I need your advice

[Dreadfulnaught]

I have an excellent home studio-for 1975. Technology has passed me by, but I have the opportunity to start with a blank slate in putting together a new studio.
I have a HP Pavilion laptop. I intend to overdub vocals and acoustic guitars. The ability to add drum tracks without recording them would be good. It has to be easy to use. Software that looks like an old mixer and reel to reel controller would shorten my learning curve.

What are your suggestions on a mic and software?

[MikeBmusic]

Basic equipment needed:

Microphone(s) + stand(s) + cable(s) + pop filter
Audio interface - takes the analog signal converts to digital to send to your computer by USB (or Firewire or Thunderbolt).
Headphones (for monitoring pre-recorded tracks while recording with microphone)
Monitors - for mixing/listening. Computer speakers are not adequate. If you have an older stereo system with good speakers, you could use this until you can afford decent monitors ($250 or more per set minimum)
DAW (recording software)
VSTi - virtual instrument software (for drums)
Acoustical treatment for your recording/mixing room

What's your budget?
What is the maximum number of individual tracks you will want to record at the same time?

I recommend Reaper for a DAW - free to download the full version and try it out, $60 to register. The basic GUI is very similar to a standard mixer.
VSTi drums - can be very simple, and get very complex using MIDI creation. I use EZ Drummer and will be upgrading to EZD 2 soon.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Dreadfulnaught

I have an excellent home studio-for 1975. Technology has passed me by, but I have the opportunity to start with a blank slate in putting together a new studio.
I have a HP Pavilion laptop. I intend to overdub vocals and acoustic guitars. The ability to add drum tracks without recording them would be good. It has to be easy to use. Software that looks like an old mixer and reel to reel controller would shorten my learning curve.

What are your suggestions on a mic and software?

Most of the main DAW softwares available have a virtual mixer window (made to like like channel strips on an analog mixer) and an edit window ( which is usually a graphical representation of multi track tape tracks) stacked top to bottom of window. The main difference being normally in a DAW when in play or record the cursor (representing more or less the tape head) moves linearly left to right over the tracks (or tape), where on analog tape machine the tape moves linearly over the head. This look or as it is called in the digital world GUI for (graphic user interface) was pioneered by Pro Tools but has since been adopted by most DAWs
Suggestions for gear depends basically on budget.

[Dreadfulnaught]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

Basic equipment needed:

Microphone(s) + stand(s) + cable(s) + pop filter
Audio interface - takes the analog signal converts to digital to send to your computer by USB (or Firewire or Thunderbolt).
Headphones (for monitoring pre-recorded tracks while recording with microphone)
Monitors - for mixing/listening. Computer speakers are not adequate. If you have an older stereo system with good speakers, you could use this until you can afford decent monitors ($250 or more per set minimum)
DAW (recording software)
VSTi - virtual instrument software (for drums)
Acoustical treatment for your recording/mixing room

What's your budget?
What is the maximum number of individual tracks you will want to record at the same time?

I recommend Reaper for a DAW - free to download the full version and try it out, $60 to register. The basic GUI is very similar to a standard mixer.
VSTi drums - can be very simple, and get very complex using MIDI creation. I use EZ Drummer and will be upgrading to EZD 2 soon.

Budget of $500.00, since it is only me I would probably record one track at a time.

Back in the day I used to put a scratch vocal and guitar on one track to a prerecorded click track. As I built the song the scratch version was recorded over. Once in a while I would get ambitious and run out of tracks, and bounce tracks 1 and 2 to 4, then record a new Track 1, then bounce 1 to 3 with a new live track, etc....someone who has grown up in the era of a zillion virtual tracks can't know how grateful we were to have 4 of them. It was possible to get 6 tracks on a four channel reel to reel without much loss of quality. External bounce could get you more. I successfully recorded novelty stuff that was played on the radio. Towards the end I mastered onto a VHS player because they were stereo, relatively cheap, and actually speced out well for the time! Those were the days.......
I would like the ease of that way of working with the sound quality of today.

[Dreadfulnaught]

Late breaking news: my teenaged son has a Macbook Air and has or can get Garageband. My stories about bouncing tracks had him laughing pretty hard, but that was what we had to work with then.
Anyway, I know I will need a mike, saw a Blue Yeti the other day, is that a good choice? Looks like it would record voice and acoustic guitar acceptably.
What else will I need?

