Basics for acoustic recording?

[markwallace1966]

Hi, all. New here. Looking forward to learning from you all. I am a beginner guitar player, about to start taking my first lessons this coming Sunday.

I have read online that it can be a good thing to record one's playing and then play it back, either for self or for an instructor.

For that purpose only (i.e. just for practice purposes), what are the basics for setting up a basic recording situation?

Notes

• I would like to be able to save the recordings so that I can easily share them with an instructor if asked to do so.
• I have multiple Apple devices (Macbook Air, iPad Pro, iPad Mini, Mac Mini) that I can incorporate, if there is a place for any of them in this.
• I have multiple guitars, one of which has a pickup. In general though, I expect to practice most often without a pickup. I also have an electric that I *may* someday want to record from.
• All practice would be done in a room in a house, without anything special done to make the house/room acoustically friendly. Since I am not recording for anything beyond practice purposes, I am not worried about this, but I welcome any setup recommendations that should be considered for purposes of producing a recording useful for instructor review.
• Budget is not unlimited, but I can invest a bit in order to do it the "right" way, whatever that may be.

Thank you in advance!

Mark

[doctone]

Welcome Mark! You are absolutely right, recording yourself is essential for learning, no matter which instrument.
I would recommend an affordable Zoom recorder, like the H1N and invest the rest of your money in decent playback gear, like a set of good studio monitors and maybe a fitting subwoofer.

[markwallace1966]

Originally Posted by doctone

Welcome Mark! You are absolutely right, recording yourself is essential for learning, no matter which instrument.
I would recommend an affordable Zoom recorder, like the H1N and invest the rest of your money in decent playback gear, like a set of good studio monitors and maybe a fitting subwoofer.

Thanks, Doc.

Would you say that the playback gear would be essential to practice? (Sorry if a dumb question. This is all new to me.)

Mark

[shufflebeat]

Record on your phone and export/share from there. By the time you’ve developed the skills to play anything worth listening to you’ll know more about what you need/want.

[Mobilemike]

Welcome!

I would use your iPad pro at least to start, and just use the built in mics and camera. Record video as well as audio - its often helpful if an instructor can see you as well as hear you.

You can get a mount like this:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...et_holder.html
And mount it to a mic stand like this:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...icrophone.html

So you can easily raise or lower the iPad and position it where it can see and hear you the best.

For now, I think that will be a great starting place, and in the future you can explore a "better" recording setup if thats something you think you want. The iPad should do everything you need now though.

-Mike

[doctone]

Originally Posted by markwallace1966

Thanks, Doc.

Would you say that the playback gear would be essential to practice? (Sorry if a dumb question. This is all new to me.)

Mark

Sorry, no it isn't essential with today's technology. Perhaps it sounded to me like you were about to invest a few 100s and I kind of wanted to point out that the recording gear is usualy rated too high vs. the playback part. With a Zoom recorder or the like, I just love how you just hit a record button instead of starting apps, not to speak of booting a computer.

Originally Posted by shufflebeat

By the time you’ve developed the skills to play anything worth listening to

??? Mark wants to record himself for practice purposes, and I would strongly encourage this!

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by markwallace1966

Hi, all. New here. Looking forward to learning from you all. I am a beginner guitar player, about to start taking my first lessons this coming Sunday...

Welcome to the forum! Lots of good tips here.

There's a fair amount of overlap between amplification and recording, hence the tips, but just fyi there is a forum here on AGF dedicated to recording. It's listed lower on the main page so it's easy to overlook. Here's a direct link

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...splay.php?f=43

Good luck with the lessons!

[RogerPease]

Recording is a good idea. Shufflebeat has it right.
Just use the Voice Memos app on your iPhone.
Plenty of time later to set up fancier Audio/Video recording later.

Of course if you want to spend more it would be a violation of Forum rules for me to try to talk you out of that! :-)

Seriously, go simple to start with. Cheers and Happy New Year. _RP

[doctone]

Just a question... what about auto-levelling when recording on smartphones? Can you switch it off?

[shufflebeat]

Originally Posted by doctone

??? Mark wants to record himself for practice purposes, and I would strongly encourage this!

Agree 100%, but let’s be honest. As an unskilled beginner he has some work to do before it gets listenable, just the same as the rest of us. Spending time/money on a recording setup will soak up valuable practice time/money and will not make him any more “pro” sounding (whatever that is).

