Hi, my name is Brian and I have just recently taken the plunge into home digital studio recording by buying a Roland VS 840EX and a Boss DR5. I have played the guitar in working bands for the past 14 years but I have had little experience with recording, especially digital recording. Any tips, tricks, advice and guidance on recording and outboard equipment would be greatly appreciated. I am currently using a Marshall JMP-1 and an Alesis Quadraverb 2, and an SM58 for any miking or singing.

Hello, i am actually looking to buy the 840ex myself. Is it any good? Is the sound quality ok? Is it easy to use? I am also a guitar player and i am very curious about this thing. The price is good as well.

About recording now, you are looking in a very deep issue. I have tried to collect recording tips and ideas from all over the internet but what i ve come down to is this:

Basic recording guidelines:

1. You record drums or tempo tracks first
2. Bass goes second
3. Rythm guitars 3rd
4. Lastly you record vocals and guitar leads

The general idea is that you record something steady and then you build upon it. You can record your drums and rythm guitar and vocals at once but you wont be happy with your first take so consider first take vocals and rythm guitars as a sketchpad recording.

And now what the proffesionals do, in addition to recording in the order i gave they only record a song 3 maximum four times in order to capture the "feel". Then its mixdown time where you process all tracks "pan channels, adjust volume and EQ (be very carefull with EQ. your objective is to record excactlly the sound you want, equalisers are best used to "correct" and work better "taking frequencies out" than adding "non existing frequencies. Once you are happy with the mix its time to MASTER. In mastering you apply graphic EQ and compression to the final stereo track Only with the intention to make the sound clear and smooth.

Basically thats what you do. You can take it from here and go much deeper (for example find out about what every frequency does to our ears, why we have 70% more difficulty hearing the bass than the mid frequencies, why an analog tube compressor is best for rock MASTERING etc. It ll take some time to sound like the pros but its worthy.

[This message has been edited by Animaniac (edited 02-04-2000).]