[MikeBmusic]

You might want to see what you can find used, on ebay or locally, but figure on:
$100 for a mic (SHure SM58 or SM57, there are also some low budget condensor mics)
$150 for an audio interface (Steinberg UR22, M Audio, Focusrite Scarlet)
DAW - Reaper will be the least expensive but many interfaces come wiht a liited edition of a DAW.
Mic stand, cable, pop filter: $40
Headphones: $40
Monitors - yes, you can get some that are in the $100/pair range, but ...

Home recording is a 'hobby' that can quickly give you GAS and an empty wallet!

[RRuskin]

Originally Posted by Dreadfulnaught

I have an excellent home studio-for 1975. Technology has passed me by, but I have the opportunity to start with a blank slate in putting together a new studio.
I have a HP Pavilion laptop. I intend to overdub vocals and acoustic guitars. The ability to add drum tracks without recording them would be good. It has to be easy to use. Software that looks like an old mixer and reel to reel controller would shorten my learning curve.

What are your suggestions on a mic and software?

Describe current setup.

[Dreadfulnaught]

Have not used it in years. Teac 3440, passive 4 channel mixer, Shure SM 57 and 58 mikes laying in a drawer for years, a DigiTech compressor limiter, some old rack mounted graphic equalizer, old Acoustic Research speakers I used to mix through, using a high end Fisher home stereo. Patch bay that looks like a refugee from the phone company ( and the kids ask, "What's a patch bay?") Enough stands and cables to equip Kool and The Gang. Probably all unserviceable now. Forgot my much maligned acoustically dead booth made of hollow doors and hanging carpet samples, and some old rack mounted digital delay unit, excellent for the Sun Records echo effect, also had reverb.
I want to go for portability and ease of use. Been watching Garageband tutorials, and while the tasteless techno music some people came up with sounds like 1970s porn movie soundtracks, it looks like it may do what I need.

[louparte]

Originally Posted by Dreadfulnaught

Have not used it in years. Teac 3440, passive 4 channel mixer, Shure SM 57 and 58 mikes laying in a drawer for years, a DigiTech compressor limiter, some old rack mounted graphic equalizer, old Acoustic Research speakers I used to mix through, using a high end Fisher home stereo. Patch bay that looks like a refugee from the phone company ( and the kids ask, "What's a patch bay?") Enough stands and cables to equip Kool and The Gang. Probably all unserviceable now. Forgot my much maligned acoustically dead booth made of hollow doors and hanging carpet samples, and some old rack mounted digital delay unit, excellent for the Sun Records echo effect, also had reverb.
I want to go for portability and ease of use. Been watching Garageband tutorials, and while the tasteless techno music some people came up with sounds like 1970s porn movie soundtracks, it looks like it may do what I need.

Keep using that Teac 3340 and that delay. Buy a couple of decent condenser mic's. Record on the DAW you choose.
Mix at least one mix per song to your 3340.

[RRuskin]

Originally Posted by Dreadfulnaught

Have not used it in years. Teac 3440, passive 4 channel mixer, Shure SM 57 and 58 mikes laying in a drawer for years, a DigiTech compressor limiter, some old rack mounted graphic equalizer, old Acoustic Research speakers I used to mix through, using a high end Fisher home stereo. Patch bay that looks like a refugee from the phone company ( and the kids ask, "What's a patch bay?") Enough stands and cables to equip Kool and The Gang. Probably all unserviceable now. Forgot my much maligned acoustically dead booth made of hollow doors and hanging carpet samples, and some old rack mounted digital delay unit, excellent for the Sun Records echo effect, also had reverb.
I want to go for portability and ease of use. Been watching Garageband tutorials, and while the tasteless techno music some people came up with sounds like 1970s porn movie soundtracks, it looks like it may do what I need.

Things to keep: 3440 - it may need some attention but that is a very good machine and can still be useful if you want to do honest tape delay and/or analog mixing. The mics if they still work properly. Reverb, limiter & delays might be worth hanging on to. Cables should be ok but you might need to clean the plugs. I don't do Garageband so I can't help you there. I know it works but there are better programs around. Some are even free or shareware.

[DupleMeter]

Boy can I relate. I started on a fostex 4-track...then eventually moved to a reel-to-reel 8-track before embracing digital (ADAT, DTRS then DAWs)

If you can use Garage Band, just get a decent mic and interface. It will serve you very well.

