COMPLETE NEWBIE to recording hardware / software

[Rudy4]

Don't overlook offerings from your local community college.

Our local guy, Mark Ruble, owned his own studio (Pogo) in town and taught "Recording Technologies" at the community college, using his own studio for field trips and hands on experience for students.

Blackbird offered Mark a position too good to turn down several years ago, and he now holds down a top-tier position at Blackbird.

[DjFuzzyMcPickle]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Don't overlook offerings from your local community college.

Our local guy, Mark Ruble, owned his own studio (Pogo) in town and taught "Recording Technologies" at the community college, using his own studio for field trips and hands on experience for students.

Blackbird offered Mark a position too good to turn down several years ago, and he now holds down a top-tier position at Blackbird.

Agreed - I'm always looking outside the box for ideas on where to find things, services etc. Even FB we have Mn Music Network page that's been really good over the yrs. had a few people reach out to my post last week but I knew after talking to this kid he knew exactly where needed / wanted help and 1st session was the bomb!!

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by DjFuzzyMcPickle

UPDATE: Well I'm EXTREMELY happy to say this was probably the best solicitation money invested for help I've ever got from of all places GC. This young gentleman who I referred to as the kid (because he looks like he's 18-20) is actually 32...and was one of the INSTRUCTORS @ IPR here in Minneapolis . (I suddenly felt about as old as Yoda). So within two hrs yesterday took a complete recording idiot like me walked me through:
* Setting up the basic preferences on the interface and software for starters including
* Routing the channels to the right ins and out outs
* Helped set the vocal mics, Amp(s) levels / EQ and basic parameters for each input application and E906 mic for the Fender Amp (general placement config for this set up)
* Set up a template as you suggested with all of these channels, settings saved, labeled.
* Got me to the point of yesterday / last night where I laid down some "takes" of misc noodling and how to save that file(s) again without disturbing the original template of course.

Attachment 97010

2hrs and 100$ I think of all the money wasted over the yrs and I see this as a solid return on this investment for this and getting back into some commercial voice over work recording samples / demos.

What was super cool was just his step by step process, very structured and detailed yet flowed from one step to the next. Gave me some basic homework and a list of what he will take me though next sessions and thing to think about, questions, problems etc and were gonna get together again in about 2 weeks. I'm going to email him some quick rough "noodle" sessions and said that will also help him tweak any EQ settings etc. As he also complimented / acknowledged "Your 35 yrs of Live Sound / Pro audio / Dj software, guitar amps etc will certainly help you learn this much faster than most". Although I appreciated the compliment really he deserved all the credit. He really made that 1st lesson easy, fun, waaaaay less intimidating than I thought and totally jazzed about this next phase in learning. Kids gotta have 50-100k in his own studio set up (guessing by the pics). Pretty darn smart kid. Got his degree - so good the school hires him as an instructor for about 3 yrs - builds his own studio work for people - buys all his studio gear for his biz as a Mgr for GC (at his employee discount) and of course writes it all / most off for his biz expenditures. I was pretty darn impressed with this kid!

Moral of the story today - For anyone a complete newbie like me to recording especially for us acoustic dudes, I HIGHLY recommend trying this route if you're in a med / bigger city. Whether it's GC or FB pages or whatever. Apparently our local GC's used to offer this like instrument lessons (makes sense) then they got rid of it because of not enough interest students (makes sense too). Youtube vids are great for some things, but so much time wasted on misc ramblings where to me - time in life is money (valuable). Will I learn everything in 20 hrs? No but I think in about 25-50 hrs of his time I think will save me 100's of hrs of back forth chat rooms etc. With 2 more weeks off before I go back to work, me sees myself indoors a lot more than I should be (haha).

Yes indeed good solid tutoring can often jump over 5+ years of fiddling on ones own

Here is an example of my basic S1 song template for guitar and vocal

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by DjFuzzyMcPickle

2hrs and 100$ I think of all the money wasted over the yrs and I see this as a solid return on this investment for this and getting back into some commercial voice over work recording samples / demos.

