Home Recording on a Budget

Squonk · 2011-03-23T00:18:24+00:00

This is my very basic Setup - 1. Toshiba Portege laptop (it is tiny, so dont think that the Line 6 Pocket Pod is Huge) 2. Line 6 Pocket Pod Multi Fx unit 3...

Home Recording on a Budget

AlanRatcliffe

deefstes wrote: So what is the story with vocals anyway? I've read in other threads also that recording vocals is a slightly more involved affair that recording a guitar. What makes it different? Why would you need a pre-amp? Isn't a microphone just another sort of pickup?

It's more a mic thing than a vocal thing. The same applies to any mic. Basically they have very low output levels that need more boosting to work properly.

A bit more in depth:

They are both transducers, but electric guitar pickups are electromagnetic (ferromagnetic strings vibrating in the magnetic field created by the pickup), while mics are electromechanical (a diaphragm moving to acoustic pressure, with a coil attached that moves in a fixed magnetic field).

Mics have a much lower output because they utilize a moving coil, so cannot be wound "hot" as it would add too much mass, affecting the response of the diaphragm. The lower output means that more (and better) pre-amplification is needed to get the signal up to line level and that the mic signal needs to be run as a low impedance balanced line from mic to preamp to avoid as much as possible picking up any noise.

Some mics get around this by building a preamplifier into the mic (condenser mics). The downside to this is that the preamplifier needs power to work and must be high quality to keep noise down. In "ye olde dayes", this meant valves and high voltages which consequently led to large mics with dedicated discrete power supplies, but the advent of transistors enabled the 48V phantom power standard and modern microelectronics even lets us use batteries. Because by this time mic inputs already had scads of gain, and dynamic mics still being the standard for live use, condensor mic outputs were still kept fairly low output to interface with the existing standards.

deefstes

Thanks Alan,

I just love the wealth of information that these forums offer. While I'm on a roll I'll ask one more question; What is this "line level" you are speaking of? I'm assuming it refers to a certain volume level at which an input signal is received. But then, you can always adjust the volume on your recording device and also on your source. Like, if my guitar's volume know is turned up all the way, is that "line level"? And if I turn down the volume know to, say 10%, it is more like "mic level"? Or have I got it wrong?

Also

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:Because by this time mic inputs already had scads of gain, and dynamic mics still being the standard for live use, condensor mic outputs were still kept fairly low output to interface with the existing standards.

Does this mean there is some other advantage to condensor microphones if their output is set to match typical microphone output levels anyway? I mean, why bother with a condenser mic if its output level is no better than a conventional microphone?

TomCat

Hey Deefstes

Have you had a read through this:
http://www.guitarforum.co.za/pa-and-lighting/basic-pa-101-part-2-1-input-sources-microphones/

I refer to a download from the Shure website that is very good at explaining microphones and their use.

AlanRatcliffe

While I'm on a roll I'll ask one more question; What is this "line level" you are speaking of?

Your roll may have just come up snake eyes. ? Line level is the standard reference higher level signal used by all pro audio gear. Pro gear is is calibrated so that 0 dB on the VU meters = +4 dBu. In comparison, dynamic mics put out about -50dBu, electric guitars about -20dBu and semi-pro and domestic gear is usually -10dBu.

A very important concept to understand is that decibels are a logarithmic ratio, so a 10dB power difference is 10 X the power, a 20 dB difference is 100 X and a 30dB difference 1,000 X, etc.. This means that an electric guitar at -20 dBu is 1,000 times the output power of a mic at -50dBu. So a bit beyond a simple volume tweak on your guitar to bring it down to mic level. ? It should also go some way to explaining why you can't use guitar level effects in a line level FX loop.

Decibels get very complicated very quickly though, as there are (to simplify it) different types of decibels. dBu, dBV, dBm and dB SPL are all completely different things. They are essential for a real understanding of audio (and to be honest are something I have a bit of a tenuous grasp on myself - my worst scores in my training), but as a mere operator of a couple of bits of audio gear, you can get away with simply knowing the above.

Does this mean there is some other advantage to condensor microphones if their output is set to match typical microphone output levels anyway?

The capsule in a condensor mic operates differently to a dynamic and outputs even lower power by itself, so the built-in preamp is essential. Condensors are much better at capturing transients (faster, more percussive sounds) accurately and are much more efficient at capturing higher frequencies, so are invaluable for detail and instruments with more high frequency components. They usually do push out more power (usually about -40 dB), but physical size limits the amount of high quality gain they can build into the mic itself, so getting them all the way up to line level is impractical.

