***The Official Home Recording Studio Thread***

Lt_Red said:
This is also worth a read albeit a 6 year old article still pretty relevant.

http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/hardware-software-studio
Click to expand...

Cheers mate

I set up the mixer tonight.

I compared the Sound quality and its nowhere near the Octa Capture on its own.

I managed to route connect it all up ok...Got my outboard Reverb working on the AUX send...

I then unplugged it all and just went wow! Massive difference to the sound not going into the mixer...

I'm going to have a play connecting my FX up to the a couple of inputs and outputs on the octa capture and use ReaInsert

I think a Control surface is my best bet...

Any advice on one of these?
 
TBH unless you have a top of the line mixer you are always going to come to that conclusion. Passing it out through analogue gear and then back in will always add a bit of noise. Which in itself can add some charm. Some call it character. I prefer to add it if I want it, not be stuck with it. Plus more channels that go through anything but the best analogue the more the noise is summed through the tracks. It can be dealt with in the mix but I would rather not bother. You also loose the ability of instant total recall of your songs that software is great at.

Anyway onto your question. What control surface. There are silly expensive and excellent ones, and very cheap and rubbish ones and everything in between.

What sort of budget do you have?
Do you just want a "mixing desk" type feel to it?
Do you want it combined with a keyboard and/or drum pads?
Do you need it to be portable?
Do you want motorised faders?

Personally, not being completely loaded I use an all in one. This one:

http://www.nektartech.com/panorama-p4-p6.html

But you could have a look at this type:

https://www.presonus.com/products/FaderPort-8

Or just browse through here.

Good luck.
 
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easyrider said:
[...] I think a Control surface is my best bet...

Any advice on one of these?
Click to expand...

If your budget can stretch to it [just over a grand], as a Pro Tools user I'd seriously consider at least looking at - and trying to demo - a Slate Raven MTi 2.

I've had an MTi 1 for over a year [paid a lot more!] and going back to a hardware controller would feel like a right gimping.

So much work is done 'In The Box' these days, and every hardware controller I researched had one or more UI compromises: 8-channel bank hopping, non-task-specific buttons and pots that are spongier than a Squarepants family tree, tiny 2-line letterbox screens that allow you to see at a squint the precise value of Vco1HpfMdWhlRng, etc etc. Compromises everywhere.

Not that a touchscreen solution is going to be perfect either, you understand. But me personally, I'm very glad my research led me down this particular path.

I bought a Novation Zero SL MkII at the same time, just in case it turned out that I couldn't live without those hardware knobs 'n' faders. I can honestly say that the Novation, through no fault of its own, has seen more use as a Christmas decoration than a controller [it lights up something lovely :D]

Anyway, I thought I'd point out that alternatives to more traditional hardware control surfaces are out there, and they're cheaper than they used to be.

Just ask if you want to know anything specific about the Raven :)
 
Recorded some drums on Sunday.

Turned up at 10:30 to a text from the house engineer saying he couldn't make it...argh.

I had to set it all up myself having never done it. Also couldn't figure out the routing of his studio so did a proper bodge job on the drummers headphone feed.

I know roughly how to set up drum mics but if I'd have known I'd have been doing it myself I'd have done a lot more research before hand. In the end, I got a fairly decent sound.

MOkdXtt.jpg

lFIdx6q.jpg

Only problem was that the drummer had the loudest hi hat I've ever heard. In retrospect, I wish I had pointed the overheads towards the snare which may have helped with the loudness of the hi hat but probably not a lot because it was by far the loudest thing in the room. I will have to automate the volume when mixing.

I also would have preferred the left OH to have been behind the kit and I tried but there just wasn't the room. It also isn't the greatest sounding room.

In the end I got a fairly decent sounding stereo image of the drums so I'm pretty happy just wish I'd have known so I could have done some more research.

*Also, I know the rack tom mic is pointing away from the drum, I obviously fixed this before hitting record.
 
ShortWarning said:
Recorded some drums on Sunday.

Turned up at 10:30 to a text from the house engineer saying he couldn't make it...argh.

I had to set it all up myself having never done it. Also couldn't figure out the routing of his studio so did a proper bodge job on the drummers headphone feed.

I know roughly how to set up drum mics but if I'd have known I'd have been doing it myself I'd have done a lot more research before hand. In the end, I got a fairly decent sound.


Only problem was that the drummer had the loudest hi hat I've ever heard. In retrospect, I wish I had pointed the overheads towards the snare which may have helped with the loudness of the hi hat but probably not a lot because it was by far the loudest thing in the room. I will have to automate the volume when mixing.

I also would have preferred the left OH to have been behind the kit and I tried but there just wasn't the room. It also isn't the greatest sounding room.

In the end I got a fairly decent sounding stereo image of the drums so I'm pretty happy just wish I'd have known so I could have done some more research.

*Also, I know the rack tom mic is pointing away from the drum, I obviously fixed this before hitting record.
Click to expand...


So is that your studio?
 
ShortWarning said:
No. The band were paying to rent the studio and the engineer who works there. I was just there to record. The engineer didn't show up.

We ended up getting it for free though which was cool.

I don't have any sort of studio unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Ahh I see...nice one pics look cool...Are they Cole Ribbon much for the overheads ?
 
Recorded some guitars over the weeked:

kLg0ia3.jpg

Running into the Countryman DI which also has an amp out. So running to the blackstar valve combo, miced with an sm57 and directly into my interface.

TBH, the combo is kind of a 1 trick pony so I don't think it's going to be suitable for these tracks but it's there in case so I'll more than likely just use the DI'd guitars and maybe try and blend the amp underneath.
 
ShortWarning said:
I've had this folky one in the bank for a month or so and finally had time to mix it over the weekend. It's quite different to the tracks I've recorded so far so I was a little out of my comfort zone but I enjoyed giving it a go.

Any constructive criticism is welcome (it's not loud screamy stuff I promise:p):

https://soundcloud.com/wefought/little-darlin
Click to expand...

Great stuff man. I'm pretty much a beginner when it comes to production so can't really offer any advice there, but it all sounds pretty good to me. I think for that type of music, you don't want to over produce things anyway.
 
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