Nurture that and see if you can't form a friendship with the guy. For me, the dividends of a slightly similar situation have been paying off for two decades. Back in the very late 90s, I was introduced to a guy with a home studio. We got to talking about music and he gave me a great price in case I decided I wanted to record a cd. I took him up on it and over the course of a couple of years, we worked on-and-off on my cd. During those sessions I was fascinated and amazed by Pro Tools and what it could do. I started asking a lot of questions and the guy let me take the wheel quite a bit during the mixing process.

Jumping to when the cd was finally finished, I paid him double what he was expecting (and that was still a ridiculously good bargain). Two years of working together and we've been friends ever since. He helped me put together my first two home systems and he's my problem solver for anything Pro Tools or Mac related. I'd have given up on recording a very long time ago if he wasn't around to help me problem solve.

[DjFuzzyMcPickle]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Yes indeed good solid tutoring can often jump over 5+ years of fiddling on ones own

Here is an example of my basic S1 song template for guitar and vocal

Holy smokes!! Yes indeed that's a bit more complex where I'm starting!

Originally Posted by jim1960

Nurture that and see if you can't form a friendship with the guy. For me, the dividends of a slightly similar situation have been paying off for two decades. Back in the very late 90s, I was introduced to a guy with a home studio. We got to talking about music and he gave me a great price in case I decided I wanted to record a cd. I took him up on it and over the course of a couple of years, we worked on-and-off on my cd. During those sessions I was fascinated and amazed by Pro Tools and what it could do. I started asking a lot of questions and the guy let me take the wheel quite a bit during the mixing process.

Jumping to when the cd was finally finished, I paid him double what he was expecting (and that was still a ridiculously good bargain). Two years of working together and we've been friends ever since. He helped me put together my first two home systems and he's my problem solver for anything Pro Tools or Mac related. I'd have given up on recording a very long time ago if he wasn't around to help me problem solve.

Couldn't agree more. being in sales, a 28 yr DJ, 10 yr bartender you can be assure I'm all about the value of good connections. Yeah our schedules work out well so we're gonna try and do every other Monday 2hr sessions. He's a super kid and of course being a wicked good cook of Italian food (D'Angelo) I always feed my people well!

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[KevWind]

Originally Posted by DjFuzzyMcPickle

Holy smokes!! Yes indeed that's a bit more complex where I'm starting!

Perhaps a few more tracks but it only looks complex at first glance and is not really very complex. If you have any questions about my template feel free to ask ..

For starters I usually record guitar with two mic's ( labeled N 22 L (left) and N 22 R (right) each on their own separate mono track and I route those two mic audio tracks into a stereo folder track (in lieu of an Aux or Bus track) .

So starting from left to right in the screen shot :

I have the A Rhy folder track (for acoustic rhythm guitar) and then the N22 L and N22 R ( individual mic's tracks) route into that folder track.

Then the same for the "A Ld" ( acoustic lead) and the "E Ld" (electric lead) tracks

Then the vocal tracks with one lead vocal track "Ld Vox " and one background vocal track "BG Vox" into the Vox folder track

The purple track is my parallel Reverb track (labeled M7) and the sends from the folder tracks route to it

And then the (Orange track) labeled "2 Mix" track is my main 2 Bus/Aux track, all the folder tracks route into that 2 Bus track, then that track routes to the Master fader out track (in Red) labeled "Stereo Mon" track which my Main 1+2 Outs

I have the Pro Eq on each folder track as a High Pass filter set to roll off the very low end from 60 hz down)
And the Song template launches with the A Rhy tracks L & R in record mode, so all I have to do is hit record and play in the transport and start recording

[DjFuzzyMcPickle]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Perhaps a few more tracks but it only looks complex at first glance and is not really very complex. If you have any questions about my template feel free to ask ..

For starters I usually record guitar with two mic's ( labeled N 22 L (left) and N 22 R (right) each on their own separate mono track and I route those two mic audio tracks into a stereo folder track (in lieu of an Aux or Bus track) .

So starting from left to right in the screen shot :

I have the A Rhy folder track (for acoustic rhythm guitar) and then the N22 L and N22 R ( individual mic's tracks) route into that folder track.