Grab what you’ve got and enjoy the process.

Auto-levelling is much less of a problem than sore fingers, don’t worry about it.

[FrankHudson]

Simple recording for auditing your learning? You could do it with your phone or iPads. While I can't recall using it, Voice Memos on the iPhone are used by a fair number of songwriters/musicians to grab ideas, and I believe it's quick and simple. I've used the stripped-down version of Garageband on my older iPhone for a quick and dirty recordings a couple of times, works better than you might expect. Likely a little more complex than Voice Memos.

Or you could just turn on your camera in video mode and capture both. Larger files. and some folks are doubly self-conscious about watching themselves as well as hearing themselves. If you're working toward performance early in your playing journey getting over that and using that visual feedback might have extra value though.

Cost is $0. Quality is close enough to the old stand-alone digital recorders like the Zoom mentioned above.* Email shorter audio files to your teacher or you can use one of the cloud file hosting things (like iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc) to share the files for your teacher. The later is better if you are sharing large files.

Because you've spent nothing and the learning curve for voice memos or taking a video is next to nothing, you have nothing wasted if you decide you want to go with something with fancier sound quality.

If you're asking about recording not just for learning-the-guitar feedback, but because you're thinking of recording as you reach a certain level of skill, then there are other paths you could taken.


*Are you a beginner or near beginner? I'm assuming that. If you're an intermediate or better student and you want better audio to be able to get feedback on timbre and smaller details of your playing, then let us know and we can adjust our recommendations.

[markwallace1966]

Great answers, y'all. I think for now I will go with my iPad, mounted to a mic stand. Then later I can add a mic or two along with a Zoom recorder.

Does that progression make sense?

[doctone]

Originally Posted by shufflebeat

Agree 100%, but let’s be honest. As an unskilled beginner he has some work to do before it gets listenable, just the same as the rest of us. Spending time/money on a recording setup will soak up valuable practice time/money and will not make him any more “pro” sounding (whatever that is).

Grab what you’ve got and enjoy the process.

Auto-levelling is much less of a problem than sore fingers, don’t worry about it.

Yes, I see your point. In the end, it is very good to hear that Mark is planning to record himself. I have found this an invaluable learning aid.

[markwallace1966]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

If you're working toward performance early in your playing journey getting over that and using that visual feedback might have extra value though.

I won't rule out performance, but that's not a goal right now. My goal is to just play for myself and my inner circle, but never really as a performance.

*Are you a beginner or near beginner? I'm assuming that. If you're an intermediate or better student and you want better audio to be able to get feedback on timbre and smaller details of your playing, then let us know and we can adjust our recommendations.

Well...I have started and stopped learning more times than I care to count, but all of those attempts have been self-taught via books, CDs, DVDs, YouTube, etc. This time, I am taking lessons and really committing myself to it.

So...I have some basic knowledge and some remembrance from prior learning attempts (like, I can still form some basic chords), but I have no actual playing ability and can't string anything together at all. So...not an ABSOLUTE beginner, but I couldn't play Hot Cross Buns right now if my life depended on it.

Mark

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by markwallace1966

Great answers, y'all. I think for now I will go with my iPad, mounted to a mic stand. Then later I can add a mic or two along with a Zoom recorder.

Does that progression make sense?

I still own an older, early edition, Zoom standalone recorder. I once used it as a digital "notepad" for demoing ideas and to record remote sounds that might get incorporated into more elaborate pieces. The newer Zoom models are fancier and by reputation and specs record even nicer audio -- but if I was getting something like that today, I think I'd just go with a phone or tablet and an external microphone.

Some folks are by nature more comfortable with "real" but small buttons and more easily accepting of dancing though mode buttons to make changes on a standalone device like the Zoom or other digital recorders. If that sounds like you, go ahead -- but there's an objective case that there's nothing special these days about a device that can record and store digital audio, as nearly everyone has one of those in their pocket or on their desk.

You may want to, even early on, edit your audio to take out false starts or when you forgot to turn off the recording. Even with a standalone digital recorder I think that's easier done on a computer. Audacity is a simple, free program that can do that on your desktop computer with the audio files your record on your iPad, phone, or any other handheld device like the Zoom.