Recording Rig for guitar centred band

DHYNZY

I'm posting this here rather than in the Music Production forum because I'd rather hear what a lot of the guitarists here use in their home studios, rather than sound engineers, who might not realise how little I know about it and make things a little too complex for me! What are you guys using?

I'd like to have a Pro Tools set up, I've favoured it over Cubase when I've tinkered around with them. Ideally I'd like a setup that could handle guitars, drums and vox, the classic rock lineup. What sort of setup would I need to get an almost professional level of sound from a home studio?

Any help appreciated!

Squidgy Black

A well treated room.

You wont get professional sounds in an untreated room, it'll still be of demo quality.

But basically if you were dead set on doing it, a few good mics, decent preamps and a good interface should do, and possibly a few cheap bits of DIY room treatment.

The preamps are essential, they're basically like guitar preamps for mics. Getting a cheap one is like trying to use a behringer amp to get joe bonamassa's tone, whereas a decent one is like a marshall superlead!

You also need to read up on mic placement, every inch truely counts in the difference of sounds.

A decent set-up might cost you in the region of a couple of grand to be honest, you'll need a decent computer to run it on too.

DHYNZY

I might get on to you again about what gear you'd suggest starting out. I'll need to do some reading on preamps.. thanks mate. Id rather spend a couple of grand, and not have to hand out at least 500euro every time I want a 3-track demo ep done. Plus I like to work by myself and not against the clock, which it can feel like in a studio at times!

rcaz

The drums will be the hardest part. A Shure SM57 pointed at the right part of your speaker up close can get a decent guitar sound, but for a good drum sound, the room is everything. I don't know much more than yourself OP but I haven't ever read a thread or article about DIY recording that hasn't stressed the difficulty of getting 'good' drum sounds and the importance of the room.

But then a 'good' drum sound is a typical, classic, acoustic drum kit sound. Maybe you don't want that, and you can find your own cool sound with a not typically 'good' room. One man's weird thing/poor effort is another man's signature sound and all.

I like the way you want to do it all on your own terms, like myself. Great music gets made when people don't have to worry about time and money. Maybe you can worry about time and money now and then have that all over and done with when it's time to record some great music

eoin5

I've just one tip. I'm not saying its not fun doing live drum recording but if its results you want digital drums and something like superior drummer is the way to go.

-=al=-

pretty damn hard to get really nice sounds for home recording, i used to do a few songs here at home but now its just as easy to demo at home and bring into a studio... all the stuff on my links in my sig were recorded at home with a podxt into an mbox and pro tools, thats all

i got one of those pro tools packages which kinda gets ya started with a mic, monitrs, software and some accessories


something along the lines of this.. - http://www.platinum-records.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=179

was about 400 quid on thomann i think

DHYNZY

El Pr0n wrote: »

The drums will be the hardest part. A Shure SM57 pointed at the right part of your speaker up close can get a decent guitar sound, but for a good drum sound, the room is everything. I don't know much more than yourself OP but I haven't ever read a thread or article about DIY recording that hasn't stressed the difficulty of getting 'good' drum sounds and the importance of the room.

But then a 'good' drum sound is a typical, classic, acoustic drum kit sound. Maybe you don't want that, and you can find your own cool sound with a not typically 'good' room. One man's weird thing/poor effort is another man's signature sound and all.

Last time I did some recording was in Elektra studios in Templebar, and to be honest they had a big open room with a drum kit plonked in the middle, some acoustic foam around the place, but nothing major, and my mate who is a sound engineer threw the mics on it, and it just seemed to me to be all very easy and not all that complicated. The drums came out sounding fine. It was actually this experience and spending a while watching him use Pro Tools that I thought I could be doing this at home! But I agree with what you're saying, and I'm sure there are a million other things that I haven't thought of.

Squidgy Black

DHYNZY wrote: »

I might get on to you again about what gear you'd suggest starting out. I'll need to do some reading on preamps.. thanks mate. Id rather spend a couple of grand, and not have to hand out at least 500euro every time I want a 3-track demo ep done. Plus I like to work by myself and not against the clock, which it can feel like in a studio at times!

Yeah definitely, just give me a shout any time you need a hand.

Drum tracking is a pain for the first couple of times, trying to get 5-6 different mics at decent levels and trying to keep them in phase isn't the most fun thing to do. Fresh skins are almost necessary when you record too, which is expensive.

The roland electro kits sound pretty good and save you ages and ages, and saves you money through not having to pay for skins etc.

DHYNZY

-=al=- wrote: »

pretty damn hard to get really nice sounds for home recording, i used to do a few songs here at home but now its just as easy to demo at home and bring into a studio... all the stuff on my links in my sig were recorded at home with a podxt into an mbox and pro tools, thats all

i got one of those pro tools packages which kinda gets ya started with a mic, monitrs, software and some accessories


something along the lines of this.. - http://www.platinum-records.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=179

was about 400 quid on thomann i think

I'll look into one of those packages.. or see what adverts can turn up.

BTW killer Bad Romance cover! really enjoyed your stuff mate!

DHYNZY

I'll ask around about the digital kits... but for some reason I have an aversion to them! Too afraid of sounding like Def Leppard haha. Thanks anyway lads!