Improving home recording quality

judas101

howdy,

started recording some stuff at home a few months back and am reasonably pleased with the results. I'm looking to improve my setup to get a higher quailty of instrumentation on my tracks.

I'm using a line 6 toneport into cubase. i have decent mic's and equipment. i was originally thinking of getting a tube preamp to put eveything through before the sound card (does this make sense? ) but am starting to think that the toneport might be the weak link. i do like the toneport and some settings are very useful so that's why i want to keep it despite the fact i know its not a high end soundcard.

another option would to buy a new higher quality soundcard but am unsure how much of a differance that it would have. if i go down this route i will have to get reverb rack effect as i use reverb on the toneport a lot.


oh and one more thing, when you guys are recording guitar at home do you plug straight into the soundcard or mic up the amp?


any advice is greatly appreciated! thanks!

sei046

Ok First of all can i get a list of every bit of your equipment? cant move forwards without that. We can look at your weak link then. You can use plugins for your verb, dont bother with outboard unless its a sh*t hot unit or your using it for headphones or whatever.

judas101

right well i'm using a laptop with cubase sx 3. I'm still very much getting used to cubase and havent really looked into the virtual instruments side of things at all tbh. i like the idea of getting the sound i want through pedals and what not rather than recording something and then dabbing with reverb ect (although this is still necassary at times)

i use a vox modeling amp which i'm fairly happy with having ditched a marshall a few months back. i have a really nice ashdown stack (i'm a bass player first) but i almost always plug straight into the soundcard and dabble around on gearbox (line 6 software) i have a shure sm57 and a seinheiser something or other for vocals. for drums i got a set of electric drums a while back which i'm in the process of learning to play properly (tricky business)

i have a basic set of monitors but i use headphones more often than not.


i was toying with the idea of getting a nice preamp to run everythhing through to get a nice sound and to enable me to use the effects on the toneport. is this wise or should i ditch the toneport?

sei046

judas101 wrote:

i have decent mic's and equipment.

Well There are a lot of weak links before you begin to look at pres. First of all i really reccomend picking up:
A Condenser for Vocals
&
A Half Decent Set of Monitors(Im guessing your headphones are of the generic type).

Whats the point in getting a preamp when you wont be able to properly hear the difference?

In your situation i wouldnt be so against effects ITB. They are going to be at least as good if not better than the ones currently at your disposal in your hardware and It takes a hell of an engineer or producer to be fully 100% sure how well a sound is going to fit in a given song. Verbs going in on tape is defo not what you want. Makes compression and Eq a nightmare.

Hang on to the toneport for another little while. There are defo better options for you but i would look at monitors first. You can mess with headphones but i wouldnt be mixing with them. I presume since you didnt give a model for your monitors they are prob not really studio monitors so i would look at that. Can i have a budget?

judas101

i'd like to get use monitors but find myself using headphones because of volume issues. that said a new set is something ive been considering and realize i'll eventually have to bite the bullet if i ever want really good quality mixes.

i'm happy enough with the vocal sound i'm getting. I'm more concerned that i'm not getting the tone i want out of my guitars (eg. finding it difficult to replicate the live sound i get out of my telecaster)


i know nothing of plug ins. how do you get them? i assume you need to pay for good ones and i imagine they take a while to get good at using.

i'm not on a strict budget. if something will improve the sound significantly i'll go for it. just wondering which part of the setup i should improve.


thanks for the feedback

HiKite

Hi folks,

I just signed up to the forum today and saw your post. This type of device would be handy for low-level recording at home:

http://www.treblebooster.com/hotplate.htm

It'll allow you to get cranked-up tones, and not from your neighbours ;0)

Cheers,

Enda.

sei046

Thats a great piece of kit but not for the modeling amp your using. If your using a modelling up live then you should be able to get the tones your using live without any problem. I think you might be missing the live energy in your tracks instead. That springs to mind as your worried about voluume issues which means you cant really give it socks on drums or whatever.

If your mixing on headphones because of volume you should leave the monitors til another day and get yourself a really good set of cans. You will instantly head the difference. There are plenty i could reccomend but leave it with me. Dont take this in a bad way at all but hte weakest link is probably you yourself. Sure im defo the weakest link in my studio. I can squeeze more out of my gear for sure with more experience as everyone can. I would reccomend just stick at it and be very very anal about everything you do.

Think about absolutely everything that is going on and dont do something unless you actually understand what is going on.

Are the guitars too all over the place volume wise?
Compressor or maybe some sort of limiter? What ratio? What should my threshold be?

Get thinking like that and you gear will start yielding better results.
Dont fling on reverb without thinking about it which is a trap everyone falls into. Gearwise, down the line replace the toneport go directly out from your Vox if your sure you will like the sound or use something like amplitube. The soundcard makes a massive difference. Get a nice set of cans. TREAT YOURSELF! dont hinder yourself with some cheap as chips hifi cans. Get into plugins. now! at that level you are using no outboard EQs or Verbs so you will have to use plugins!

These will open up wild plethora of possibilities. You can get into the Waves and URS and ESS eventually but until then get some of the freebies off the net.

thetourist

i recently built a recording studio in my home and while researching i came across the subject of bass traps - tbh i haven't done enough work in the studio to tell if the ones i put in are worth it, but if what I've read about them is anything to go by then bass traps and acoustic treatment are possibly even more important in a studio than microphones.

make your own mind up about it - i would research bass traps and acoustic treatment myself if i were you as from what I've read it can be worth it. you can make your own ( anything from a roll of insulation or 2 in the corner at makeshift level to a specially tuned hanging damper system ) or you can buy from a company like real traps - http://www.realtraps.com/index.htm - ethan winer the owner of real traps is the sort of guru of bass traps and he gives away a good bit of information about them for free including pretty good designs for diy the ones i built. (pm me if you cant find them on google just :ethan winers bass traps)

there is some good information on http://www.johnlsayers.com/ and here http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html although the last link is a bit dated i think - Ethan winers recommends panel traps for most studios - that what i built (along with one slot resonator ) - they cost aprox €60 each i think and i put 6 ( 2 high and four low ) in my control room ( about 15 * 18 * 8) - they took me an couple of hours each to build - apparently where you can deaden a room too much by using too much high frequency damping, you can never have too many bass traps; there are even specialist studios which are JUST bass traps.

read up on them is all i'm saying - proponents actually think it's a complete waste of money buying good gear if your room sounds crap - i have to say i agree although like i said i haven't tried out the studio enough to say whether it was worth it yet - although first impressions are good

i have attached a picture of my pride and joy - you can see two lo-traps behind the console and the light colored high ones on the left and right

judas101

wow, thats a sweet setup.

loving the guitars on the walls!

thetourist

judas101 wrote:

wow, thats a sweet setup.

loving the guitars on the walls!

thanks

i almost didnt do the guitar wall because i thought it was a bit twee but it's actually a MUST for practicality , especially if you play both electric acoustic and bass - very easy to use - a lot better than multiple stands etc
the hangers were €5 each and are actually glued (:eek: ) to the wall with grip fill because you want to avoid holes in the wall where sound gets through - the gibson hasnt fallen yet !!!!!