Help me piece together a decent recording rig

[broj15]

So I'll go ahead and start by saying that I'm a total recording noob (been a part of the process a few times, but my knowledge of equipment is very limited). That's where I'm hoping you guys can help. My band is looking to record our material and would rather do it ourselves, but first we need to get some gear.

Here's the situation: We're a 3 piece (guitar, bass, and drums). I run 2 amps in stereo and our bassist plans to DI with his Tech 21 Sansamp. Ideally we would like to record live as a band. We've secured a large enough space that we can spread out in to keep the sound from bleeding over (ie. drums getting picked up by the mics on my cabs or vice versa) so I don't think recording live will be an issue. Our sound is pretty raw & noisy so it's ok if it sounds a little "lo-fi" as long as each individual instrument can be heard and the heavy parts hit hard. I know that's more dependent on how it's mixed vs. how it's recorded, but I also know it's tough to get a good mix when the raw tracks suck.



Now, here's what we already have:

-Vocal Mics. Nothing amazing. It's better than something from radio shack. It's definetely not a $100+ mic, but it serves it's purpose and all our vocals are harsh so having a really expensive mic probably won't matter much.

- Drum Mics (2 overheads for toms & cymbals, 1 kick, and 1 snare). There again, nothing amazing, but not the bottom of the barrel either.

-Mac Book Pro with Garage Band. I know GB isn't the best as it's options are limited, so I'm open to suggestions for different software.

- Our sweet, beautiful selves, and our gear that seems to constantly be fvcking up



And here's a list of everything I think we might need (not including mic stands & cables, which we already have, but might need a few more):

- 2 mics for guitars. I'm assuming Shure sm57's will be the go to as they're the industry standard for recording guitar cabs and they're relatively cheap

- Some kind of interface/sound board/portastudio with at least 8 inputs (4 for drums, 2 for guitars, 1 for bass, 1 for vocals) that has USB and/or SD so we can transfer the raw tracks to the computer for mixing. My friend that I've recorded with in the past has a Zoom R16 (Zoom R16 | Sweetwater.com) that seems to fit all our needs, but I'm open to more suggestions.

The only thing I'm not sure of is if our bassist is DI'ing then how will we be able to hear him while we're recording with his Sansamp connected to the interface and not his usual live rig we use for practice (maybe I'm overthinking it and it won't be an issue, but there again, I'm a complete noob when it comes to this stuff).

We've all budgeted $200-$300 apiece (so $600-$900 total). Now I'll turn it over to the experts of SSO. A e-thank you and imaginary pos rep will be granted to anyone who can help.

 

[PBGas]

I would suggest a Focusrite Clarett 8 for your inputs. I use this regularly as my central interface in my home studio. I record my drummer with and am able to track us live as well.

This is the best interface I have had to date and I have had a few very good quality units. Very easy to use, intuitive and nice features.

 

[broj15]

^^^ Thanks for the response. That looks like it would do the trick, but considering it's price it wouldn't leave anything left over for mics or any additional stuff we might need. You did, however, reminded me to include "ease of use" in our requirements, which, after our budget, is probably the biggest requirement. We're musicians. Not recording gurus

 

[russmuller]

Audio Interface: Behringer U-PHORIA UMC1820 | Sweetwater.com

Some people consider Behringer to be a dirty word, but they make some great gear among the cheap crap. This looks like it's a great value and would suit your needs. Plus it's easily expandable if you decide you need more microphone inputs.

Headphone amps: Behringer MicroMON MA400 | Sweetwater.com

Get one of these for each member. Use the extra line outputs on your audio interface to feed the bass to your headphones while recording.

DAW software: REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits

Least expensive well featured DAW out there. It's a big step up from GB and it'll take you some time to learn, but it's a worthwhile investment.

As far as microphones, buy used. Grab yourself 2 or 3 SM57's off craigslist. They're built like tanks and they're everywhere, so you can save a little cash that way. They're great for guitars, snare drums, and they'll even get the job done as tom mics. You may want to record everything all at once, or you may want to eat up most of your inputs recording the drums (with 57's on the toms), then overdub the rest of the stuff on top of the drums. It's worth experimenting to see which way works and sounds the best for you guys.

Don't forget to get some closed-back headphones. Sometimes MusiciansFriend will have a Stupid Deal of the Day with killer deals on AKG or Sennheiser headphones. It's also worth getting yourself a GOOD pair of headphones to mix on, because it's cheaper than buying a good pair of studio monitors to listen through. If you buy a few pair of $30-40 headphones for the band to listen while recording, and $100 on a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 headphones to mix with, you'll have your bases covered pretty well.

If you're any good with a soldering iron, you can save a ton of money by buying cable in bulk from redco.com or btpa.com. Seriously, $80 in bulk cable and connectors can replace $300 of pre-made cabling. And trust me, with your stuff all spread out to prevent bleeding, you're going to need lots of cable.

If you did decide to stretch out at some point and upgrade your vocal mics, I suggest picking up a used SM7 (or SM7B). Relatively inexpensive and industry standard. Great for clean vocals or screams. Might be a stretch for your current budget, but it's a worthwhile addition to anyone's mic cabinet.

 

[broj15]

Thanks for the info. I've been thinking about doing the whole make your own cable thing for my guitar rig, but It never occurred to me to do it for our mic cables as well. I had also completely forgot about Reaper (used it a bit in the past just to record random riffs/song ideas, but never really got into the nuts and bolts of it.) I'll also look into the headphone amps as well.

My bassists just texted me and said he bought some studio headphones (not sure what brand/model but he said they were ~$100) to use for mine and his side project (a cross between Mr. Twin Sister and Xiu Xiu) so I guess we've already got that part covered.

Edit: 2000th post... was hoping to save it for a more exciting post, but whatevs.

 

[kevinxbrooks]

Check out the tascam US1800 interface. You can pick one up used cheap. 8XLR inputs and 8 line inputs, 2 inputs are instrument DI's. I had one for about a year, worked great never any issues, quality was pretty good. Obviously it's not top of the line, but trust me it'll get you where you want to go and the price is right.

Correct monitoring is the most crucial key to listening back to anything so get some decent headphone. Good monitors are just too expensive. Check out some audio technica ath-m50x you can get em around $150. Good isolation and good overall flatness, a little bass heavy.

Run the sans amp DI right into the interface, it will sound awesome!!!! I literally track everything with a sans amp RBI. You lose a ton of bass frequency when you mic a bass cab, so why bother?

Like you said SM57's on a guitar cab sound dope, the seinheiser e609 sounds pretty great too. Each one is around $100.

This should leave you about $300 for a vocal condensor mic. There's tons of different ways you can go here. Do your research, watch videos, go to guitar center and ask if you can hear them. I like the blue stuff personally, the bluebird is pretty phenomenal. If you don't wanna go the condenser mic route, check a shure SM7B. Great all around vocal mic, especially for screamers.

I'm probably gonna get crap for this but go pirate a DAW and a bunch of plugins. Fuggit

 

[broj15]

^^^^ lots of good info. Thanks man. That Tascam interface looks like it has what we need and the price is on point.