what do you think?

Permalink Reply by Paul Kent on 13 October 2008 at 9:45am

Hi Julie.

apologies for taking so long to reply to this.... I don't have a MicroBR, but just swotted up for you :)

the MicroBR has a jack/instrument input and a stereo/balanced line/mic input. Let me explain these terms for you.

your electro-acoustic is perfectly suited for your jack/instrument input (i bet you guessed that tho!). It's a high impedance circuit designed for instruments. You could also safely plug most things that have a mono jack output (the output from a preamp for instance) in case you wanted to get a mic in that way as well.

your stereo input is designed for 2 scenarios.

1) a stereo input ie- stereo mini jack. (direct from an ipod etc) or, a direct stereo feed of a desk.
2) a mono balanced signal. (using p.i.p plug in power)

the stereo input is a pretty simple concept, 2 signals down 2 wires.

The balanced signal is physics brilliance, using the inversion of 2 phases to cancel out noise. That's why it's a stereo cable but only one signal.

From what I read.. the stereo/mic input only receives certain microphones. They will probably not be of the highest quality. You CAN however use your sm58 (because it is a dynamic microphone and doesn't require phantom power) but you'll need an XLR- 1/4 inch adaptor. then a 1/4 inch to MicroBR adaptor. Someone may make a specific cable though!

there are probably numerous ways to expand the usefulness of the MicroBR. It's worth checking out http://microrecorders.org/

anyway. It's intended as a scratchpad to make quick demoes. So enjoy and utilize it as such!

any questions just ask...

Paul

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Permalink Reply by Matt Spracklen on 3 November 2008 at 8:44am

The replies to this thread are interesting to read. its great to see how people are setting up.

But i have a question to anyone who knows a bit about mixing.
I have a fairly humble set up. Using a Audio Technica AT2020 (phantom powered) for vocals and Acoustic Guitar.
I'm going through an Alesisi i02 pre-amp straight into the computer (MAC) and i'm using Logic Pro 8.

I've only had Logic 5 days now, and it seems silly but i'm finding it hard to find the same quality as i did in garageband!

I think it's cuz there is o much to tweak and play around in. And its getting there, but my main issue...

Is achieving a good and realistic piano sound, as i'm using midi. Playing the track on a piano but via midi.

And i EQ it till I'm blue in the face but when i compare it to a piano solo track on a "proper" cd :) it just doesnt cut the mustard. sounds like there is sponge on the piano hits/strings...

does anyone have advice on either this or logic in general.

keep up the good works guys.

God bless,

Matt

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Permalink Reply by Paul Kent on 6 November 2008 at 1:05pm

Hey Matt.

Logic is an incredible bit of software, so just spend some time getting to grips with it. It can do far more than you or I will ever really need to do, so try and get your gear-lust playtime out of the way by creating a few bizzarre tracks stuffed with overused plugins before you settle down to do some real recordings.

the best way to get a good piano sound is to have an awesome sounding piano, in a great sounding room played by an incredible pianist through expensive mics into vintage preamps... failing that.. some sampled pianos sound pretty good. But remember, playing it with an unweighted keyboard will always sound a bit crappy.. I've nearly always found I get better quality recordings straight from a good digital pianos output, than from a vst. the one exception was synthologys Ivory, which pretty much kicks butt.. but costs an awful lot..

I think my most important piece of advice would be to not try and "fix things in the mix". You can't polish a turd... If it doesn't sound pretty much right to start with, then don't bother spending hours EQ'ing. Change the source sound. Often a sound that sounds great in the mix won't stand up in isolation and vice versa, so don't limit your options too early by making choices that are entirely set in stone..

another spot of advice. If you want to make a sound better, then use EQ to remove frequencies and use boosts in frequencies to make it sound different.

just a quick one... hope that helps.

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Permalink Reply by Tim S Kemp on 12 November 2008 at 10:33pm

A great piano sound... Key thing to that depends on the style of playing - long sustained notes, gentle tickling, never sound quite right on a small synth. Rock type syncopated full impact in yer face piano is remarkably loud on an acoustic instrument and hard to tame when it hits your recorder, better on a digital piano. I have a Kurzweil Micro Piano lying around which sees far more use than it deserves, sounds cheesy on its own but drop some other instruments around it and it works well, however we are privileged to have loan of a Yamaha 6 ft that freshly tuned makes anything else sound just dull and uninteresting.

As Paul says, a great piano sound starts with a great piano - if you're investing in gear and a lot of your music is piano centric then get a dedicated piano module, or at least a synth with a piano ROM, or a dedicated piano softsynth, or maybe, get a piano!

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