Thrifty Acoustic Home Recording

[sprucedup]

I'd like to have the ability to record acoustic pieces in my home without using my phone as the recorder, but I don't want to spend a lot of money doing it. Here are my questions for you home recording pros out there...

- What is a good value mic you can get for not too much $$$?
- What is the ideal room setup for recording?
- What are the best/easiest programs you can download to record and edit?
- In said programs, what are some of the easiest and most effective ways to clean up a recording?

Thanks in advance.

[MikeBmusic]

What's your total budget? 'least' does not define it!

Computer recording at home can be a big money hog.
Microphone + audio interface (or USB mic?)
DAW (recording software)
Headphones (for monitoring preveiously recorded tracks while recording wiht a mic)
Monitors (speakers) for listening back and mixing (computer speakers are not a good choice)

A cheap alternative to all this is a stand-alone recorder (look at Zoom and Tascam) with built-in mics. You can then transfer files recorded on these to a computer for further editing or burning to CD or uploading to the web.

What is your ultimate goal of recording? just for fun? to make decent-sounding recordings that others can listen to? to make a CD to sell at gigs?

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by sprucedup

I'd like to have the ability to record acoustic pieces in my home without using my phone as the recorder, but I don't want to spend a lot of money doing it. Here are my questions for you home recording pros out there...

- What is a good value mic you can get for not too much $$$?

A mic is useless without the rest of the recording chain. Are you asking about a good low cost integrated recorder? Zoom H1 and Tascam DR-05 are the standard lowest cost tools.

- What is the ideal room setup for recording?

Not totally sure what you mean here. Arrangement of mic and source? Choice of room? Room treatment? Ideal would be 700 sq ft or so with 12 foot ceilings, adjustable reflectivity on the walls and lots of diffusion. This is what they had in the golden age of major recording studios. Today we look for the largest quietest space we can find and wait until 11 at night for things to quiet down (grin).

- What are the best/easiest programs you can download to record and edit?

I hear Garage Band is the easiest but I don't have a Mac to try it. Audacity is the cheapest because it's free and it's not terribly hard but is slightly limited (no real-time preview of effects last time I checked). REAPER is inexpensive, free to download and try for 30 days or so, many people find it challenging but there are lots of tutorials and an excellent user-to-user support forum.

- In said programs, what are some of the easiest and most effective ways to clean up a recording?

"Cleaning up" is one of the most difficult things to do to audio, since the noise occupies exactly the same space as the signal. The venerable Adobe Audition had some noise scrubbing tools but I think the program has been "improved" out of existence by the great minds at Adobe. I think the standard tool these days is Isotope: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/audio-repair/rx/ In REAPER some noise reduction can be done using the REAfir tool. I did stumble over some web articles on using Audacity for noise reduction: http://lifehacker.com/5732531/use-fr...sy-audio-files

Thanks in advance.

Fran

[sprucedup]

Thanks for the info!

The purpose of recording would be just so that I have some decent sounding tracks for friends, family, etc. I find the biggest issues I come across are recording bass notes (they're either way too heavy and muddied or practically non-existent) and background noise (even in what I would consider a perfectly quiet environment, the mic picks up a fair amount of white noise). Picking up mid and treble hasn't been much of an issue in my experience.

[Rudy4]

Pick up a Zoom R8, mount it on a mic stand and have fun. There's a review as well as recording tips on my "Simple Homestyle Recording" page:

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/pageRecording1.html

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by sprucedup

Thanks for the info!

The purpose of recording would be just so that I have some decent sounding tracks for friends, family, etc. I find the biggest issues I come across are recording bass notes (they're either way too heavy and muddied or practically non-existent) and background noise (even in what I would consider a perfectly quiet environment, the mic picks up a fair amount of white noise). Picking up mid and treble hasn't been much of an issue in my experience.

Hi Spruced-up!

I understand. And actually the space you record in can be as simple as a living room (if you are not on a noisy highway) or other small/medium sized room with mixed surfaces in your home.

Often, the recording space is as responsible for good recordings as the talent involved.

