Grateful Dead Music Forum

I'm looking to record a few duo acoustic tracks with a friend and I need some advice for what I should use to get the recordings sounding good.

I don't have an answer for you, but I will say that I was about to ask just about the same question, maybe a little more indepth.

What is a cheap but good quality method of recording a whole band multi track and being able to edit and everything to get a good mix?[/i]

I'm not sure what you're using to make your recordings but I use my home computer. I use the program "Audacity" which I downloaded from a link on this site. Audacity works pretty good and its free.

Zoom makes a pretty inexpensive 6-input (4 1/4 inch and 2 XLR) digital recording studio, which is what I have. It does the job for recording our band at our jamspot. I think it's called the Zoom MRS1266 or something like that. Do a search for "what kid of gear does everyone have" - I think I posted a pic on there of it. If not, let me know and I can get you one.

Nevermind, here it is:

It really depends on what you want to do - there's a multitude of recording options and as such a multitude of budget requirements.

I use a computer and software to record. It's pretty cheap, easy, flexible and can be as quick & dirty or as elaborate as you'd like.

You'll need a couple of things:
1 - obviously a computer. Something at least like a mid range speed computer - nothing old and slow. It doesn't have to be the quickest out there but... A decent amout of RAM also.

2 - software. There's quite a few really good choices out there. I use a Mac, and for that I'd recommend Logic Pro (expensive), Logic Express (much more affordable and still very good), or Garageband (free on current Mac models - very easy to use and quite powerful but lacks pro features). For PC a couple of common ones are Pro Tools, Pro Tools LE (light edition, very good, designed to work with M-Audio interface devices, Cakewalk and lots of others...

3 - Some way of getting audio in and out of your computer. There's lots of options here too - you'll need something that will let you import at least 2 signals via firewire or USB 2, unless you go with a pretty good higher end audio card. Some companies are M-Audio, Digidesigns... there's a lot of options.

4 - decent mics. Your recordings can only be as good as your mics, so get the best quality that you can afford. Some mics are absurdly high priced so you just have to do the best you can.

That's it. This kind of setup can pretty much give you as many tracks as you could possibly want as well as full use of built in effects, compressor, delay, reverb, limiter... It's a pretty good way to go in my opinion.

We use a Microtrack recorder by M-Audio with a Sony ECM-907 mic. Best recorder I have ever bought. Every session sounds like a soundboard recording. If you gig with it the recordings sound like a matrix recording. The recorder is unbelievable. Worth every penny.

Hey Dozin -

So with that recorder, do you just drop the Sony mic in the middle of the room and just start jamming away and it sounds good? What about levels & mixing afterwards? Like if you find on the recording the drums are too high or vocals aren't loud enough, or your solo isn't cutting through the mix like it should? Do you ever experience these problems, and if so, how do you fix them? Any other info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks man.

Well we don't do any adjusting it's what you hear is what you get. It just does a fine job on that front. You will need a multi-track recorder for what your talking about. I'll throw up a track to give you a idea how it sounds.

Thanks, much obliged. I do like our Zoom for that reason, but it's bulky, which isn't a real problem, but I was thinknig it'd be nice to get something more compact like what you have. Also, what's nice about the Zoom is that it has a built-in cd burner, so you can master the tracks right on the thing, and then burn it straight to cd. Viola!

The M-Audio MicroTrack comes with software that you can edit the recording to split up the tracks. It takes me less than an hour to slice up the recording and make tracks. There's other things you can do to, add effects such as reverb, delay, flanger,.. I don't get into any of that.

Here's a couple of tracks with the mic setup in the middle of the room. The bass player is playing soft.

<a href="mms://205.178.152.121/1146060/1 Deep Elem.wma">Deep Elem Blues </a>

<a href="mms://205.178.152.121/1146060/6 Cassidy.wma">Cassidy</a>

Nice, thanks for posting

Dozin wrote:Here's a couple of tracks with the mic setup in the middle of the room. The bass player is playing soft.

<a href="mms://205.178.152.121/1146060/1 Deep Elem.wma">Deep Elem Blues </a>

<a href="mms://205.178.152.121/1146060/6 Cassidy.wma">Cassidy</a>

PS - what do you do for the jam after the "fare the be well now" in Cassidy? I know it's been discussed here before, but to be honest, I've had a few and don't feel like searching for it. Ok, lame excuse, but still would like to know what your structure (chords/progression) is as well as mode you are playing. Muchos Garcias

I start of hitting the Em and jump right into E and move everywhere I possibly can in E I think we jam in E for about 16 measuers and then up to F# back to E then back to F# G# to Flight of the Seabirds.

Just curious if anyone here has used their Ipod for recording. I’ve got a 30 gig video Ipod and have read that there are a few add-on microphone-type items that allow you to record either with a built-in mic, an external mic, or direct from other sources. I’m looking to record practices, song ideas, and—if possible—gigs. The two products that seem most workable are Belkin’s TuneTalk and ExtremeMac’s MicroMemo. Here’s a link that compares them, but I’m still not sure which way to move on this: http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2007/05 ... otout.html


Anyone have any hands-on experience with this stuff?