[HN Gopher] How I recorded an album on my own, in my room
___________________________________________________________________
How I recorded an album on my own, in my room
Author : romes
Score : 82 points
Date : 2020-03-16 12:08 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (medium.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (medium.com)
| Niccizero wrote:
| Reminders me than one of my favourite albums ever, Sheena Ringo's
| Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana was recorded entirely by her in her
| apartment with Mac and some cheap hardware.
| romes wrote:
| Listening to it now... i'm really liking it! Thank you for
| showing me
| briefcomment wrote:
| That's some atmospheric shoegaze. Very nice!
| romes wrote:
| i love that you recognise it as shoegaze. I'm really happy to
| hear this
| woodandsteel wrote:
| A four year old teaches a couple of lessons on how to use Garage
| Band
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK1PjOx9XoI&list=PLkx9TVrdk-...
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhDbrdwjj7c&list=PLkx9TVrdk-...
| hnruss wrote:
| A few of my own home recording tips:
|
| - Use a condenser microphone with a pop filter for vocals
|
| - Use 2 matched condenser mics for acoustic instruments,
| separated by twice the distance to the instrument, pan them left
| and right
|
| - Use a dozen cheap foam panels to reduce unwanted room sound
| (placed closer to the vocals/instrument depending on situation).
| I tacked mine to a sheet of plywood so that it could be moved
| around.
|
| - Eat a banana before singing to help improve vocal quality
|
| - It will never sound as good as you want, but the most important
| thing is the performance. People will put up with imperfect
| recordings if the performance is good.
| lemiffe wrote:
| Why the banana though?
| hnruss wrote:
| I read it somewhere a long time ago... if I recall, it
| supposedly helps get vocal cords to the right tension and
| maybe gives them a slight coating.
| l0c0b0x wrote:
| Hadn't heard about bananas being good for the vocal cords,
| but did hear milk was a big no-no.
|
| Oddly enough, I just searched for bananas and vocal cords
| and one of the first links debated that :\
|
| https://www.openmicuk.co.uk/advice/are-bananas-good-or-
| bad-f...
| hnruss wrote:
| I have a feeling it's fairly subjective, but good to read
| up on. I'll definitely try pineapple next time (as
| recommended in the article).
| tigeba wrote:
| If you want to eat a banana before you singing go for it.
| Things you eat or drink don't touch your vocal folds, so
| they aren't going to coat or otherwise mess with them.
|
| My recommendations are drink plenty of water, avoid
| alcohol, and practice.
| romes wrote:
| Wow. When I invest a bit more money into recording i'll
| remember this. The only thing I have knowledge to agree with is
| the last one. Very accurate.
| easymodex wrote:
| This is great, exactly what I've been trying to do but there's
| never enough time and now the second kid is on the way... I guess
| I'll have to just find that extra time somehow because you got me
| excited again.
|
| One question: What did you use for the guitar amp? I personally
| use Guitar rig and I keep getting lost in all those infinite
| guitar sounds. I'm worried my songs won't sound cohesive if I
| experiment too much and have a different setup (or several) for
| each song. Do you just pick a few sets like a clean sounding one,
| dirty sounding one and stick with them through the whole record
| (maybe add some unique effects here and there) or does it not
| matter?
| romes wrote:
| Great question! I'm not sure I know what guitar rig is. I used
| logic pro's amp simulation.
|
| "getting lost in all those infinite guitar sounds" - I spent
| way too much time trying each and every sound out. It's
| pleasant, there are so many interesting sounds. I did feel like
| losing track of my objective and what I was trying to do - for
| this I recommend nothing more than having in mind "i'm going to
| pick a sound I like - so you try out a few of them but don't
| wander off because your goal is to define one, to keep on
| recording.
|
| But leaving philosophy aside - I often thinked about "should I
| be picking just one set and going with it?" - Im inclusive
| thinking maybe I should for the next album.
|
| - You can conclude: No, I did not, whatsoever, use the same
| guitar rig once.
|
| As I see it:
|
| Cons:
|
| 1) This made the process longer. If you have to pick and adjust
| sounds everytime you want to record a new instrument, or a new
| song, you'll use up more time than you would if you would start
| out everytime from the same preset.
|
| Pros:
|
| 1) You have way more diversity and freedom, new sound effects
| made me more creative and have new ideas some times.
|
| Also note:
|
| At first, I used to choose a preset and let it be, but
| experimenting randomly I started customising more and more a
| preset (choose - then customize). Do not be afraid to turn
| knobs and add pedals to the guitar rig! It might take some time
| to find something you like, but the journey is interesting by
| itself - as i see it.
