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

[tedmaul]

That's excellent.

I've been in the middle of recording a 3 track demo for about 4 months now. The joys of trying to fit this stuff around a day job and family. It's instrumental guitar type stuff and i'm pretty much a one man band, so it's slow work. I have one piece fully tracked and ready to mix, one half done and one barely started. I have zero experience in mixing and mastering though, so that's going to be a learning curve. Enjoying the whole process though, and quite pleased with the actual music.

 

[ShortWarning]

Fitting it in around real life is definitely a pain. I've got a full song ready to mix but I can't really do it during the week. I tell my Mrs I'm going to spend 30 mins "working". 4 hours later I get an angry - "You told me you'd only be 30 minutes"! I set out with good intentions but get carried away. Haha.

Looking forward to the weekend so I can get stuck into it.

 

[ShortWarning]

Finished the track I was tracking in those pics. Any constructive feedback/criticism is welcome!

https://soundcloud.com/projectmay/lowercases-nothing-you-can-say

 

[easyrider]

Finished the track I was tracking in those pics. Any constructive feedback/criticism is welcome!

https://soundcloud.com/projectmay/lowercase-final-1/s-hEayN

What Mic was the vocal recorded with?

 

[easyrider]

After constant crashes with Reaper when using open GL plugins Iv'e been giving Studio One a dance......Any users?

 

[ShortWarning]

What Mic was the vocal recorded with?

Slate VMS.

 

[easyrider]

This has changed my life





I have been struggling to get a decent sound out of my 1972 Hayman Kit

Just changed the Heads to Evans G2 Coated and tuned them using this. Incredible! It's night and day. I didn't even know these things existed!

 

[Merlin5]

Hey easyrider, good choice of heads. I recently replaced my 2 ply Remo Emperors with Evans UV1 which are 1 ply. They're designed with a very strong coating that doesn't wear away easily and after several weeks of use, mine still look brand new. Highly recommended the next time you're ready to change heads. I remember Hayman drums. Nice vintage

Also, I had considered the Drumdial but bought the Tune-Bot a few months ago. Where the Dial gives even tension, that doesn't necessarily equal even pitch. Though I'm sure you've got a very nice sound now.

But what I like about the Tune-Bot is that it actually tunes the heads by frequency, and octaves if you want. It just clips onto the rim and doesn't need moving around the drum. Though I've tuned drums by ear for years and get a good sound, the Tune-Bot speeds up the process, plus I can save the settings and get the same tuning every time. I've got a Tune-Bot app on my phone with frequency settings for different size drums. You should definitely get one! I'm sure you know this, but if you prefer more resonance, then tune top and bottom heads the same. But I generally tune my bottom reso heads a bit tighter to get a nice dip in the sound.

 

[ShortWarning]

I always wanted one of those bad boys when I was in a band. I was terrible at tuning and would rely on hours of trial and error to get a decent sound. My drums sounded pretty awesome for what they were (had many a sound guy comment on them) but it was way more luck than judgement. Haha.

 

[easyrider]

Hey easyrider, good choice of heads. I recently replaced my 2 ply Remo Emperors with Evans UV1 which are 1 ply. They're designed with a very strong coating that doesn't wear away easily and after several weeks of use, mine still look brand new. Highly recommended the next time you're ready to change heads. I remember Hayman drums. Nice vintage

Also, I had considered the Drumdial but bought the Tune-Bot a few months ago. Where the Dial gives even tension, that doesn't necessarily equal even pitch. Though I'm sure you've got a very nice sound now.

But what I like about the Tune-Bot is that it actually tunes the heads by frequency, and octaves if you want. It just clips onto the rim and doesn't need moving around the drum. Though I've tuned drums by ear for years and get a good sound, the Tune-Bot speeds up the process, plus I can save the settings and get the same tuning every time. I've got a Tune-Bot app on my phone with frequency settings for different size drums. You should definitely get one! I'm sure you know this, but if you prefer more resonance, then tune top and bottom heads the same. But I generally tune my bottom reso heads a bit tighter to get a nice dip in the sound.

Just looked there is a new version called the Tune Bot studio...hmmm....do I return my drum dial? The Tunebot Studio is 20 quid more....

 

[Merlin5]

Just looked there is a new version called the Tune Bot studio...hmmm....do I return my drum dial? The Tunebot Studio is 20 quid more....

