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I've been recording my own music for years in dribs and drabs, but stepped up a few gears since joining the Nation, some members have asked me how i record music, so here we go!

I was always testing music making hardware and software, reading magazines such as "Computer Music" but they were all geared towards Hip Hop and R&B so not really much interest to me, a dyed in the wool Rock and Blues fan, though i found Reason an amazing program, i got a genuine Genesis Prog style Mellotron sound but too many options, knobs to twiddle and tweaks to finish up with anything really meaningful...

 Reason

I tried reel to reel tape recorders, an absolute nightmare, made so many "takes" the tapes wore out, jammed, the heads always needed cleaning, dubbing was a nightmare and the sound was awful, as was the latest Tascam cassette recorders too, in all time and money wasted but a lot further up the learning curve.

 Acid Pro 4

I experimented with various Midi programs and sequencing software including Acid Pro 4 and Cakewalk and was getting there, options to record live with guitars and mics began appearing instead of using CD's full of thousands of WAV. samples to piece together, then i finally ended up with Audacity - an amazingly powerful program full of tricks, you can record as many tracks as you like from live sources, samples, WAV files, MP3, everything, and a good collection of special effects and cut and paste options, all quick and easy to use. Like all software it is only limited to the power of the PC it is installed in, a lot of problems of interference and latency encountered with these programs are down to your processor and RAM or lack of it, music making uses a lot of memory and processor power so find the biggest you can afford, so on to hardware...

 Audacity

As laptops and ipads are fast becoming the main centre of media activity in most people's homes they can be used for recording music but a lot can still be said for the refurbished desktop computer, cheap to buy, bags of power and bristling with USB inputs they can still hold their own for music making, get a good sound card into it, a mega sized hard drive and fill up those spare RAM racks and you should have few problems - i have an outboard sound card i used with a lap top and still use it on my music desk top, an M-Audio Mobile Pre USB. 

 Recording

The signal path starts with the source, the microphone, placed a few inches from the guitar combo speaker (Shure SM57 instrument mic) or vocalist (Shure SM58 vocal mic) , using 3-pin sockets and rubber covered leads (they don't tangle easily) the mic is connected to one of 12 inputs in the mixing desk (Mackie PROFX 12), you don't need many inputs unless you have four or more mics and don't want to keep switching them around. I have my Roland TD-12 V-Drums output leads going into the mixer, and Roland SPD-6 effects pad, just sliding up the input on each when required.

Shure SM57

Shure SM 58 vocal mike and POP screen (the foam cover reduces moisture getting into the mic) with SENNHEISER HD580 Headphones, excellent! 

From the mixing desk next in line i use a Boss SE-70 effects unit, one of the finest of its kind and provides more types of effects than i'll ever use, but a great choice of different delays, reverbs and choruses and many others.

From the Boss effects unit (not always used but kept in the line as it has a good bypass) the signal goes into the Mobile Pre USB soundcard / interface, and by way of USB  lead into the PC where the sound can be "seen" on the Audacity  sequencer on the screen, make it a big screen as there are many small controls within the program. Slices of sound can be cut, pasted, made louder or quieter or effects added to the whole track or tiny sections. If you play a piece of music any duff notes or flaws can be corrected.

I use an HP Pentium D PC, 2.8 Ghz with 4Gb of RAM.

I usually lay down the rhythm guitar track first, then use that as a guide for the rest of the instruments and vocals in the song having printed out the  lyrics, pencilling in cues and breaks  according to the times numbered on the program screen, building track after track as i go.

A Roland TD-12 provides the percussion, though sometimes i use the jingles or bass drum recorded with the mikes. I made a set of V-Drums from an acoustic set some years ago, using V-Drum heads and foam coned piezo triggers. I acquired a number of virtual drumkits to use which can be programmed in, a number of 500 different kits including virtual facsimilies of Ringo Starr, John Bonham, Ian Paice and Neil Peart's stage kits. I usually use an exotic set including Bubinga, Apple wood, Jazz and Rock kits of which the drums and cymbals can be altered.

The sound can be monitored while recording the miked amps on the headphones, but i monitor the drums while recording using Cakewalk monitoring speakers with the headphones connected to the TD-12 module.

Mackie PROFX 12 - each mike input is labelled accordingly....Vocals, Amp, Bass, etc..

Songs can be saved in Audacity of course to be worked on at different times, and finally exported to a single WAV file. It is important not to overdo the sound levels otherwise distortion and clipping will occur, everything can be recorded at low level and volume brought up during the final cleaning and mastering stage, for this i use a program called MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab. 

This inexpensive program can be used to remove hiss, pops, clicks, and equalised then converted into another WAV file or MP3, though you'll have to register to do so. I used this program to clean up and adjust a lot of the submissions for the Nation christmas album and other projects.

Finally the completed songs are numbered and burnt onto a CD, edited in videos or uploaded as MP3's.  ...any questions? (-:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpk1fCXhgeM

A corner of the studio...