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Newbie intoduction and help with startup home recording

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Topic Newbie intoduction and help with startup home recording
Hello!

I would like to start home recording. Here is a list of what I have. I will be using Samplitude 7.0 Professional. I recently went through my computer and upgraded my memory and speed. I am using the Yamaha i88X firewire interface. I have some plugins, a couple of mics (shure sm57 and sm58, Rode NT1, Alesis tube mic, along with several vintage mics), Lexicon MPX1 and R1, good cables, and a few other odds and ends.

I will be mainly recording electric guitar amps. I would like to record the amps as linear as possible, as to catch the tone of my amps on tape. I am interested in help with mic placement and EQ'ing.

Is there any way to test a rooms color characteristics so that room color could be minimized?

I am also interested in setting up an enviroment to do this recording without a large financial investement. I know that a good studio could cost thousands, but I would like to get the job done with a minimal of expense. I wouldn't mind going through the troubles in setting up a temporary environment to get the job done.

Also, I would like to hear your thoughts and experiences about tips on how to linearize room acoustic in mixdown (with EQ maybe)

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks alot

Timur the Lame
2
Hi Timur-

Your gear list sounds like you're off to a good start. I record all of my guitars with an SM-57. Probably more rock recordings done this way than any other method. I put the mic about midway between the center and the edge of the speaker, with the mic at about a 45 degree angle pointing into the center. I don't use a room mic, so the room is not much of an issue, although mine is carpeted and has a drop ceiling so it's pretty dead.

Before you start worrying about your room, I'd be looking for a decent set of reference monitors. I didn't see any on your gear list. That will be a requirement. So far as room treatment goes, I'd focus first on getting my monitoring setup correct (monitors and your head make an equalateral triangle at ear hight with the monitors at least 6-8 inches away from the wall). After that, you can play some CD's through them with mixes of a similar genre as what your music is and use those as a reference to mix with. THEN you can worry about additional room treatment.
The Axeman (##(===> Cuts From My New Blues CD
3
Thanks AXEMAN!

I appreciate the advice. I forgot to mention that I have some cheap monitors (Alesis M1 active) and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 headphones to monitor with, but thanks for the monitor setup tips and I will get the proper placement done.

Once I get a short clip recorded, I will listen to the clip and make adjustments to the Samplitude mixer EQ master to get my EQ as linear as possible. Does that sound about right?

Should a build a curtain baffle around the amp and close mic to minimize room acoustics? I thought I read something once somewhere that using a curtain baffle works great for this purpose. This would also be a nice feature because the curtain could be stored when not in use, since I don't have to much dedicated space for recording. Also, what if I wanted to use a second mic a little further back in conjunction with the close mic? Most of my cabinets are open back design and can really fill a room, and I want to capture some of that on tape. Any advice on this? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of trying to minimize room color or is there another way to use a second mic. I have a couple of mics that I can sell, if you would recommend using a ribbon mic for this procedure?

Also, any tips on recording direct outs from amps would be great too! I have a few amps with those. They are passive, so I will still need to have the amp speaker plugged in. I am assuming you use the direct out lightly in the mix? It sounds like sometimes it is panned hard left or hard right?

Any thoughts on mic'n the back of an open backed cabinet?

Thanks again for helping me put the pieces together, and looking forward to hearing all your responses.

Also, AXEMAN I checked out some of your stuff from your blues CD and it all sounded great

Timur the Lame
4
Could it be that the direct signal from the guitar into the FW410 is getting in immediately, while the guitar-amp-room-mic is slightly delayed.
5
the room is fairly large, i've tried sectioning out a corner. I play a Taylor 814 ce. i've been recording by just using a desk mic stand to mic the guitar. Im using an M-Audio firewire 410 to record, so i use one of the inputs for the mic, and the other i plug my taylor straight in. When recording i've been getting a bit of an echo and thats basically what im looking to fix. thanks.

the big kahuna
6
You say you are getting to much "reverb"? You mean ambient room sound? Describe your guitar recording setup? A B1, and then what? where do you mic from? What's the room like?
The Axeman (##(===> Cuts From My New Blues CD
7
anyone out there??
8
hi, i've been doing some home recording for a little while, and im getting a pretty decent sound out of the equipment i have(I'm using a StudioProjects B-1) but the problem is that im getting too much reverb. a friend suggested pinning up blankets to contain the sound. Since im only using a corner of the room to record, i've laid out a large cardboard "wall" to contain one corner of the room. It seems akward and im wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to contain the sound better? or more conveniently. thanks

-the big kahuna