Got the Bug Again Finally

Recording for a Complete Dummy

I have a Macbook, aluminum, with 4GB memory, an Edirol box, a couple decent mikes, and a friend's old copy of Sonar. Of course, Garage Band on the Mac.

Is there either a book or a good online guide for someone who thinks in analog, still, when pondering recording?

posted by Danf (3 comments total)

I think the main thing is to dive right in, and not get too distracted by the loops and stuff Garageband has to offer. I really like GB for just laying down some audio tracks, but it does get a bit limited if you are used to a physical studio.

If you find yourself bumping up against the limits of GB I *strongly* recommend Logic on the Mac... it imports Garageband stuff directly and the channel plugins -- compressors, reverbs, EQs and the like -- are really excellent and very kind to your processor. Working with Logic is very much like working with a physical studio, once you get the inputs and outputs sorted out.

I also really recommend a simple USB mixer like the Behringer BCF or something similar. I use mine all the time to ride faders and twiddle pans and so on.

It's really worth learning the keyboard commands for stuff you use all the time (stop/start/record/drop in and so on).

You have to watch your levels a lot more carefully in digital, but you have way more headroom. If you clip something when tracking, it's gonna sound like shit. You can't just stick a compressor in the channel when tracking -- by the time it hits your computer it's already clipped. So you either have to be scrupulous about setting levels or get some kind of hardware compressor/gate/EQ to go between the mic and the Mac. Personally, I just take care with my levels.

Because digital is so clean, you have to come up with tricks to make all your tracks gel together (analog tape just does that automatically). A compressor across the mix bus, say 3 6db of gain reduction and a ratio of 2 or 3:1, slow attack and auto release, plus a tiny bit of reverb on the mix too, tends to work wonders.
posted by unSane at 6:47 PM on June 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I mean 3 to 6db, and closer to 3.
posted by unSane at 6:48 PM on June 24, 2010

Seems like you figured it out from your SUMMERTIME BLUES post. Sounds great.
posted by unSane at 7:09 PM on June 25, 2010