We (
Naughty Butterspoon, that is) have reached the point where we really need a decent recording of our songs--partly so we can listen to them and rave about how cool we are, partly so we can pass them off to our friends who keep asking "when are you going to have a CD?", and partly so we have a good demo to give to clubs. Anyway, after deciding we really didn't want to pay mucho dinero to go into the studio to cut a dozen or more tracks, we've decided to embark on a home recording adventure. The plan is to do all the recording in my basement (which isn't incredibly soundproofed) direct to PC.
I don't have tons of studio gear, so I'm trying to make due with what I have and improvise as much as possible--I have a Gateway PC with a Lexicon Core 2 card running Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, a Carvin mixer, a dbx DDP, a BBE 362, an Alesis EQ, (2) ART Tube Channels, Carvin studio monitors, some mics (SM57, SM58, Nady condenser & others), and a couple rack FX units (G-Major, Lexicon MPX500).
Here's the setup so far:
Drums mic'd with Nady DMK7 kit--one mic @ for
bass drum, snare, 3 toms + 2 condensers overhead--running into Carvin 16 channel mixer --> dbx DDP dynamic processor (EQ, compression, gating, limiting) --> soundblaster card line in (stereo)
Bass DI from
bass amp --> Lexicon Core 2
Guitars (2) mic'd --> ART Tube Channel --> Lexicon Core 2
The thought is that we'd first concentrate on getting a decent sounding drum mix off the Carvin mixer (running stereo to two tracks). Then we record bass and rhythm guitars live along with the drums (but on separate tracks, of course). So for the rhythm part, our goal is to spread out around the basement so the drum mics don't pick up the guitars & vice versa. Then we'll go back and overdub vocals, solos, acoustics, keys, horns, and whatever else we can think of later, do some mixing & cleanup, and master it to CD.
So... has anybody else out there embarked on similar low-budget home recording projects? Any good tips to share? Any major no-no's? *
Thanks in advance! I'm looking forward to having some decent recordings to
finally share with y'all.
--B