|
| Thank you, I'm happy to hear this got you excited ! Good Luck
| and let me know if you finish something (contacts at the end of
| post)
| dsr_ wrote:
| Rule of thumb for any sound situation, live or recorded: give
| yourself a limited palette so you can sound consistent.
|
| If you want an album to sound like it's all one piece, you use
| the same instrument and processing for it all the way through
| -- except for that one time that you want to highlight it.
|
| In visual terms, you want the grass on the left side of the
| painting to be the same as the grass on the right side of the
| painting, unless you deliberately want to say something about
| the grass. You should only be drawing people's attention to
| what _you_ _want_ them to be looking at.
| reggieband wrote:
| Finishing an entire album is a great achievement. Even with the
| tremendous improvements and price reductions in modern home-
| recording equipment there is still numerous hours of effort
| required. It is a marathon like effort and anyone who completes
| it should feel proud.
| zelienople wrote:
| I tried to post a correction on Medium, but they wanted me to
| create an account. So I created an account to post the correction
| and they still wouldn't let me post, something about either my
| profile wasn't complete or I hadn't done enough to allow posting.
|
| Great business model. Outsource the content creation to the peons
| but then implement draconian restrictions so you have to jump
| through hoops to make a positive contribution.
|
| Anyway, the correction is, the book "Set Your Voice Free" is by
| Roger Love, not Robert Love as stated in the article. Helpful for
| anyone looking for it because Robert Love writes Linux books that
| contain very little information about improving your singing
| voice.
|
| I don't understand why anyone would be suckered into creating
| value for a place like Medium when they are so obviously
| exploitative.
| romes wrote:
| hey, thank you for noting! i'll fix it right away. this is my
| first time using medium as well. I think i might abandon the
| account and repost the story on my blog.
|
| thanks again :)
| l0c0b0x wrote:
| If you repost, please update here :)
|
| Thanks for the detailed info--looking at doing this myself.
| thorin wrote:
| Assuming I already have a guitar, bass and electric piano (with
| midi) how much would I have to spend on bits and pieces to do
| something similar. I have a couple of low spec windows laptops so
| might well need a new machine as well?
|
| Guess the main costs would be the digital interface and software
| plus a new computer maybe (does it really gave to be a mac!!)
| romes wrote:
| I spent around 90EUR on the audio interface (however, i think
| you can get a better one for less money now), 35EUR on the mic
| stand, 15EUR on the cable. I'm pretty sure you can get far with
| free software, and it wouldn't require a new machine - you just
| need the basics. I'm not sure how much the rest of the
| equipment cost because most I didn't buy myself.
| tigeba wrote:
| Great job putting out an entire self produced album and
| documenting it. I wanted to bounce this opinion off you.
|
| Its my opinion that most folks who are going to be using
| programmed drums would be better off with an inexpensive MIDI
| controller with some pads (like the one pictured in your
| article) vs playing them on an electronic kit unless they
| happen to be a very skilled drummer.
|
| I play drums passably, but when I'm demoing up ideas I just
| thump them in with some pads on a MIDI controller.
| filoleg wrote:
| > How I recorded an album on my own, in my room
|
| Didn't read the article, but a Windows/macOS computer with a
| DAW + audio interface (for recording instruments + if you
| decide to get nice headphones that require a pre-amp) + midi
| controller + some virtual synths/samples, and you should be
| good to go.
|
| There are plenty of decent free synth/samples, so I wouldn't
| count it as an absolute necessity to spend money on synths.
|
| The only reason I say "Windows or macOS" is because of driver
| compatibility with your equipment + choice of DAWs, with the
| most widely used ones being macOS/Windows only.
|
| Even thought you have a piano that is midi compatible, you
| might want a separate MIDI controller, so that it is smaller +
| has pads + knobs to control various parameters. I have a piano
| with MIDI-out as well, but found it to be super inconvenient to
| work with compared to an actual midi controller. My personal
| affordable recommendation that isn't just basic barebones stuff
| is Arturia Minilab MKII (currently $109 on Amazon). Got it
| myself a couple of months ago, still very happy with the
| purchase.
|
| Regarding an audio interface, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 is very
| robust and is heavily recommended (currently $159 on Amazon).
| It might be a little bit more than the basic needs, but it
| gives you a bit of a room to grow. And the basic version is
| just $109 (Scarlett Solo), so I feel like an extra $50 is worth
| it, given that you probably won't have a need (but def might be
| tempted to) to buy another one pretty much ever.
| swatts wrote:
| I think you'd be best seeing how far you can get with your
| current laptops before upgrading. On the software front Reaper
| would be an excellent choice on Windows, very cheap and CPU
| efficient.
