How are you recording and how satisfied are you? What equipment are you using?
Gene

Pretty basic for me.

I use my Yamaha PSR-S900's Audio to USB and then employ Express Burn on my Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop to make CDs.

The quality is absolutely perfect for my needs, and it's all portable and can be easily taken on the road with me if I wish.

I sold all my old studio gear...this is the way for me from now on.

Ian

I use Fairlight hard disk recorders and love them. By far the best sounding and most intuitive recorder ever made. I also have Pro Tools HD but never use it. Its just there for the clients who ask if I have Pro Tools and so I point, say yes, then record on the Fairlight.

Fairlight MFX3?


I use a PC, Sonar, Motif XS8 replaced the Presonus Firebox for Audio/MIDI interfacing to the PC. VCQ1 Pre Amp and old Rode NT2 mike. Tyros 3, Mackie 1604 monitor mixer.

I do my 'for me only' recording with my G70, SM58 and a Boss BR532. And, it sounds like it...~]

I do most of my projects on a Roland VS 2480. That records 16 tracks at the same time and up to 24 overall and is loaded with effects, ect. It's very portable so I can take it anywhere. I also have Pro Tools LE on my computer in case I need to do any serious editing. I record a lot of orchestrations for the college where I work so sometimes that extra editing comes in handy. I have some great mics, so that really helps.

Recently I got the Zoom H2. This is just a 2 track stereo recorder but it sounds awesome. I record live shows for CD's which I either give away or sell at shows. The Zoom works great for that. I just record right off the board.

These setups work for me.

Joe



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Songman55
Joe Ayala

I've been going over to a friends house and shooting video with his mac.. plug in my keyboard and amp, start playing and he records.. it's amazing..I guess he's using garage band. Love it.

My Lionstracs MediaStation x-76...and the other set up is my Roland G70 with a Toshiba laptop, running Mixcraft4 software...

Also in a pinch I have my Desktop PC set up to record , with soft synths..

My band all pitched in together and we bought ourselves a Tascam 2488 NEO 24 track recorder that we leave set up in our practice studio for recording. Though we don't actually mix down on it even though we could, but our bass player has a ProTools setup at home and takes it home to dump to ProTools and mixes down on that.

The band had been talking about going into a studio to record demos but I said screw paying for that when you can buy a 24 track recorder for $600 nowadays. Portastudios have really come a long way over the years. Pro studios are fine if you have a LOT of money you can afford to spend. We don't.

Just bought the Zoom H4n. Control-wise it is much improved over the H4. Large readout and dedicated buttons, simple menu, and great sound quality.

Don P

I've used the Tascam Portastudio DP-01 with good results...

Vocals through a AKG Perception 220...

Cheers-

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Bill in Dayton

I use DIGI's ACCELL HD3 now, before i had a Neve Console and sold it. My system is pretty
complex right now since i own many keyboards too but i also have an Analog tape machine too.
The best piece of equipement i own is the L480 i wont trade it for anything.

Hey with all this great recording gear "BRAVADO" how about posting some songs?

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 03-28-2009).]

Almost all are recorded, mixed and mastered by me in my place...its a small home studio,
i am not a live player anymore, done with that, only studio work and programming now:
http://www.speedyshare.com/803941245.html

You mean instead of selling it, Donny?

Anyway, where would the fun be, if anyone had to back up their opinions with some actual achievement on this forum?

Forum traffic would screech to a halt if it was expected that opinion be backed with example...

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 03-28-2009).]

So I guess point proven again

Nedim thanx for sharing some nice work there...well done. I enjoyed the first song great beat & vocals.!

Thank you, i wish i play better though, i oriented my career in a different way and forgot
about Playing music. Since i was a kid, since i started music i was always interested
whats behind the recordings, whats behind the sound in a synth but never cared who
plays in the recording. I was always after the technology but not the music itself.
When i had the choice to go to college, instead of going to learn how to play more at
a music academy i chosed to be a sound engineer, its not bad i like it but lately i wish
i turned the other way, more towards music not noises that i usually produce lately
with some Trance and Ambient $hit. And the stupidest thing i did is that i played PRO
Sax, Clarinet, Flute, Bagpipe and accoredon and left it all for Electronic Keyboards and
now i dont play none of those instruments anymore, except keyboards.

