Home Recording

#1 · May 25, 2017, 10:37 am

Quote from Forum Archives on May 25, 2017, 10:37 am
Posted by: meyerwh <meyerwh@...>

I want to get a little more serious about home recording. Not necessarily professional quality, but I want to overdub bass and keyboards for practice tracks, composition and demos.

I have been using PreSounus and Audacity (just for export to mp3s). I have been thinking about Pro Tools, but it seems like a steep learning curve.

Any thoughts?

Bill Meyer
Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 1, 2016, at 12:31 PM, Marc Miller <prezbass@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh, man- you're in my wheelhouse now.

Interface- this is gonna depend mightily on how many channels you want to record at once, but regardless of that, I would suggest that you stay away from the following, as they are problematic for all platforms (Windows or Mac)

Presonus VSL series

Tascam US series

Anything by Line 6

Having said that, Focusrite makes great interfaces that are solid and not that expensive. Check out the 2i2 or the 2i4 (if you need MIDI) or the 18i20. VERY good stuff and easily found.

Now- effects. That's a whole bag of worms. I would suggest that you start out with Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software that comes with effects. There's a ton out there, but I would say start out with either Reaper (http://www.reaper.fm) or Presonus Studio One (http://www.presonus.com). Each of them have a ton of effects processors built in.

For your desktop computer, there's a couple things you really need to pay attention to:

RAM- you want at least 8GB to be able to record anything with a track count > 8 tracks.

Hard drive speed- this is where latency really becomes a big factor since audio is streamed from the hard disk. You need at least a 7200RPM mechanical drive, and an SSD is optimal.

Operating System- you want to use a 64 bit version of your operating system. The reason is that no matter how much RAM your system has, if you are running a 32-bit version, you only have access to a maximum of 3GB, PERIOD. There is no way around this, and that applies equally to Macs as well as PCs. Some people will tell you that there are hacks to get above 3GB, but that is not true, and those hacks will make your machine extremely unstable.

Also- since you are on Windows, make sure that any interface you do get has an ASIO driver available. (Most do these days) There is an ASIO wrapper out called Asio4All that can be used, but don't do it- it's a kludge fest and doesn't work very well.

On Thu, Dec 1, 2016 at 9:17 AM, Bob Fuss <lone.rhino@gmail.com> wrote:

This is part discussion oriented, and part request to see if someone has something laying around un-utilized which they want to sell.

I am looking for recommendations on budget friendly options for effects for my son (who does play bass sometimes, but is primarily drawn to guitar...where did I go wrong?).

A couple of people have recommended using PC based products for effects.

So, as follows:

1) What do you all recommend in the budget friendly zone for USB interfaces? (And does someone have one they'd like to sell?)

2) What do you all recommend for the processing/effects software? I see that there are a number of freebies out there. I can get specs for my home desktop system, which he would be using, as I know that latency can be an issue there if that affects your recommendations.

Thanks!

Bob

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http://www.eadgpoet.com

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Posted by: meyerwh <meyerwh@...>

I want to get a little more serious about home recording. Not necessarily professional quality, but I want to overdub bass and keyboards for practice tracks, composition and demos.

I have been using PreSounus and Audacity (just for export to mp3s). I have been thinking about Pro Tools, but it seems like a steep learning curve.

Any thoughts?

Bill Meyer
Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 1, 2016, at 12:31 PM, Marc Miller <prezbass@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh, man- you're in my wheelhouse now.

Interface- this is gonna depend mightily on how many channels you want to record at once, but regardless of that, I would suggest that you stay away from the following, as they are problematic for all platforms (Windows or Mac)

Presonus VSL series

Tascam US series

Anything by Line 6

Having said that, Focusrite makes great interfaces that are solid and not that expensive. Check out the 2i2 or the 2i4 (if you need MIDI) or the 18i20. VERY good stuff and easily found.

Now- effects. That's a whole bag of worms. I would suggest that you start out with Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software that comes with effects. There's a ton out there, but I would say start out with either Reaper (http://www.reaper.fm) or Presonus Studio One (http://www.presonus.com). Each of them have a ton of effects processors built in.

For your desktop computer, there's a couple things you really need to pay attention to:

RAM- you want at least 8GB to be able to record anything with a track count > 8 tracks.

Hard drive speed- this is where latency really becomes a big factor since audio is streamed from the hard disk. You need at least a 7200RPM mechanical drive, and an SSD is optimal.

Operating System- you want to use a 64 bit version of your operating system. The reason is that no matter how much RAM your system has, if you are running a 32-bit version, you only have access to a maximum of 3GB, PERIOD. There is no way around this, and that applies equally to Macs as well as PCs. Some people will tell you that there are hacks to get above 3GB, but that is not true, and those hacks will make your machine extremely unstable.

Also- since you are on Windows, make sure that any interface you do get has an ASIO driver available. (Most do these days) There is an ASIO wrapper out called Asio4All that can be used, but don't do it- it's a kludge fest and doesn't work very well.

On Thu, Dec 1, 2016 at 9:17 AM, Bob Fuss <lone.rhino@gmail.com> wrote:

This is part discussion oriented, and part request to see if someone has something laying around un-utilized which they want to sell.

I am looking for recommendations on budget friendly options for effects for my son (who does play bass sometimes, but is primarily drawn to guitar...where did I go wrong?).

A couple of people have recommended using PC based products for effects.

So, as follows:

1) What do you all recommend in the budget friendly zone for USB interfaces? (And does someone have one they'd like to sell?)

2) What do you all recommend for the processing/effects software? I see that there are a number of freebies out there. I can get specs for my home desktop system, which he would be using, as I know that latency can be an issue there if that affects your recommendations.

Thanks!

Bob

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-Marc Miller
prezbass@gmail.com
http://www.eadgpoet.com

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