Sound Recording

[SCHWONG]

Alrighty, i have an assignment for University, basically they have asked me to research sound recording equipment, i have an imaginary budget of £500 and am recording rock music.
Basically what i need is a list of genuine good equipment, the price for each piece, and the website where it can be bought.
I am working with the motto "Crap in, crap out" so things like microphones take priority here.

Now i dont mind if you guys dont want to spoon feed me the anwsers

But if you dont want to, is it at all possible for any of you to give me any hints as to what equipment i actually need, what brands are recommended and what online shops are best for this equipment? So i can at least have something to start on. [size=x-small](They did say we could ask anybody for help, i already asked a few shops but unfortunatly couldnt find any decent information

so i thought id ask the experts here

)[/size]

Thanks!

 

[Mastergill]

Hmmm, maybe you need to be more precise about what kind of recording you have in mind. Is it just a 2 tracks demo recording from a band playing live in a small venue or a complete rock album from A to Z in a real pro studio?

Maybe it's a typo but i think you have to tell your University that unfortunately £500 will get you nowhere or at least far far away than any decent professional sound.
You can barely buy a decent vocal mic for £500. You need to multiply your budget by 100 or 1000!

Anyway i recommend you to check some pro audio forum like "gearslutz.com", the real experts are over there.

 

[jefemeister]

Yeah, what's the application, how many channels do you need? Does it have to be portable? How user friendly? My first advice is to get a good mic, a mic preamp, an E-mu 0404 soundcard, and biggish harddrive, and some kind of audio program like SoundForge or Cakewalk. A totally different solution would be to just get a mic and a portable DAT recorder/mixer. Guitar Center or Musicians Friend websites might be a good place to look around for some price ideas.

edit: I don't think a 500 pound budget is too bad actually. I did the conversion to $886 US.

 

[SCHWONG]

Thanks guys, i will look into the equipment you listed jefemeister, unfortunatly no criteria was given to me in the assignment, it says...

"I want you to imagine that a friend has approached you for help. They wish to obtain facilities for recording. They have a budget of £500 and want you to help them choose a system.
- choose the subject of the recording e.g. rock music, spoken word etc
- list equipment, price, source
- justify why this is the best choice for value for money

I am no expert so i take it if i chose spoken word then id only need one track as it would be only one person talking into the mic ?
Ill take a guess and say portability would be preferred and user friendlyness doesnt really matter as this is all just imaginary anyway

Ill check out that gearslutz forum, thanks !

 

[SCHWONG]

My god, i replied 5 times, so sorry about that but the forum said "Invalid link supplied, contact the webmaster" and i thought itd try and fix it by refreshing, sorry sorry sorry!

 

[SCHWONG]

My god, i replied 5 times, so sorry about that but the forum said "Invalid link supplied, contact the webmaster" and i thought itd try and fix it by refreshing, sorry sorry sorry!

 

[SCHWONG]

My god, i replied 5 times, so sorry about that but the forum said "Invalid link supplied, contact the webmaster" and i thought itd try and fix it by refreshing, sorry sorry sorry!

 

[SCHWONG]

My god, i replied 5 times, so sorry about that but the forum said "Invalid link supplied, contact the webmaster" and i thought itd try and fix it by refreshing, sorry sorry sorry!

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCHWONG Thanks guys, i will look into the equipment you listed jefemeister, unfortunatly no criteria was given to me in the assignment, it says... "I want you to imagine that a friend has approached you for help. They wish to obtain facilities for recording. They have a budget of £500 and want you to help them choose a system. - choose the subject of the recording e.g. rock music, spoken word etc - list equipment, price, source - justify why this is the best choice for value for money I am no expert so i take it if i chose spoken word then id only need one track as it would be only one person talking into the mic ? Ill take a guess and say portability would be preferred and user friendlyness doesnt really matter as this is all just imaginary anyway Ill check out that gearslutz forum, thanks !

Ok, so i converted your gbp to us dollars: 880.820 US Dollar

I'm assuming a pc is out of the question, and the actual taping gear is only being requested here.

Two tracks is most likely (stereo recording) for rock concerts, i'm assuming a mono mic (or a single stereo mic) is the thing for spoken word.

Mics:

http://www.sonicsense.com/micpage.htm

Recorders:

Personally, I would vote for the Nomad Jukebox 3, it supports recording to wav files up to 16/48, it has a line in, optical in and two line outs and the files can be moved via usb or firewire. The only bad thing about the njb3 is that its mic in is very noisy. A recorder with no moving parts may suffice (such as the M Audio Tracker which uses compact flash).

Besides the mics you'll need a preamp: http://www.sonicsense.com/preamps.htm

As you can see it can get very expensive if you want to tape a rock concert. If you select spoken word a pair of omni mics and a recorder with a mic in will suffice and should fall under the spend limit.

www.soundprofessionals.com is another site that sells cheaper mics, preamps and recorders.

I suggest: nomad jukebox 3>mini battery module from soundprofessionals>omni mics from soundprofessionals.

If you have to buy new: Mindisc>mics

The newer MD recorders are small, record to pcm, typically cleaner mic input than njb3 (from what i've read) and the media is removeable and also offer usb uploads to your pc for mastering. It's a quick way to record spoken word or a lecture.

 

[ilikemonkeys]

Do you have to use mics?

Why don't you just record directly out of the soundboard?

a couple RCA's, soundcard and a laptop/digital recorder would be a great setup and easily fit into your budget.

B

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilikemonkeys Do you have to use mics? Why don't you just record directly out of the soundboard? a couple RCA's, soundcard and a laptop/digital recorder would be a great setup and easily fit into your budget. B

Err, soundboards usually don't sound that great.

 

[ilikemonkeys]

Quote:

Err, soundboards usually don't sound that great.

Are you kidding me?

Soundboards are the best!

You go find me an AUD that sounds better than a SBD....and I'll eat my words.

B

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilikemonkeys Are you kidding me? Soundboards are the best! You go find me an AUD that sounds better than a SBD....and I'll eat my words. B

lol. Ok, go to archive.org and start checking out some of those audience recordings. In fact, i even have audience recordings i made that sound better than soundboards. Soundboards are typically very dry, lack any imaging and well, are typically not mixed to be listened to, imho Vocals are usually buried in the mix and so are the guitars. I'll take a good audience recording over a soundboard recording anytime.

If you want, i can mp3 a track of a show i recorded and email it to you.

I'm surprised that anyone would think a sbd tape is the best.

By the way, i once preferred sbd's and fm broadcasts until i started hearing good audience recordings. Believe me, aud recordings are the way to go unless they don't exist and you have to fall back on fm or sbd's.

 

[ilikemonkeys]

OK, this may just be a matter of taste that we disagree in. I have over 2000 live recordings. I've been trading live shows for years.

I would rather listen to nails on a chalkboard than an audience recording.

This is how I see it. Every venue is different and most of the time the equipment is tired and mics are placed in poor places. The bass can never truly be caught well with mics and the since they're in the audience, you've got to listen to the crowd say stupid sh!t


If you want to hear a great SBD recording....try the Grateful Dead 5-8-77. No AUD comes close to being that good.

B

 

[Akathriel]

pick up a copy of cubasis vst. It far exceeds cakewalk competition in terms of value as a midi sequencer/audio recording editing suite.

www.steinberg.de

also i highly reccommend u pick up a copy of the british publication, computer music magazine or check out their website. It should fit the bill perfectly. THey also provide a demo disc every issue that can have hundreds of dollars of freeware or fully functional demos on it. But the disc is hit and miss... sometimes they give u 700 mb of crap.