This is terrrific stuff, Nedim....you have a great talent.

Ian

I have been looking at Cakewalk - probably the song creator package or the first level of the sonar products. Don't know which one to buy for a beginner who know nothing about recording, mixing, etc..

Anyone here a Cakewalk user?
Hammer

Been a cakewalk user since version one on a real 5 1/2 " floppy.

Buy an Edirol/Roland interface if you don't already have one. It comes with a great beginner version of Cakewalk. Other wise Home Studio is probably all you will need.
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/HomeStudio/English/overview.asp

Don't forget Cakewalk is only native to the WIndows OS. If you have a MAC there are other choices that are worthy.

Dean I think your Tyros 3 features is more then enough for you to make some very decent recordings.Whats do you actually want to do?..

http://redrhythm.com/website/mp3s.html

Here are 3 songs my band recorded on the Tascam 2488 NEO that we bought recently and leave it in the garage we rehearse in so we can always record demos for getting work. We are pretty happy with the results considering it is a $599 24 track recorder which is darned good value. The only problem with these MP3 is that the bass player who mixed them processed the MP3s at a bit rate of 320 which made them a bit large for downloading so we will reprocess them soon at 160 to reduce the size.

We did record vocals after the music tracks had been laid down to get good separation. But we are pretty happy with the Tascam for doing garage recordings.

( Oh yeah, this is rock music so if that isn't to your taste you may want to pass on downloading these though I posted them here more to indicate recording quality of the Tascam than musical value )



[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 04-20-2009).]

Been doing my roughs for client approval straight from into a Zoom H-2, for the simple ones, and into an old Tascam for the ones needing to be multi-tracked.

After approval, we go to a commercial studio.

We do about 10 scores a year, and that is not enough to sustain a national quality production level; the kind necessary for people like Toyota and the like.

Edits are precise and we have our favorite place with OK prices and lots of experience in recording for film. Budgets are sufficient to hire what we need to get the job(s)( done.

I believe the quality of our audio tracks gives us an advantage; certainly over the houses that use "needle drop" tracks.

My name is on the whole production...the track, the script, the footage...everything, and the custom score helps.

Russ



[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 04-20-2009).]

WOW Loved the tracks....The singer that covered the Heart is spot on ..Just goes to show its about what you know not about what you have......Sort of wipes the shine right off my Tyros LOL....
Nothing beats live instruments...

Sounded Great....Nice to hear covers that are every bit as good as the originals.I'm guessing you guys are in demand...


Think of what a great live sound you would have with a splayed array of Podiums...LOL


[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 04-20-2009).]

Fun stuff, Nigel! Playing/recording with folks you are on the same wave length with...it doesn't get much better.

Playing live with others is my most satisfying musical activity.

You folks are COOL!


R.

Nigel, that is very tight performing. You got great results for a garage band!

I use Cakewalk Sonar 7 Studio Edition on a PC. I have a Focusrite Saffire ASIO interface - which I don't recommend because it gives me occasional grief (Twice a month I have to uninstall and reinstall the driver).

I have Peavey Revalver amp simulator for electric guitar. Excellent. You can hear my results on "It's Like a Rocket" www.myspace.com/larrylevin

Melodyne Celemony 3 - great software. TC Helicon Harmony M. Great for fast multiharmonies. Melodyne can be painstaking for creating harmonies throughout a song - but the results are excellent.

MXL4000 condenser mic, very clean. Cheap reference amp and monitors from Samson and Behringer respectively.

Beakybird


( Nigel - Just fixing your link Beaky so it works correctly )


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 04-21-2009).]

I've finally started to use my Zoom H2 for quick recordings. I like it and feel I will use it more often for demos and the like. Now that I've figured out how to record in mp3 mode, things are much easier.

Cassp, I don't know if you generally master a bit to get the volume up to the volume of most CD's and commercial mp3's, but if you do, I would honestly recommend recording at .wav, 44/24 bit initially, mastering a bit (light compression, maybe a little corrective EQ, limit a few db if you have some big spikes), and convert to mp3 right at the END of the chain.

You'll get a better end result, generally, and you will also have the option of choosing different bitrates for the mp3 depending on where you want to post... Some sites won't host as big a file as you might like - others will. At least this way you have options.

Just a thought.