First Attempt at Home Recording

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Bad.Seed

Bad.Seed

Well-known member
Decided to finally take the plunge into recording. I got all the gear this week, but was too busy with work to really dig in. Watched a bunch of videos on how to do certain things top get an idea.

Tonight, I dug in for a couple hours. I'm pretty happy with how things came out. All I did was record and set levels afterwards. Drums seem a little quiet now that I'm listening back.

Drums were all pre rendered pieces from EZdrummer2 that I chopped up for my needs. Haven't figured out how to do custom drums with my midi keyboard in Reaper just yet. Guitar tracks and bass were all through Amplitube 4.

Let me know thoughts or critiques, I'm open to advice on this, as I'm brand new to it

https://soundcloud.com/kyle-bull-760574 ... ong-1-demo
 
That sounds rad! I too just started recording so I can send out song ideas to my band. I'm using all the free stuff till I get more comfortable....Tracktion 7, Amplitube and MT Power Drum Kit along with a Focusrite Scarlett Solo. Your guitar and drums sound great; I'll look into the EZDrummer and the full version of Amplitube. Thanks for sharing.
 
I hate you. :lol: :LOL:

Dude, that sounded awesome!! I've been doing recordings since the 90s and I can tell you that my first recording definitely didn't sound that good.

I use Reaper as well and EzDrummer2 for my recordings. You'll have to tell me what your project settings are set at because the drums and everything sounded amazing right off the bat.

Best tip I can give you, and others will probably say the same thing. Record one guitar part, and pan it 90-100% to the left. Then record the guitar part again and pan it 90-100% to the right. It will sound so full and will add depth. You could always just copy and paste but is not the same as having two recorded parts. Those little subtle differences make it not sound as sterile.

Great job man. Like I said, I'd like to hear what you have your project set at because sounds good right out of the box. Actually, I'm wondering what you rendered your recording at (format, etc.)
 
"gee I just whipped this lil' ditty up and really don't know how it's gonna turn out, hope you guys don't think it sucks...." :shocked: :doh: :cheers:

Fucking slayed, Brother!!
:rawk:

Mo
 
Sounded great. I love the ToonTrack stuff, really helpful tools for songwriting.
 
jc986":2pb49knq said:
Sounded great. I love the ToonTrack stuff, really helpful tools for songwriting.
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Yeah, I agree man. I will hear a beat or something and it gets me going on an idea. Same as doing a guitar riff. It just gets the wheels moving I guess.

I actually sold a Strat today and took the money to get a Yamaha keyboard/synthesizer. It has a ton of sounds in it and I already know it is going to give me some great ideas for recording and will have some great sounds to help fill the mix for certain songs.
 
I missed the part about it being Amplitube and just assumed it was a mic'd up cab! I agree that the drums are a little low but not bad at all. Sounds excellent!

What amp/cab did you use in Amplitube?
 
I was expecting it to sound noobish after your post. Sounds great! What was the guitar rig?
 
Fucken A dude! That was awesome! And thats your first attempt? Damn my first attempts sucked all kinds of ass hahaha... you got this man! :rock:
 
Well damn, thanks guys. Wasn't expecting that response, and was waiting for far more criticism! Haha.

I thought it sounded surprisingly good as I was putting it together, but literally all I did was tweak the drum, guitar and bass sounds in the plugins, record in reaper, set the levels after I was done, pan the guitars 80% left and right, and render.

I barely know how to use Reaper or any of it's built in plugins, so I have a lot to learn on that end. I didn't do any post eq, effects, anything like that. So these tracks are about as raw as it gets.

For EZdrummer, I selected the metal kit, turned the pitch of the snare up by 1.0, and then upped the overall velocity of the kit to make it sound like the drums were being hit a little harder. I also added a little more reverb than the stock settings.

For guitars and bass, I used Amplitube 4.
Left guitar was the Tube screamer into the SLO100 Overdrive channel. I believe I switched the cab to the M1 Metal cab, but I can't remember. Tweaked the eq setting to taste and went.
Right guitar was Tube Screamer in to the Triple Rectifier Orange Channel Modern setting. Whatever stock cab populates with that amp is what I used. Set my settings insanely close to how I'd set them in real life and went.
Bass was into the GK amp sim. No pedals out front. Turned the contour up quite a bit, gain up a good amount, hi mids up relatively high, and the rest of the eq was close to stock settings. Was good after that, changed nothing else.

I rendered to whatever Reaper's stock render settings were, 192kbps, 24 bit something or other, I don't know any of the technical jargon here.

The thing that's really irking me is I can not modify the drum midi at all, and it's driving me nuts. I've watched multiple videos on Recording EZdrummer to reaper so you can edit the midi within Reaper, and none of them are working. For some Reason, EZdrummer is not inputting the midi notes to reaper when I record with it. It's just a blank line. When I go into the actual midi track within reaper after I record with SD2, same deal. None of the midi notes show. So I have no way of editing the drums to be custom.

Once I figure that issue out, I'll really be able to get going. But that's mainly what's holding me up. I need to dive into mixing and mastering as well. I know nothing about those processes. This is going to be a huge learning experience, but I've wanted to record at home for years, and now that I know I'm capable, I'm going down the rabbit hole.
 