Then the same for the "A Ld" ( acoustic lead) and the "E Ld" (electric lead) tracks

Then the vocal tracks with one lead vocal track "Ld Vox " and one background vocal track "BG Vox" into the Vox folder track

The purple track is my parallel Reverb track (labeled M7) and the sends from the folder tracks route to it

And then the (Orange track) labeled "2 Mix" track is my main 2 Bus/Aux track, all the folder tracks route into that 2 Bus track, then that track routes to the Master fader out track (in Red) labeled "Stereo Mon" track which my Main 1+2 Outs

I have the Pro Eq on each folder track as a High Pass filter set to roll off the very low end from 60 hz down)
And the Song template launches with the A Rhy tracks L & R in record mode, so all I have to do is hit record and play in the transport and start recording

Now see I understood about half that. 6 months ago about 5% of it. But man i can't wait to learn more and more. It's an addiction

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by DjFuzzyMcPickle

Now see I understood about half that. 6 months ago about 5% of it. But man i can't wait to learn more and more. It's an addiction

Which half ? . Juss kiddin'

Seriously though is it some of the terminology, or my signal flow routing, some of both ? The good news is that digital offers vast possibilities of functions and features. Much of the terminology is based in analog recording and is universal from DAW to DAW . BUT unfortunately some of the terminology is specific to digital AND unfortunately each DAW can have different terms for the same digital function or feature ..

If you are not understanding some of the the signal flow routing, would it make things more clear I can put some signal flow arrows on the screen shot (for visual reference ) ?

Your screen shot is a bit fuzzy and I can't read the text on the tracks. But looks like you have 4 audio/instrument tracks with 3 record armed ?

So in reference to my template screen shot = Studio 1 one has a nice feature which is that in the Mixer window all of the audio and instrument tracks have white faders (i.e these are the tracks that are going to have either the audio waveform or the midi notes ON them in the "Edit" window)

Then in the Mixer any Bus, or FX tracks are going to have Blue faders (i.e these are the tracks that will pass audio through them, but do not have the audio waveforms or midi notes ON them)...

[KevWind]

First note I custom user label (re-name) almost everything = all Track names - Input names - Output names - Send names etc.

I tend name the tracks for the exact function they play. For example far left is the stereo A Rhy folder track ( for acoustic rhythm) and it's two associated mono audio tracks that output to it ,,, i.e. Rhy L (for left mic) and A Rhy R (for right mic)

So here is a digram of my signal flow :: (Note) the Track names are at the bottom.

As you can see by the (white) signal flow arrows, each pair of mono audio tracks (L & R for left and right) Output to the stereo folder track just to the left of them

Then the (red) arrows are the Outputs from each Folder track going to the stereo (2 Mix) main bus track

Then that 2 Mix track Outputs (yellow) arrows to the "Main" out 1+2 track which I have labeled (Stereo Mon)

Then lastly. the Sends from the 4 folder tracks labeled,, A Rhy - A Ld - E Ld - and Vox (light blue arrows) go to the M7 FX track which is my reverb track. Which also outputs to the 2 Mix track again (red) arrows

[DjFuzzyMcPickle]

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Well I gotta say even with not more than about a month of playing around it's really coming along. Again folks...ameteur hour here completely so here's what I'm doing:

* 1st signal split equally into both amps via Radial Twin City splitter DI > both:
* Fender Acoustasonic 2 Ch. Amp (The old Heavy tall one 160 Watts - NO DI out so mic'd with an sm57) &
* Genzler Acoustic Array Pro 2 Ch. Amp. (DI Line out)
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* Mics: Blue Bluebird SL - AKG P220 in front of guitar just because they're what I have.
So essentially 4 mic / lines feeding into Presonus interface > Studio One DAW
* ZOOM Q8 Video / Audio 4Ch personal recorder just to eventually line up any decent recordings with the video.

I have about 200 foam sound thingy's but no clue where and how to place them, what to listen look for etc.

But as long as I keep the chuckleheads (the doggos) outside in the cold I've been able to record a bunch of stuff to just start learning levels, basics, the rabbit hole of mic placement. The layout of Mics, tablet for tabs, computer with presonus right underneath...feeling very cockpit comfy.