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Thread: From Old School to New School - Help?

  1. #1
    Forum Member Erock_Germany's Avatar
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    From Old School to New School - Help?

    Well, I have decided to take the dive from recording via my mics into an old Fostex tape machine. Yes, I know I am about 10+ years behind the times but until now, that is all I needed.....record some tracks, playback and then jam etc.

    What I want to do is record and multrack stuff, use MP3 files as back tracks and dub a track etc. It should be simple.

    I have some SM 57 mics and I really do not want to go with a guitar or vocals directly into a PC....I have a mixer and active monitors etc.

    Many times (especially with acoustic) I simply set up vocal mic, acoustic guitar into mixer (or electric amp set at correct volume) use active monitors and get a good sound mix in the room and then place 2 SM57s in the back of the room and start recording......with fairly good results. Kind of like a live situation.....

    What is the best way to get started here? Go PC based? Use a separate recording device and plug that into the PC?

    I am technically capable of analog recording from the dark ages and know my way around the computer enough to get me in trouble.

    What is the best way to start out here? Any help, experience, suggestions would be great!
    "Sorry" - John Belushi as he smashed a guitar in Animal House

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    Forum Member Mikey's Avatar
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    Re: From Old School to New School - Help?

    I do it two ways essentially. Most of the time, I mic everything into a USB mixer. Set everything on the mixer and then record to Cakewalk. I then touch up the files as needed and output as mp3 but I keep the original wav file for future use.
    The other way I do it is set my ZoomH4 somewhere in the room and capture whatever is played as a whole then download that into Cakewalk, touch up what I can and output it as mp3 and call it a live recording.
    If, at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving.
    Two leaps per chasm is fatal!

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    Forum Member Erock_Germany's Avatar
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    Re: From Old School to New School - Help?

    Thanks. So I looked at this Cakewalk thing.....seems it is the Music Creator 4 that I would need. Now my mixer does not have a USB. Considering I would only record 2 tracks at a time to start, could I use a simple USB interface like a 2 track Tascam US-122L and put the Mics directly into this and record the tracks I want? Is it that simple?
    "Sorry" - John Belushi as he smashed a guitar in Animal House

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    Forum Member juniorspecial's Avatar
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    Re: From Old School to New School - Help?

    Yes, it is that simple. If you had a Mac, you would already have Garageband built in, which would allow you to make a wide variety of backing tracks with drums, pianos, etc.

    There are a number of free download digital recording programs available online. I've heard good things about this program:

    Audacity

  5. #5
    Forum Member Wilko's Avatar
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    Re: From Old School to New School - Help?

    You can run a stereo mix into almost any PC or mac and record with free software like Audacity. You don't need anything else.

    That gets you to tracks of live recording and almost unlimited tracks on top of that.

  6. #6
    Forum Member clayville's Avatar
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    Re: From Old School to New School - Help?

    I wrote this "sticky" for the JamZone a while back that offers some advice. Might be useful...
    http://www.thefenderforum.com/forum/...ad.php?t=35881

  7. #7
    Forum Member Erock_Germany's Avatar
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    Re: From Old School to New School - Help?

    Thanks for that. The Tweakhedz.com site is very cool. I am getting the understanding now.

    Am thinking of a USB mixer now......

    May just start with the old mixer and a USB stereo interface like the Tascam.

    Lots to learn here.....thanks a bunch again!
    "Sorry" - John Belushi as he smashed a guitar in Animal House

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