Home Recording and Mixing/Mastering at Studio?

[HarpNinjaMike]

What do I need to capture good enough recordings to hand over to a studio for mixing/mastering/overdubbing? I am a solo act and would do all instrumentation live. I can do vocals live or in the studio. My act has the need for one vocal and two instrument tracks - I actually do three instruments on one track and split it.

 

1. Vocals

2. Looper/Harmonica/Beatboxing/Bass line sung through POG 2 direct to PA

3. Looper/Harmonica/Beatboxing/Bass line sung through POG 2 to amp

 

Right now all I have is....

 

MXL 990 Condensor Mic (so probably not worthy)

Sennheiser e906 for micing the amp

Zoom H4N - I can easily record all the instrumentation straight to the recorder or my computer...would do vocals as an overdub

Laptop - not recording specific

Sennheiser 380HD headphones

QSC K10 as a monitor

Peavey PV14 mixer

 

I am ok on Audacity, so I can make demo quality recordings from this stuff, but nothing, obviously, too hip. I am wondering if the investment in better gear outweighs the cost of studio time...all mixing and mastering will be done by the studio?

 

I know what I am doing musically, but I have very limited experience recording. I can get excellent studio time for about $50 an hour...The con being I'd have to have a bunch of songs ready at the time. If I do it at home, I can do a song and share it as I see fit. I guess my goal is to share single songs or EP's that are album quality through digital download. Thanks!

[P. Wallace]

Sounds like a cool project. If you upgrade your gear, you will always have it to record whenever and however you feel like, a studio, not so much. However, recording in a studio is an awesome experience if you are well prepared. Mixing you own stuff can be stressful. We recorded and mixed our own album and sent it too a world class studio for mastering and it made our mixes sound way more consistant and cohesive. I think recording quality all comes down to experience, good mics def help though.

[UstadKhanAli]

That mic might be good enough. I'm not totally familiar with that. It might come down to having a good sounding space to record that in, whether that means a good sounding room or making a bad room sound much better by using a couple of broadband absorption panels around the mic so that it doesn't sound like it was recorded in a bedroom.

 

Then after that, it might be a high quality analog-to-digital converter (Apogee et al) and a good quality mic preamp since I think you need one going in to a laptop or whatever instead of the Zoom, presumably. You can find some audio interfaces that have both the converter and mic preamps in one.

 

Does this sound like I'm in the neighborhood of what you're looking for?

[HarpNinjaMike]

Very much so! I am in need of solid gear recommendations. I admit to be a novice. My hope is to get to the point of at least good demos. It'd be great to capture good tones and have someone else mix master...I am open to getting a different USB interface for the computer...I was looking the M-Audio Fast-Track Ultra, and then a friend pointed out the Creative Professional E-MU 0404 USB 2.0.

 

I can handle how to set up the rig and what mic I want for vocals...What I need, I guess, for now, is any gear that goes between the mic and 1/4" cable (preamp? nothing at all?), an appropriate interface (is the Zoom good or something like above?), and what to use for the DAW (I can handle Audacity).

 

Budget-wise, I can take my time...but I have no idea what to expect for costs, etc. Thanks!!!

[RevRomansky]

Start researching a large diaphragm ghost-powered vocal mic. Some great ones for a good price out of China these days, qa'd by western engineers and fairly reflective of western industry counterparts. The mic is everything for vocals. I picked one up on Ebay for $325 used, selling for $900 discounted new, best money I ever spent.

[Lee Knight]

You need to split this:

 

Looper/Harmonica/Beatboxing/Bass line sung through POG 2

 

into this:

 

Looper

Harmonica

Beatboxing

Bass line sung through POG 2

 

And if any of those sources is stereo, you might want to capture them in stereo.

 

Maybe the harmonica and beatbox are both on the same mike? That's one channel then. But the bass line sung through POG would be a different path, no?

 

Anyway, that's the first I'd do, figure out a way to have each of those sources as a discreet signal. That way, they can be treated as such when you do bring your files to a studio.

[HarpNinjaMike]

Live, right now anyways, I run the beatboxing, harmonica, and bass line through the Line 6 M13 and its looper as I usually end up looping all three at some point in almost every song. That's how I'd do it live too. Well, the exception being I'd run from the M13 straight to the board from one output and then straight to the amp from the other.

 

It'd be sweet if I could send the looper to just the board and the harmonica to just the amp when doing leads. That probably doesn't make sense, but with more gear, it can be done. I beatbox, blow harmonica, and sing the bassline all into one amp. I use a vocal mic for vocals.

 

I'd have to invest in multiple loopers or other things in order to keep them all separate, which I could do, but it gets to be too complicated at this point.