The first step was deciding what equipment I wanted to buy. I've recorded myself on an 8 track recorder in my teens but I needed better quality and more control of the sound. With some guidance from my friend Tom Hyland, guitarist for the brilliant Electric Swing Circus, I decided to go for a couple of condenser microphones, as pretty much all the instruments that I'll use will be acoustic, and a good quality audio interface.
The condenser mics can be used for a variety of settings, great for acoustic guitar and vocals if you choose the right ones. I went for a matched pair of Rode NT1a's, which come with a cable, shock mount and pop screen for each microphone. I already had a Shure SM58 mic which I bought along with my loop pedal (which you can read about below). The SM58 is a dynamic microphone so I use it for live vocals but it's a useful thing to have in the bag. It's brother the SM57, is a microphone of similar construction often used for recording snare drums and guitars. Honestly I'm still fairly new to recording so I'll figure out what the best use of the mic is when I get down to it. So far I've been using a combination of a line output from the guitar's pick up, one condenser about a foot away from the 12th fret (which I read about online and for some reason that spot picks up so much more warmth than towards the bridge) and today I tried using the other condenser positioned in the top corner of the room to catch some ambient sound. Doing this worked great for guitar but I got a lot of phase when using this technique for vocals (phase is where the same sound reaches the two different microphones at different times, because of their positioning, and a weird effect is produced).
The audio interface was something I'd never heard of. I've buffed up on the very basic physics of sound recently and I can now tell you (hopefully without boring you to death) that the audio interface is an essential part of recording kit if you're planning to record digitally, that is, onto a computer using a program like Logic or Pro Tools. The interface takes the electrical analogue signal that travels down the microphone cables, amplifies it, using built in preamps, and then converts it into binary code so a computer can understand it. Then we can record and alter the sound using one of the many software packages available. The better quality the audio interface, the better quality your music will be.
Here I went for the Roland Octa-capture. Multiple inputs, good preamps and good conversion rates. It comes with a software called Sonar LE, developed by Cakewalk which I think is a sub-company-thingy of Roland, so this is the software I'll be using.
It's been fairly easy to use so far. I've had a couple of ARG! moments when I haven't had the right inputs selected or some other tiny thing that means the recordings delete the second you press stop. But apart from these it's been pretty good. It allows me a control of the recorded music that is far beyond anything I've ever had before. On the 8 track recorder, you can put effects on when you're recording but they weren't very diverse or good quality; and once something's recorded, it's recorded. There was no post-recording control of any kind which meant that mixing just wasn't possible, all the levels, effects and playing had to be perfect the second it was recorded. With digital recording, while getting the levels right when recording is important, there is so much more scope of editing once the tracks are recorded. I can cut, loop, reverse, add effects and transpose any audio track I record, as well as a myriad of other features that I'm not even close to understanding yet.
The quality that I've received through this method of recording is, as hoped and expected, vastly superior to my old 8 track. The added ability in mixing and editing is absolutely brilliant too. I've realised recently that recording and sound production is in itself an instrument and one which much be used efficiently to effectively capture your music. Once I finish my useless classic degree, I'm taking a certificate in studio sound to further my recording ability, make contacts in the industry and make some god damn money hopefully working as a studio sound engineer to fund my penniless musical existence.
Thanks for reading! Frankly I'm impressed at your dedication as I'm not sure if this is completely boring or not. Hopefully not, feel free to let me know.
Until next time friends,
NJ
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