I'm not a fan of the USB mic/interface combos...but that's me. I'd get decent 2 channel interface that has phantom power and a decent mic. For bang-for-the-buck, I like the Audio-Technica (AT) mics. See if you can find a used AT3035 somewhere. Great sounding mic that has been used on major releases. They don't make it anymore because it was too expensive to build and continue to sell it below the price of their 40 series. It would be great on vocals & stringed instruments.

That would be my suggestion. From there you could move to a different DAW once you begin to get the hang of the DAW paradigm & figure out what else you need from your setup.

Plus GarageBand has some very decent plugins. One of the pluses of it being the "little brother" of Logic.

As always YMMV...

[Dreadfulnaught]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

Boy can I relate. I started on a fostex 4-track...then eventually moved to a reel-to-reel 8-track before embracing digital (ADAT, DTRS then DAWs)

If you can use Garage Band, just get a decent mic and interface. It will serve you very well.

I'm not a fan of the USB mic/interface combos...but that's me. I'd get decent 2 channel interface that has phantom power and a decent mic. For bang-for-the-buck, I like the Audio-Technica (AT) mics. See if you can find a used AT3035 somewhere. Great sounding mic that has been used on major releases. They don't make it anymore because it was too expensive to build and continue to sell it below the price of their 40 series. It would be great on vocals & stringed instruments.

That would be my suggestion. From there you could move to a different DAW once you begin to get the hang of the DAW paradigm & figure out what else you need from your setup.

Plus GarageBand has some very decent plugins. One of the pluses of it being the "little brother" of Logic.

As always YMMV...

I am glad that someone can relate. My son laughs when I tell him about editing tape with a block and single edge razor blade. Never told him about making a pop reducer from a coat hanger and my gf's panties. She much much later became his mother and the image might traumatize him.
Anyway, there seems to be little love for USB mics here. Do they really sound that bad? Someone who uses one please chime in.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Dreadfulnaught

I am glad that someone can relate. My son laughs when I tell him about editing tape with a block and single edge razor blade. Never told him about making a pop reducer from a coat hanger and my gf's panties. She much much later became his mother and the image might traumatize him.
Anyway, there seems to be little love for USB mics here. Do they really sound that bad? Someone who uses one please chime in.

You might be surprised how many old timers are around here :-) My first multi-track recording experience was with a 2-track recorder that had "sound-on-sound", so you could record 1 track, then overdub while bouncing to the other track. I think you'll find moving into the modern age liberating. Tho there is a learning curve, it doesn't have to be that bad as far as the tools go. I use Logic, which is often claimed to be one of the complex systems, but as long as you're recording yourself, and not getting into all the loops, samples, and synths, it comes down to "arm a track, press record, and play". It's really no different than your Teac.

As far as USB mics goes, I think it depends. There are some cheapy ones out there, but there are also high end USB mics, like Neumann's. Those are way out of your budget, but I'm sure they work great, so it's not USB per se that's bad. I've used the Apogee iMic, and thought it sounded very nice. Some others have posted recordings with that here.

One issue is just that you're sort of bundling everything into one. So if you later want to upgrade your mics, it's harder to do. If you have a good mic, even say, an SM57 or 58, that mic should last a lifetime. Same with a decent analog preamp. But computer standards change all the time. Some day USB might go away (firewire's on the way out, for example), and now you have a mic that only works if you have a USB plug. If instead, you had a good solid mic, plugged into a good preamp, then into some kind of computer interface, you will only have to replace the interface when the computer world inevitably changes. You'll also be able to try different mics easily. You may be happy with one mic, but many of us get sucked in, and decide we want to try an omni, or a large diaphragm, or a small diaphragm, or a ribbon mic, or a figure 8 mic for MS, etc. You don't want to have to go find a USB version of every mic you might want to try.

If all you want is to keep it simple, tho, there are hardware digital recorders that will function much like your 4-track. Check out the Tascam digital portastudios, for example. Some of these things even have mics built in, so you can be all set, and even have hardware buttons to push. A computer-based system is a lot more flexible in the long run, but there's something to be said for a self-contained hardware recorder that just works.

