Recording Gear Confusion

[Leo Chang]

Horribly overpriced doo-dad. For the same ching, you can get a Line 6 POD Studio UX1.

I see... good to know


- Leo.

[ToneZone]

I have some equipment for recording. But I see that when I make the more metal type of songs what I use is:

-Cubase Studio 4 (The program I use for recording)
-Line 6 Toneport UX2
-AKG C4000B Microphone for the Vocals
-Roland Fantom Rack for "non guitar" sounds
-A guitar, a bass
-Drumkit from Hell (Badass name, ey?)

That's basicly it. Everything is recorded through the Toneport.
Here's the problem with this rig:

1.

The Line 6 gearbox doesn't give you the natural response that you get from tubes. If you want that I hear that the Damage Control products are great. I have a demonizer my self, but haven't gotten around to try to record with it.

2.

You need to be able to play keys to use the Roland. The alternative (Which I often use) is that I program a MIDI file. (I do this mainly when I want an orchestra). You can use anything from Sibelius to Guitar Pro. Then you take the MIDI-file, import into your project and let a softsynth handle the job. (I'm guessing you got HALion and Prologue, since you got Cubase too?)

Other great softsynths that I use:

EastWest Symphonic Orchestra
For my orchestra sounds. I have the gold edition and it is worth every penny. High quality strings, huge brass, fantastic reeds and a percussion library to die for!


Native Instrument B4

Hammond B3 sounds. I use this to get an organ sound. It gives you great results even with a midi file but I recommend you get someone to play the keys for you. If you have a friend that can, you can have him record a MIDI file and send it to you.


EZ Drummer

I use EZ Drummer for all my drumparts. I got two expantionpacks as well: "Coctail kit" and "Drumkit from Hell"

Lots of stuff you can get. How much do you wanna do?

[Leo Chang]

Lots of stuff you can get. How much do you wanna do?

say around $500?


- Leo.

[ToneZone]

I was thinking about what kind of arrangement you usually do.
Do you make Symphonic Power Metal? Do you need a synth voice at all?

The Toneport handles all of the guitars, bass and vocals. With EZ Drummer and a program to make MIDI-Files with, you have all you need for a basic metal song. Doesn't cost too much. What type of computer are you recording on?

[Speiro]

I've been using Guitarport for ages and it works really well with Cubase.

[Spivonious]

I think you can accomplish what you want to with your original list. Run the simulated speaker DI on the Marshall into the 1/4" in on the breakout box. Use Cubase LE4 to record it. I don't know if Cubase LE can do sequencing (you're talking about MIDI sequencing?) but the super old Cubasis I had could do it, so it's probably in there somewhere. For drums, my buddy has gotten great results from the Drumkit From Hell (http://www.toontrack.com/ezx.asp).

I've used a POD running into my X-Fi breakout box and recorded using ACID. Sounded fine.

[Newc]

The optical I/O should be fiber optic (lightpipe). You would normally use that for synths, though. Never had any guitar-type gear that used it, just the Alesis QSR synth.

Like Spiv said, Marshall DI into the Line Input on the X-Fi box. SPDIF will probably require a 48kHz input source, but if the DI is only putting out 44kHz, the XFi SPDIF input won't like it.

As well, once you've got your stuff recorded, if you hear any strange popping noises or it sounds like it's been hit with a cheap fuzzbox, check your sample rate of the file - it's probably been bumped up to 48k. If so, drop it down to 44k and it should be fine.

For drums, I'd recommend BFD 2. I tried some demo sounds from DFH and could hear the hardware rattling. Either that or they had reverb on it. Either way I could hear "pooka pook, pooka pook, pooka pook" constantly during double-bass passages.

I've recorded in a bedroom into a Yamaha 4-track cassette unit and got perfect drum tones without hardware rattle, so for an expensive program like Drums From Hell to have hardware rattle is laughably sad. Get BFD 2.

[Leo Chang]

I was thinking about what kind of arrangement you usually do.
Do you make Symphonic Power Metal? Do you need a synth voice at all?

The Toneport handles all of the guitars, bass and vocals. With EZ Drummer and a program to make MIDI-Files with, you have all you need for a basic metal song. Doesn't cost too much. What type of computer are you recording on?

I have done some recordings in the past, but it was always just the guitar by itself... no arrangements. I would like to start doing arrangements in Cubase (or similar programs) though. And yes, symphonic sounds would be needed for what I (eventually) want to do. Not sure if I'll be able to utilize it right away, but would be nice to have.

Computer:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.21 ghz
RAM: 4GB



- Leo.

[Leo Chang]

Ok, so right now this is the picture I am getting:

Guitar --> amp's Emulated DI --> X-Fi box --> CuBase + drum app + symphonic app.

correct?



- Leo.

[Newc]

Yup.

[Leo Chang]

Awesome

As always, glad to have access to a community of experienced musicians on JCF.

Now I just have to read up on the different drum and symphony plugs etc.


Thanks to all who have replied to this thread



- Leo.

[Leo Chang]

A follow up question:

For connecting the DI Emulated Out from my amp ---> Hi-Z input of my X-Fi breakout box... what type of cable should I use?

Standard instrument cables that I use between my guitar and my amp?

Please excuse the total n00b - ness of my question

Thanks


- Leo

[Spivonious]

A follow up question:

For connecting the DI Emulated Out from my amp ---> Hi-Z input of my X-Fi breakout box... what type of cable should I use?

Standard instrument cables that I use between my guitar and my amp?

Please excuse the total n00b - ness of my question

Thanks


- Leo

Yep, standard instrument cable is fine. Just remember that the amp is only outputting a mono signal, so it will only show up in the left channel on the computer.

[Hellbat]

For computer software, you might want to check out the acoustica.com stuff. I've used it a lot and really like it. I also like the Zoom all-in-one recorders.

+1 to the acoustica stuff. I have MixCraft and Beatcraft and they are both solid products that braindead people can use. Mixcraft is roughly a PC equivalent of Garage Band. Very easy to throw in loops. I used it to mix a vocal free version of Lamb of God's Wrath special edition and all told it took me about 25 minutes to mixdown all 14 tracks and burn them to Audio CD.