Yes, return the drum dial! And I didn't know there's a newer version of tune-bot. Just had a quick look and it features everything mine has plus even better accuracy, higher frequency range which is great for snare drums, and more screen display colours. Seems to be the same price as mine so a no brainer on getting the studio version. Honestly, I think you'll enjoy using it more than the analogue drum dial, it's a fun gadget and loads of drummers are using it these days as their default tuner. It's like the drummer's version of the guitar tuner. The filter button is very useful for tune-bot to ignore unwanted frequencies that aren't in the range of the reference pitch you're going for.

iTunes app
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/drum-tuning-calculator/id851864924?mt=8

Android app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.overtone.tunebot&hl=en_GB

 

[easyrider]

Yes, return the drum dial! And I didn't know there's a newer version of tune-bot. Just had a quick look and it features everything mine has plus even better accuracy, higher frequency range which is great for snare drums, and more screen display colours. Seems to be the same price as mine so a no brainer on getting the studio version. Honestly, I think you'll enjoy using it more than the analogue drum dial, it's a fun gadget and loads of drummers are using it these days as their default tuner. It's like the drummer's version of the guitar tuner. The filter button is very useful for tune-bot to ignore unwanted frequencies that aren't in the range of the reference pitch you're going for.

iTunes app
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/drum-tuning-calculator/id851864924?mt=8

Android app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.overtone.tunebot&hl=en_GB

Will do I like gadgets and iPhone apps

 

[easyrider]

I have had a bit of a change around and moved my workstation to the centre of the room. and finally finished my acoustic treatments.

I have installed the mixer and what I have done is connect the Mic Pre-amps to the AUX in's on the board and connected the output of these to the line in of the Eleven Rack. The Eleven Rack is connected to the Octa Capture

of Spdif. What this means is now I completely bypass the mic Pre's on the octa-capture and get the pure signal from the Focusrite ISA one and DAV BG1 and the Joe Meek Preamp into the PC over digital.

Plus it make things much quicker in STUDIO One as I only have to remember one input (Input 9/10 ) for all my mic pre's. I just use the fader on the Mixer.

The OH drum Mics go into the DAV BG1 Mic Pre. The Rest of the drum kit goes directly into the Ocat Capture and I never remove them. 7 mics!

From this



To this

 

[ShortWarning]

Recorded some drums at my mates studio yesterday. He's converted his living room into a live room:







Looking forward to mixing these, they sound pretty huge.

Some of the drumming is quite a bit more complicated to what I've recorded before though so I'm absolutely dreading editing it.

 

[easyrider]

Recorded some drums at my mates studio yesterday. He's converted his living room into a live room:







Looking forward to mixing these, they sound pretty huge.

Some of the drumming is quite a bit more complicated to what I've recorded before though so I'm absolutely dreading editing it.

Love it ! Epic

 

[easyrider]

@Merlin5 I've returned the drum dial and opted for the Tune Bot studio.

 

[ShortWarning]

Recorded my first session which didn't involve my brother this weekend. It's going to be tricky to make it sound good....

Fun and games.

Here's a first mix of another of my bros bands tracks:

https://soundcloud.com/projectmay/new-lc-first-mix/s-PjCdq

Any suggestions? Really need to figure out a way to tame those open hi hats. I used a de esser on them for the last track (which was recorded at the same time) but wasn't really happy with it.

 

[easyrider]

Recorded my first session which didn't involve my brother this weekend. It's going to be tricky to make it sound good....

Fun and games.

Here's a first mix of another of my bros bands tracks:

https://soundcloud.com/projectmay/new-lc-first-mix/s-PjCdq

Any suggestions? Really need to figure out a way to tame those open hi hats. I used a de esser on them for the last track (which was recorded at the same time) but wasn't really happy with it.

Have you EQ'd the drums at all? They seem buried in the mix the drums and the High hats in your face...

 

[ShortWarning]

I have. The kick is definitely fighting against something. I think the snare may just be a little quiet.

 

[Merlin5]

ShortWarning, that sounds great. I love the sswooosh effect ending on floor tom at 0:04. Not really my cup of tea musically but sounds like a strong song and tight band! Mix sounds pretty good to me. But yeah I suppose the drums could be a bit more prominent which might balance out the hi-hat. Good drummer. Was he playing to click? Any quantizing of drums? Regarding taming the open hi-hat, do you think panning it slightly less left might help it be less in your face?

@Merlin5 I've returned the drum dial and opted for the Tune Bot studio.

Great stuff easyrider. When do you receive the Tune Bot Studio?