[Dreadfulnaught]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

You might be surprised how many old timers are around here :-) My first multi-track recording experience was with a 2-track recorder that had "sound-on-sound", so you could record 1 track, then overdub while bouncing to the other track. I think you'll find moving into the modern age liberating. Tho there is a learning curve, it doesn't have to be that bad as far as the tools go. I use Logic, which is often claimed to be one of the complex systems, but as long as you're recording yourself, and not getting into all the loops, samples, and synths, it comes down to "arm a track, press record, and play". It's really no different than your Teac.

As far as USB mics goes, I think it depends. There are some cheapy ones out there, but there are also high end USB mics, like Neumann's. Those are way out of your budget, but I'm sure they work great, so it's not USB per se that's bad. I've used the Apogee iMic, and thought it sounded very nice. Some others have posted recordings with that here.

One issue is just that you're sort of bundling everything into one. So if you later want to upgrade your mics, it's harder to do. If you have a good mic, even say, an SM57 or 58, that mic should last a lifetime. Same with a decent analog preamp. But computer standards change all the time. Some day USB might go away (firewire's on the way out, for example), and now you have a mic that only works if you have a USB plug. If instead, you had a good solid mic, plugged into a good preamp, then into some kind of computer interface, you will only have to replace the interface when the computer world inevitably changes. You'll also be able to try different mics easily. You may be happy with one mic, but many of us get sucked in, and decide we want to try an omni, or a large diaphragm, or a small diaphragm, or a ribbon mic, or a figure 8 mic for MS, etc. You don't want to have to go find a USB version of every mic you might want to try.

If all you want is to keep it simple, tho, there are hardware digital recorders that will function much like your 4-track. Check out the Tascam digital portastudios, for example. Some of these things even have mics built in, so you can be all set, and even have hardware buttons to push. A computer-based system is a lot more flexible in the long run, but there's something to be said for a self-contained hardware recorder that just works.

Doug Young! Well, it is an honor for you to weigh in. My sound is somewhat similar to yours so your advice is very pertinent. My choices are somewhat driven by what I already have, which is Garage Band and a MacBook Air. I play Open Mic nights just for fun, and the setup should be portable enough to take there if I want to. We also have some older musicians in this area who have never been recorded, so I'd like to do that before Father Time hits the stop button on them.

[Dreadfulnaught]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

You might be surprised how many old timers are around here :-) My first multi-track recording experience was with a 2-track recorder that had "sound-on-sound", so you could record 1 track, then overdub while bouncing to the other track. I think you'll find moving into the modern age liberating. Tho there is a learning curve, it doesn't have to be that bad as far as the tools go. I use Logic, which is often claimed to be one of the complex systems, but as long as you're recording yourself, and not getting into all the loops, samples, and synths, it comes down to "arm a track, press record, and play". It's really no different than your Teac.

As far as USB mics goes, I think it depends. There are some cheapy ones out there, but there are also high end USB mics, like Neumann's. Those are way out of your budget, but I'm sure they work great, so it's not USB per se that's bad. I've used the Apogee iMic, and thought it sounded very nice. Some others have posted recordings with that here.

One issue is just that you're sort of bundling everything into one. So if you later want to upgrade your mics, it's harder to do. If you have a good mic, even say, an SM57 or 58, that mic should last a lifetime. Same with a decent analog preamp. But computer standards change all the time. Some day USB might go away (firewire's on the way out, for example), and now you have a mic that only works if you have a USB plug. If instead, you had a good solid mic, plugged into a good preamp, then into some kind of computer interface, you will only have to replace the interface when the computer world inevitably changes. You'll also be able to try different mics easily. You may be happy with one mic, but many of us get sucked in, and decide we want to try an omni, or a large diaphragm, or a small diaphragm, or a ribbon mic, or a figure 8 mic for MS, etc. You don't want to have to go find a USB version of every mic you might want to try.

If all you want is to keep it simple, tho, there are hardware digital recorders that will function much like your 4-track. Check out the Tascam digital portastudios, for example. Some of these things even have mics built in, so you can be all set, and even have hardware buttons to push. A computer-based system is a lot more flexible in the long run, but there's something to be said for a self-contained hardware recorder that just works.

Doug Young! Well, it is an honor for you to weigh in. My sound is somewhat similar to yours so your advice is very pertinent. My choices are somewhat driven by what I already have, which is Garage Band and a MacBook Air. I play Open Mic nights just for fun, and the setup should be portable enough to take there if I want to. We also have some older musicians in this area who have never been recorded, so I'd like to do that before Father Time hits the stop button on them.