Bad.Seed":1sonfst9 said:
The thing that's really irking me is I can not modify the drum midi at all, and it's driving me nuts. I've watched multiple videos on Recording EZdrummer to reaper so you can edit the midi within Reaper, and none of them are working. For some Reason, EZdrummer is not inputting the midi notes to reaper when I record with it. It's just a blank line. When I go into the actual midi track within reaper after I record with SD2, same deal. None of the midi notes show. So I have no way of editing the drums to be custom.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you may have it setup input wise so you are getting the recording of the drums instead of the midi. When you start a new track, right click the open area and I think it is "input new instrument". Your EZdrummer program will come up and should default to midi as the input.

Also, I think EZdrummer has to be loaded in a certain location within the Reaper files on your computer. I'm sure you have done all of this already but figured I'd mention it.
 
Bad.Seed":344klnyw said:
Well damn, thanks guys. Wasn't expecting that response, and was waiting for far more criticism! Haha.

I thought it sounded surprisingly good as I was putting it together, but literally all I did was tweak the drum, guitar and bass sounds in the plugins, record in reaper, set the levels after I was done, pan the guitars 80% left and right, and render.

I barely know how to use Reaper or any of it's built in plugins, so I have a lot to learn on that end. I didn't do any post eq, effects, anything like that. So these tracks are about as raw as it gets.

For EZdrummer, I selected the metal kit, turned the pitch of the snare up by 1.0, and then upped the overall velocity of the kit to make it sound like the drums were being hit a little harder. I also added a little more reverb than the stock settings.

For guitars and bass, I used Amplitube 4.
Left guitar was the Tube screamer into the SLO100 Overdrive channel. I believe I switched the cab to the M1 Metal cab, but I can't remember. Tweaked the eq setting to taste and went.
Right guitar was Tube Screamer in to the Triple Rectifier Orange Channel Modern setting. Whatever stock cab populates with that amp is what I used. Set my settings insanely close to how I'd set them in real life and went.
Bass was into the GK amp sim. No pedals out front. Turned the contour up quite a bit, gain up a good amount, hi mids up relatively high, and the rest of the eq was close to stock settings. Was good after that, changed nothing else.

I rendered to whatever Reaper's stock render settings were, 192kbps, 24 bit something or other, I don't know any of the technical jargon here.

The thing that's really irking me is I can not modify the drum midi at all, and it's driving me nuts. I've watched multiple videos on Recording EZdrummer to reaper so you can edit the midi within Reaper, and none of them are working. For some Reason, EZdrummer is not inputting the midi notes to reaper when I record with it. It's just a blank line. When I go into the actual midi track within reaper after I record with SD2, same deal. None of the midi notes show. So I have no way of editing the drums to be custom.

Once I figure that issue out, I'll really be able to get going. But that's mainly what's holding me up. I need to dive into mixing and mastering as well. I know nothing about those processes. This is going to be a huge learning experience, but I've wanted to record at home for years, and now that I know I'm capable, I'm going down the rabbit hole.
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First off, that track was killer, would never know you’d not recorded at home before.

2nd, you can use EZD2 as a stand-alone program; when you render the track it’ll give you the option to do it as a wav file or as a midi file. Render as midi, drag it into Reaper and you should be able to edit as you see fit.

Also, you should be able to click around in the settings and map your midi controller to EZD, I remember figuring this out a few years back when I got into orchestral stuff. It’s super easy, should be literally one click to open it, and one click to pick a product map, IIRC.
 
Steinmetzify":2fg390ly said:
First off, that track was killer, would never know you’d not recorded at home before.

2nd, you can use EZD2 as a stand-alone program; when you render the track it’ll give you the option to do it as a wav file or as a midi file. Render as midi, drag it into Reaper and you should be able to edit as you see fit.
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Good point too. Yeah that is what I do, drag the parts over. If I could just get the program to work right with my Roland kit, I'd be set. LOL
 
Sounded great.
Home recording is not something I've ever been interested in.
 
D-Rock":1hh15rbd said:
Sounded great.
Home recording is not something I've ever been interested in.
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Dude, you should give it a try sometime even if it is just a cheap setup. It is really a blast because instead of just playing guitar, you are building something like a painting, etc. You work on something over time and have something that you can play for friends or just have as a memory of your guitar playing at a certain place in time.

When I started doing recordings, it was really, really basic and I listen back to those old songs and cracks me up how clueless I was. LOL. I have done some recordings recently just in my house with $50 Reaper and I send them to friends, etc. and alot of them think I should send them to radio stations, etc. I recorded some stuff and sent the mp3 to a buddy and he put vocals on it. It was a fun project.
 
romanianreaper":1t8n3r13 said:
D-Rock":1t8n3r13 said:
Sounded great.
Home recording is not something I've ever been interested in.
Click to expand...

Dude, you should give it a try sometime even if it is just a cheap setup. It is really a blast because instead of just playing guitar, you are building something like a painting, etc. You work on something over time and have something that you can play for friends or just have as a memory of your guitar playing at a certain place in time.

When I started doing recordings, it was really, really basic and I listen back to those old songs and cracks me up how clueless I was. LOL. I have done some recordings recently just in my house with $50 Reaper and I send them to friends, etc. and alot of them think I should send them to radio stations, etc. I recorded some stuff and sent the mp3 to a buddy and he put vocals on it. It was a fun project.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I guess I would have no one to show anything I made to, and don't really like computers or learning programs or sitting at a computer while playing guitar. I spend enough time at work on them. I don't even own a computer. Lol! I can use them, I just don't like using them.
 
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