Hello my name is Johnny C! I started recording in regards to 9 years ago and it has been one of the biggest Journey’s of my life. I have recorded right at 40 people and have recorded for NPR and a few other respective programs also. I wish I would have written all the humans down along the way! It is crazy how time flies! Read my tips underneath and it will save you a lot of trouble. It took me in regards to 4 moves and a heap of years of matching gear.
It all started back in 1999 when I started laying out capital my ex-tra cash into recording gear. I got started using a friend’s computer back in the days where you had to go into bios and optimize your PC for recording. I expended much of my time researching how to build the perfective recording machine. After a few artists I decisive to sink galore cash into a more immediate and more specked out machine.
So I drove to Atlanta and found a genuinely cool computer shop. I got an Asus Tech motherboard with 512 of Kingston and 1.74 p4 processor. Remember this was in regards to 6 years ago and that is a slow computer now. Let me tell you. I have been not one thing but happy with the performance of the Asus machine!
For the most percentage I genuinely never had any troubles until one day it just shut down right in the middle of a session. Come to find I smoked the power supply and had to update it. So I moved from that smoked 250 to a continuous power 500-watt power supply. I will tell you what; it has run like a dream through 25 artists with 4 full cds.
For some years I ran my buddy Josh’s Gadget Labs Pres with windows 98 and had to optimize it. I loved the output features and it sounded great! But a few years after Gadget labs went underneath XP came out and they didn’t have drivers for it. I listen that someone wrote the drivers for xp. I am sure it will be used for years to com. So I had to get a new sound card and decisive to get a Tascam 1804.
I was a little hesitant with regards to the size of 1804 and things don’t always carry out by their looks. I went out and purchased Xp and installed it. Then I loaded the drivers for the Tascam tweaked a few settings opened up Cubase and hit record! Oh yeah I forget to mention that the Tascam is a Fire wire device. Then I decisive to move from 8 pres to 16. So I ordered the Focusrite 8 and I connected them by way of optical. The Tascam is the main card with the Focusright set up in the Tascam on the Adat channels 9-16. I have recorded various full bands and it has proved to be a workhorse DAW.
A few years ago I read an article in regards to Ray Charles recording with Sonar. Well I had to check it out! So I grabbed me a copy of Sonar 7 and I wholly loved the features and workflow. The verbs and effects were way more adaptable than Cubase. Then I noticed that Cubase was a lot more quickly and more comfortable for tracking so I went back to it. Then I decisive to alter my whole game plan.
I ordered a Mac Duo 2ghz with a 1000 ram running logic Express 7. This is where it is. The days of windows are over for me! Well for audio recording, I do like the Mac book a great deal. You may genuinely add galore crazy tripped effects as well as lay some in truth groovy loops. It is a win win.
I have been thinking with regards to updating my ram and put windows on here for a great deal of web work, perhaps one day. IT genuinely only takes me in regards to 10 minutes to set-up the project folder and set the tempo and then find the right loop.
Once I find a cool loop I will loop it out and record my tracks to it. Then I will go back and commence adding and tweaking tracks. It genuinely is a cool program! I am waiting to get a good deal of more apple loops so I may build a nice library. In good time.
I have owned a heap of mics allround the years and have found a liking to AKG c-2000′s as well 57′s. I have owned an Re-20, various MXL”S, Beyer Dynamics (killer mics by the way), AKG c-1000′s, 58′s, and Marshall’s. The proper mic actually depends on the style and the voicing and dynamic of what you want to record. For example, if you have a wispy voice then you would want a condenser and if you have more aggressive deafening voice you may want to use a 57 or 58 or even a more prominent diaphragm mic like a 421.
Here are a good deal of outstanding tips I have thrown together that will get you started in the right path! Just do not forget that recording is a craft an it takes a heap of years to finetune out your style! It does take awhile to learn so be patient! I have been mixing live for 12 years and had worked for a heap of of greats! I in truth do believe that you may use live technique in the studio vice versa!
