Simmo needs tips for recording

[simmo123]

Hi Folks,i am interested in doing a bit of recording at home, now that our big garden makeover has just about come to an end after taking seemingly forever i find that even with everything else going on,gigs,giving the kids a hand with stuff,keeping the "War Office"!!!! happy etc i actually have time on my hands.I am not quite sure the best way to go about it,at this stage i have the luxury of having a fairly recent computer to dedicate all my music needs to without having to share it with all of the other stuff,Internet,emails,household,& everything else that the other home computer is used for.I am working with Sonar le at the moment for all the midi stuff i do plus i have the Sonic Cell module which i use with it,i was wondering if a stand alone recorder would be the easiest way to go as i wish to record my vocals plus a bit of guitar plus a harmonica,the backing would be a midi track,i don't mind spending a bit to get the right equipment ( thanks to the senior gigs).i do have an AKG Perception 220 recording mic which i have never used as well as this i have my Yamaha stagepas 500 PA system which has phantom facility on it which i understand is used with condenser type mics,i also have an added luxury of a spare bedroom in which i use solely for my music ( Simmo's Den ) so all in all i'm ready to go,i would like to keep it reasonably simple to start with which is why i did not want to go into the recording using the Sonic Cell which i believe does have this facility,i am happy with my progress using it just to capture the quality sounds for my backing midi's & i am sure i would get bogged down trying to re-arrange all the different settings needed to do this,hence my leaning towards a recorder or something similar.Any advice is very welcome as i know everyone has there own idea's on this subject,i would just like to be able to produce something that is pleasing to listen to with a nice quality to it as well,
Many thanks ,Ole Simmo,rushing around making more room in the Den ;D ;D

[rainbow]

Hi Terry,
Glad you are finding the time to get around to doing some recording and looking forward to hear some simmo renderings mate!!
For my money I'd go to finding a DAW of your choice ie onboard computer sequencing/recording program rather than the standalone digital recorder route. I started off with the Boss digital recording unit but since I've gone the DAW route and sold the recorder I feel I've made more progress, got better results and really enjoy the freedom to experiment that the DAW option offers. Just my two pence worth.

Best regards ... Rainbow:)

[simmo123]

Hi Graham,good to hear from you,i am franticly digesting your info & advice on recording & have been having a look on the internet to try & get some idea of whats involved going down this road,i remember our eldest son had a play around with recording several years back,he had a Roland recorder which wasn't cheap at that time but although he is pretty quick at learning this sort of thing he really got quite frustrated with he's first foray into recording using this recorder & decided it was pretty complicated & although he did a few recordings using a bit of midi as well as audio which turned out sounding reasonable.I have been looking at audio interfaces which have the facility to plug in instruments & mics but i have no idea of whats involved in using them,as you can see i am really starting at the bottom in this new venture so i appreciate all the advice the forum can give me,better sign off now going out for the evening,
Kind Regards Terry
ps i can always have a chat when you are free to discuss further ideas suggestions etc

[allegro]

Hi terry, regarding you recording, if you have cakewalk then providing you have a good quality soundcard with audio outputs and audio in and a good mic, then all you need to do is mix down your midi to audio in cakewalk,export it to a folder, open up cakewalk for a new project then import your audio track to track one of your new project, record the vocals on a seperate track which lets you add effects and volume to each track individually. This is a system we use and as you know the results are Cd quality, but it does depend on your sound card,we use a proffesional studio model which is quite expensive and a shure sm58 mic but it is well worth it . If you need any more help let me know GEOFF Allegro

[JohnG]

Hi Terry,

I'm with Geoff here. You're already recording the output of the SonicCell into Sonar, I think, as a wave file. You could then mute all the MIDI channels and play the wave file into headphones while you record the miced up guitar,via the SonicCell, to another audio track. Then you can play back both those tracks, again to headphones, whilst you record the vocals.

When you have the three audio tracks you can try adding effects etc as you like to the the guitar and voice. A bit of reverb usually makes the sound better. Finally mix together the tracks at the right levels and you'll have a hit record on your hands!

I'm pretty sure you can do all this in your Sonar LE without too much trouble.

All the best,
JohnG.

[levi2]

Hei Simmo
Try mixcraft 5 excellent prog for the price get the full demo ver think they give you 12 days prolly more to try it out b4 it disables save options ask tubbs and tiny

[Tiny]

Hi Terry
Yepp!! Got to agree With levi on this one, It,s the easiest rec/ prog
iv,e ever used ,also it,s got a lot of exellent plugin,s, & synth,s
are you not using sonic cell as your rec source ? Rgd,s Tom

[Tubbs]

I do my recording through sonic cell, and do the final mix on mixcraft...as levi and tiny said....its brilliant, try it out Terry..