Aloha Warfrat73,
You're already on your way with a growing list of gear aimed at achieving the best home recordings you can make, right? But you cannot maximize ANY of your gear without properly treating your space FIRST.
You also cannot control early reflections in your room, nor separate the frequencies for clarity. AND, you cannot achieve any consistency in tracking, editing, mixing & mastering your home recordings.
What's the point of recording if you cannot achieve or maximize results you're looking for? Treatment will get you there faster.
Why throw any more money at gear or recording to solve your problems when it cannot work very well & the results are always incomplete or inconsistent?
At AGF, posters always want to discuss gear. It's sexy & it's fun. But the first thing we home recordists need to consider is how we are going to control our recording spaces.
Treatment is actually more important than the gear, especially at the beginning. It's the only place from which to begin your personal recording journey.
DIY Room Treatment needn't be expensive nor permanent. You don't need a lot of tools to make a few 4"thick (min.) x 2' wide x 4' long OC 703 (preferred) or Roxul broadband absorbers. Portable Treatment is also a big plus in terms of being able to use different rooms or parts of rooms for recording, or not.
NOTE: Acoustic foam is NOT treatment, Nor are pillows or even rugs. Movers blankets can help some but not like the rigid insulation of OC 703 (used in most pro studio's).
Here are some links demonstrating how to make your own room treatment (from Fran Guidry) & also provide the scientific "why's" for learning why you REALLY need it (from Ethan Winer):
http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2009/...-on-the-cheap/ -
NOTE: These are free-standing broad-band absorbers. You don't even need frames. Start by making two, then more as needed (9 will treat your tracking space - 2 in front, 2 behind, two on each side & one hung above you. Gives you a portable treated tracking space - a kinda room within a room. You can easily store the panels too. Also can easily vary the space between the panels for different sonic effects.
http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2011/...adband-panels/
http://ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html
Here's a very good reference from Doug Young for getting started in home recording & how the parts fit together. This demonstrates how to achieve a consistently good single recording with ease. NOTE: If you follow Doug's comprehensive advice CLOSELY here, you will always be a winner in solo home recording.
https://acousticguitar.com/home-reco...oustic-guitar/
Finally, breathe dog. There are many ways to achieve great home recordings. ---- Don't obsess over the gear. Or even your DAW's workflow - Ha!
- Expect to spend much more money on recording than you'd ever anticipated. It's natural. In fact, buying a single good quality vocal or instrument recording condenser mic will cost more than you'd ever anticipated. Ha!
- MIC PLACEMENT & experimentation will help you reduce your learning curve immensely. Try every placement you can imagine in every room. REALLY! Nothing is set in stone.
- If you do some recording of solo acoustic guitar, do it in stereo. A-B spaced pairs work best for many.
- As a bluegrass picker (probably playing a large, dreadnaught guitar), make sure to NOT be too close to the mic. Bass-heavy guitars are more challenging to record at first. So back off the mic & never point it directly at the soundhole (@ the body joint is a good rule for dread's). Learn how to use subtractive EQ & bass roll-off's & attentuation.
- Record Vocals & Guitar Separately. Always. Hundreds of great reasons why it's better.
- Listen to early Norman Blake albums for great inspiration (got me going in the 70's). Church Street Blues, Billy Joe, Mississippi Delta Home, Fields of November, Slow Train Through Georgia, Ginseng Sullivan, Rubagfre, Billy Gray, etc., etc. - Norman's the real deal, with the real country feel (no hokum - only soul). Just my opinions of course.
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The music & playing are the most important parts of the recording equation.
- SO, be prepared & well-rehearsed before you hit the 'play' button in your treated space.
- HAVE FUN! The learning curve is worth pursuing if your passion is guitars & music.
But Remember - Quality, Consistent recordings all begin with applying adequate Room Trreatment to your space.
All the best, Warfrat73!
alohachris
A Few Parting General Suggestions: Audacity is just OK for beginners. But if you're going to move up in recording, you should get a more complete DAW, like Pro Tools eventually. Try free online DAW downloads to feel which one works best for you. Why spend time learning any DAW if you're going to move up from it - only to have to learn it all over?
In terms of interfaces? The onboard mic preamps on the cheaper interfaces are inferior (compressed, mid-rangey sounding) to quality interfaces. The Scarlett is NOT a step up. Noris ANYTHING Behringer. Check out Apogee (many like the Duet2 & Quartet work w/ Windows), RME & UA interfaces. High Quality mic preamps are VERY important to your sound. More Later. -alohachris-
Finally - Crossing #9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WakBgo8595o