1. Be prepared! Pre production may be a very powerful in the whole process! I like to lay my drum tracks and then rehearse with them for a few days! It is a genuinely good way to tweak and work out all the tweaks!
2. Once you have found the sound and feel that you are looking for it, it is time to lay a good deal of tracks! What I do in Logic! I set up 16 tracks and I will keep the original 8 for drum tracks and I will arm 9 and 10! I ordinarily will put my vocal on 9 and acoustic on 10! Be sure set you’re in and out points! If you are recording galore tracks you will want to increase the amount of ram that your program uses! This in truth comes in handy later if you add loops and instruments to the mix! IF you don’t sufficient ram to run your program then it may crash while recording!
3. How to find that perfective sound! I love to mic my acoustic and run direct also! This is where I employed to mess up all the time! I would always get strange pops on my acoustic track and realized what was causing it! Every time the acoustic and plug would lose a little connection it be recorded! Guess what I found that works great! Use galore WD-40 on your tips! All I may figure is that the corrosion cause a break in connected! Smoke will cause a film on electronics also!
4. Check your batteries and make sure they are good! Don’t use those cheap they genuinely don’t work well! I love the Pro cells for the reliability and they last forever!
5. Make sure your power source is grounded properly! I commend a battery back up also! I would likewise make sure you have a good rather power supply on you pc!
6. Always restart your pc or Mac before you so any recording. It reboots your scheme and frees up the resources that are necessitated to routine all the information. It is always a good idea to not run any other programs while you record. Never, I repeat never have another audio program running unless you are using it for your recording purposes. I use word to read lyrics and haven’t had any problems! It is not as a huge of an issue as it employed to be though. Back in earlier windows it was a big issue! Just do not forget a lot of computers (or macs) don’t like to percentage audio drivers with dissimilar programs at the same time.
7. Updating isn’t as necessary as you think. I ran the same 98 and cubase happily together for 4 years. That is success! I attribute it to not ever putting it on-line; I purchased a laptop just for that purpose.
8. File Handling. I have found that moved files could give you a headache. I have found out the hard way! Always save your audio folder in the file folder as your project. Always make a folder per new project. That way when you move your files they will all be nice in tidy all in one place. Other wise you may waist a few days of your life attempting to figure out where those new audio tracks went, plus it makes you look like a chump.
9. Always!! Save Save Save your song. Be sure before you checking out that new verb plug-in that you save your track. I have had Logic crash while mixing before a save. Logic is a cool back-up feature that will save your butt in this situation. But be conscious that if you delete a track, it is gone! I wish they had a step-back feature like a lot of other programs.
10. Mac or Pc? It actually depends what you want to do. I love them both and have had outstanding success with each one, using all the tips listed up above. I do think Mac has caught me for now. I do think the learning curve in tougher with a Mac. After you get the hang of it. You will be recording like a Pro Engineer.
11. Keep your levels clean! If you peg into the red you are just square waving the recording. Use a compressor to catch vocal peaks. Always use a pop filter on a vocal! Unless you are using a dynamic or the mic has a built in Pop filter. The Filter will catch the air before it hits the diaphragm. Sometimes causing a popping sound.
12. I like to set my recording at 44 and 24bit. I do dither down to 16 bit for CD. It always sounds great. Find what works for you! It in truth depends on how much disk space that you want to you use.
13. Monitors? Use what sounds outstanding to you! For a few years I employed galore decent passive near fields that were hot that year. Gear changes so fast and there in truth are galore great sounding speakers out there. I have applied all kinds of monitors! I love headphones, cause you may use them anyplace and have your privacy. I suggest the Sony MDR-7506 they have aweinspiring response and a nice full range. There are a outstanding deal of powered monitors out there and do galore exploration and find out what you need for your purpose! Don’t forget that Shielded ones are the way to go!.
Now commence you have a lot of outstanding tips to aid you get started! Pick out that hit tune and lay it down and begin tweaking away. There are galore ways to mix and a heap of styles! Go find your own thing! Before you know it you will highly demanded audio engineer.
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