And friends and family are just thrilled to hear your tracks and not as analytical as you are about the quality and detail of the sound. It's good to keep that in mind when you finger is hovering over the "Buy Now" button of an $800 microphone or $1000 tube preamp, or that $700 computer interface that requires $200 software.

Honestly, I own a bunch of that, but it makes my heart happy to roll into a friend's house who wants to do what you said are your goals with my simple little zoom H2n and in an hour have 3-5 tracks done.

I can then edit them and add effects to in 20 minutes, and we can burn them to an 8GB USB thumb drive for them to burn their own CDrs and share.

I own a Zoom H2n, and a Zoom H4n (the H6 had not been invented when I bought these). Both I bought used from people who were upgrading and they do a magnificent job of recording on a budget.

Even the lowly Zoom H1 does a fabulous job for about $100, fits on a camera tripod (so you don't need a microphone stand) and creates high quality files which are easy to share with friends and enemies alike!

You can more easily contol the bass by the distance and direction you point the mics, and your position in the room. I love spacious living/dining rooms with hardwood floors. Guitars can often sound more balanced when in non-carpeted rooms. Carpet soaks up mid and treble, but bass travels right through it. You can capture a really nice 'muddy' sound by recoding close to walls in a carpeted space. Hard floors in rooms with area rugs and moving draperies give me the ability to dial in control.

If you sit in the middle of the room (away from walls and corners) you maximize your opportunity to do simple recording with minimal room treatment.

For solo guitar, I find that 10"-14" in a quiet space is a good starting distance, and I just position the recorder level with, and about a foot away from the neck/body joint of my guitar.

If recording both singing and playing at the same time, I start by aiming my H2n mics about ½ way between soundhole and mouth and again 12-14" away from my chin, aimed at my chin.

And once I get the sound the way I want (I monitor it through the headphone jack), then I write the setting down lest I forget it.

Hope you find the setup you like.

[midwinter]

What is your budget?

Originally Posted by sprucedup

Thanks for the info!

The purpose of recording would be just so that I have some decent sounding tracks for friends, family, etc. I find the biggest issues I come across are recording bass notes (they're either way too heavy and muddied or practically non-existent) and background noise (even in what I would consider a perfectly quiet environment, the mic picks up a fair amount of white noise). Picking up mid and treble hasn't been much of an issue in my experience.

[sprucedup]

Sadly, I think one of the issue I was having was the noise from the fans/vents on my laptop (it's a pretty heavy duty laptop). When I recorded on my ipad with the same mic/setup, no issues with background noise.

[ft85915]

- What is a good value mic you can get for not too much $$$?

MXL 990 or MXL 2006 are very good value mic for under $100. + $50 for a good quality Mic stand.

-What are the best/easiest programs you can download to record and edit?

Reaper as mentioned. or I would personally recommend Presonus Studio one 3.
You can get it with a audio interface like the Presonus Audio-box for about $100.

Add another $60-80 for a quality headphone like Audio Technica ATH-M30 or 40.

Give or take $300 total.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by sprucedup

Sadly, I think one of the issue I was having was the noise from the fans/vents on my laptop (it's a pretty heavy duty laptop). When I recorded on my ipad with the same mic/setup, no issues with background noise.

Thats common, one of the issues with computer recording. Thats why you see so many suggestions for the Zoom/Tascam recorders. Dead quiet, good sound, and the ability to move around easily to different rooms. But if you have an ipad, why not just use that?

[stevecuss]

You still haven't addressed the budget question so in the spirit of goldilocks...

Low budget: Zoom all in one recorder, Free DAW like Audacity or Garage Band for mixing your recordings. Any extra money spent on DIY room treatment (bass traps, acoustic panels.) Total budget: less than $300 and a few hours of construction of panels.

Mid budget: Two condenser mics, from CAD, ADK or AKG or any number of decent companies. I like the ADK A6 as an all round mic. Apogee Duet, either preowned or new. (The old version is just fine and inexpensive on craigslist or ebay.) Reaper DAW plus acoustic panels listed above. Total Budget: $1000 presuming a preowned Duet, plus 20 - 50 hours to climb up the initial steep learning curve of a pro level DAW. Youtube and forums are your friend for this.