TomCat

+1 Alan......Nicely put...

deefstes

Fantastic stuff, thanks Alan.

G-Man

Can you get a cable that goes from guitar jack to 2 x RCA jacks? In my case I would go straight from my amp (headphone plug is guitar jack) and then the inputs on the 202 is RCA. Would my cable be mono? Does that matter? Really thinking about one of these to get rid of the noise in my recording!!

Norman86

G-Man wrote: Can you get a cable that goes from guitar jack to 2 x RCA jacks? In my case I would go straight from my amp (headphone plug is guitar jack) and then the inputs on the 202 is RCA. Would my cable be mono? Does that matter? Really thinking about one of these to get rid of the noise in my recording!!

You could use a mono to RCA jack, then a RCA female to 2 male splitter...
but its not necassary! you could just use one input as its a mono sound anyways and you would want that slap bang in the middle in stereo!
(if you're lead singer plus guitarist)
otherwise, with audacity for instance, you could pan the mono sound to the right or left, soft or hard and anywhere in between!

Soundinmind

My 2c worth,

Cheapest best way to do recordings at home is the following:

1x AVID M-Box mini - R3 000.00 +/- with Pro Tools 8 (Includes all the plug ins extra you'll need plus it, the sound card has a Mic Pre and DI on it)
1x Mic (SM57 - R1500.00 +/- or any other mic thats kinda nice but try get something you can sing with too like a sE mic, maybe a sE-X1)
1x Reflection Filter - LD Systems RF1 are R1 400.00 +/- or the sE Stuff at R1 800.00 +/-
and a few cables here and there...

So what does that give you? The "World's best recording software", a good solid sound card, a nice mic and a solution to bad acoustics for most rooms (The Reflection filter).

karoo

Soundinmind wrote: My 2c worth,

Cheapest best way to do recordings at home is the following:

1x AVID M-Box mini - R3 000.00 +/- with Pro Tools 8 (Includes all the plug ins extra you'll need plus it, the sound card has a Mic Pre and DI on it)
1x Mic (SM57 - R1500.00 +/- or any other mic thats kinda nice but try get something you can sing with too like a sE mic, maybe a sE-X1)
1x Reflection Filter - LD Systems RF1 are R1 400.00 +/- or the sE Stuff at R1 800.00 +/-
and a few cables here and there...

So what does that give you? The "World's best recording software", a good solid sound card, a nice mic and a solution to bad acoustics for most rooms (The Reflection filter).

If you get pro tools 8 and all the stuff you mentioned, any recommendation on the specs of the computer?

Soundinmind

Hey Karoo,

Depending on how serious you go but considering this is a budget setup Ill go with the affordable option. Normally Ill out right recommend a iMac but they pricy.

Back to point, if you not doing anything to crazy recording mixing and large track recording, you can get away with a pretty simple setup. I used to track 8 channels (Record) and mix 16 channels session or more on my latop, a simple dual core intel with 2GB RAM.

So basic PC setup would be:
- Windows 7! (Pro Tools went to the bank to make sure it worked really well on Windows 7, almost as much as they do to work on Mac)
- 2x HDD if possible, reason is that your main drive will be running windows and pro tools, to make it stable its recommend that you record to a second drive and not the system drive. Along with this try get a 7200RPM drive for the recording drive.
- 2 to 4GB RAM, remembering that if you not running 64bit you can only see 3.3GB (Its something like that) of RAM. The RAM is important for instrument plug ins with loads of samples, so if you going to run heavy samples like drum kits then its best to have a good amount of RAM, more than 2GB is normally good enough.
- CPU: Single core 2.8GHz is good, Dual Core 2.4GHz is good enough, Quad, 2.4GHz. The more cores the better, Pro Tools splits its usage between the cores so one core will handle the system, the other the recording engine and then the others will handle samples and plug ins. In short 3 cores covers it easily. Dual core is good enough in general. If you can get a CPU without the FSB (Front Side Bus) anymore it would be best.
- Graphics: Doesnt matter really, dual screen is nice but once you know your Pro Tools shortcuts its easy.

So what kind of computer is this? Its your common computer now a days but I can say HP is a good option and if you know how to build your own its a good idea. However! Cheapy PCs like the ones that come from funny places have cheap Motherboards... if anything try get a intel board or nice gaming board.

Hope this helps, I may have gone into too much detail but I can make it more simple and just post a link to machine that will work. I will also add, its nicer to have a laptop cause then you can record anywhere, Laptops now a days are seriously powerful and can easily handle Pro Tools, just make sure you set the power scheme to high preformance, its on the battery icon at the clock section.