High Budget: Condensor mics that are world class standard ($500 - $3000 per mic.) Pro Tools DAW, purchased effects plugins that are better than the freebies that come with your DAW. Same hours in learning, constructing.

Each of these scenarios presumes dozens or maybe hundreds of hours in learning how to play for recording rather than play for performing.

It also presumes the exciting/frustrating/confusing A/B'ing of mic placement, panel placement....the cat walking in on a session...that time you forgot to turn off the fridge and the "what IS that Darth Vadar sound on the recording? Is that me breathing? Do I really sound like that to people????"

Welcome to the madness. It is so much fun IF you give yourself permission to be an amateur and learn as you go. If you take yourself too seriously, then Lord have mercy on your soul. It is a brutal and unforgiving taskmaster

[buzzardwhiskey]

Check out the iPad DAW called Auria. Amazing. I can’t believe how much well-designed functionality they’ve built into an app that runs on a tablet.

For a mic, rather than using a computer interface, consider one of the iPad ready (built in DAC) microphones such as the Apogee MiC 96K or the IK Multimedia iRig Studio.

[islandguitar]

+1! Nice post! You nailed a lot of important stuff there!

Originally Posted by stevecuss

You still haven't addressed the budget question so in the spirit of goldilocks...

Low budget: Zoom all in one recorder, Free DAW like Audacity or Garage Band for mixing your recordings. Any extra money spent on DIY room treatment (bass traps, acoustic panels.) Total budget: less than $300 and a few hours of construction of panels.

Mid budget: Two condenser mics, from CAD, ADK or AKG or any number of decent companies. I like the ADK A6 as an all round mic. Apogee Duet, either preowned or new. (The old version is just fine and inexpensive on craigslist or ebay.) Reaper DAW plus acoustic panels listed above. Total Budget: $1000 presuming a preowned Duet, plus 20 - 50 hours to climb up the initial steep learning curve of a pro level DAW. Youtube and forums are your friend for this.


High Budget: Condensor mics that are world class standard ($500 - $3000 per mic.) Pro Tools DAW, purchased effects plugins that are better than the freebies that come with your DAW. Same hours in learning, constructing.

Each of these scenarios presumes dozens or maybe hundreds of hours in learning how to play for recording rather than play for performing.

It also presumes the exciting/frustrating/confusing A/B'ing of mic placement, panel placement....the cat walking in on a session...that time you forgot to turn off the fridge and the "what IS that Darth Vadar sound on the recording? Is that me breathing? DO I really sound like that to people????"

Welcome to the madness. It is SO much fun IF you give yourself permission to be an amateur and learn as you go. If you take yourself too seriously, then Lord have mercy on your soul. It is a brutal and unforgiving taskmaster

[CaffeinatedOne]

The combinations of some of these questions in the same post suggests that the OP is just starting out. My advice is simple: buy something you will use and then use it like crazy.

Get a Zoom for a hundred bucks. It has all the basics - the very basic basics. Spend a lot of time with it and getting to know its quirks. When the time comes for you to step up, you will know more about what you want and why. You'll be approaching it from a position of some experience, so you will then be able to identify the task you want to accomplish pretty well. That experience will lead you where you need to go.

[janepaints]

last year, after my ancient boss BR-multitracker died, i got a little tascam digital 8-track which has two built-in OMNIDIRECTIONAL mics...IMO matched-pair omni's IMO deliver a more-natural stereo image than matched-pair unidirectional mics.

it's a very good unit...especially nice is it's well-thought-out mastering function...usb...compact..it's got good EQ, basic reverbs/echo/plate reverb etc...i forget the specific model name/# but it retails for around $150....

runs on AA batteries, but tascam sells a wall adaptor for about $25.

the on-board mics sound so good that i'm considering getting rid of other mics/gear i've used with other units (tho you can use outboard mic's or line-level signals with it)...for simple acoustic recording this tascam can, literally, be all you'll ever need....compact, affordablec etc.

it's basically this unit, tho mine might be 'last year's model:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/deta...FUg9gQodsxsKiQ