|
| Cheap audio interfaces have come a very long way, I'd look at
| what's being sold second hand in your area. Something with a
| Hi-Z input if you're wanting to record your guitars directly
| though the interface.
| grawprog wrote:
| On top of those things you have, I spent about $300 on a
| condenser mic and preamp and about $150 on an audio interface.
|
| I lack quality studio monitors or monitoring headphones with a
| flat response, they're kind of pricey, but necessary to make
| professional sounding music. Any speakers or headphones you
| play your tracks through will add their own sound that makes it
| difficult to mix or master properly. The tracks might sound
| great through the speakers or headphones you're using, but like
| garbage through other ones. With flat monitors, what you hear
| is only the sounds of your tracks.
|
| For software I use the vast array of audio production tools on
| linux through kxstudio and elsewhere.
|
| My workflow tends to be, hydrogen for drums, rosegarden patched
| through various plugins for midi, all routed into ardour
| alongside any audio input tracks. I'll usually record track by
| track. I use ardour to mix everything, then I take my mixed
| down track and master it using jamin.
| viburnum wrote:
| You should keep at it, that was not bad at all.
| romes wrote:
| Thanks for this comment! I like knowing what people think about
| the final result
| cmrdsprklpny wrote:
| I cannot help but mention Jacob Collier, who self-produced an
| album (called "In My Room") and won 2 Grammys with it.
| https://youtu.be/4v3zyPEy-Po?list=PLHX_dBxnc8z-EeR431dUujzqe...
| mimes70 wrote:
| Great article (and nice music). Wish I had read this pointers
| years ago, when I still had a lot of free time. Maybe a nice
| hobby for corona quarantine time :-)
| duncan-donuts wrote:
| I'm definitely planning on writing a lot of music over the next
| month
| romes wrote:
| let's go! if you wanna share when you're finished send a text
| to email or social media (check last line of the post)
| duncan-donuts wrote:
| You bet!
| bane wrote:
| There's some fantastic artists on youtube who produce in similar
| circumstances. Here's one of my favorite examples (the video was
| also made in the artist's room)
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYv6-5VmNEM
| [deleted]
| wnscooke wrote:
| The artists name is Mree, and it's her cover of Walking on a
| Dream by Empire of the Sun. It's worth the click, and now you
| know to what you'll be clicking.
| beckler wrote:
| I do some mixing for live events on occasion, and I had a guy
| tell me once that no mix is ever done, but every mix is
| eventually abandoned.
|
| Honestly, it's true. You can sink an incredible amount of time
| into mixing and still not be happy with it.
| lostgame wrote:
| Yes but the law of diminishing returns is especially prevalent,
| here.
|
| For a serious, scientific, by-the-numbers mixing technician,
| the _amount_ of quality increase versus the amount of time
| spent more often than not hits a massive bell curve fairly
| early on - particularly if it is not that technician's original
| material.
| redis_mlc wrote:
| Pro mixers generally finish in a day or maybe two, which is why
| producers choose them.
| palijer wrote:
| This is exactly the reason why I switched careers from audio tech
| to development. Funny seeing this posted here.
|
| I believe there was a post last night on mass amateurization -
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_amateurization
|
| But yeah, you do not need a lot of professional equipment or
| specialized knowledge now to create great records. I am not at
| all bemoaning this fact, I love that creating music is more and
| more open for all, music is a very human quality we should all
| have access to.
| redis_mlc wrote:
| 1) Since record labels generally haven't given an advance to a
| new artist for a decade, almost all albums and Youtubes are now
| done "in your room."
|
| 2) The Yamaha AG03 is a mixing console more intended for live
| gigs. If you're mainly doing home studio recoding, then most
| people get a Focusrite 2i2 or Yamaha/Steinberg UR22 and do mixing
| in the DAW (computer program.) The UR22 has MIDI-in and out.
|
| Synths often have a built-in audio interface for microphones or
| guitars, though sometimes without phantom power.
|
| Otherwise, the how-to is pretty typical of how it's done. Note
| that the author was already quite a musician, having been in a
| band. YMMV!
| romes wrote:
| 1) Interesting note, I hadn't thought much about it - I don't
| know much about labels, the only one I follow is 4AD and what
| they post, I listen to. However, they're not that talked about.
|
| 2) I'll have to look into these - thanks for telling me!
|
| 3) Unfortunately I think playing simple chords in a band, when
| you and the two other musicians are 17, doesn't really qualify
| as being quite the musician ahaha thank you still!
| swatts wrote:
| I don't think you'll see any appreciable difference in
| conversion quality by switching audio interfaces at this
| level, particularly with the style of music you are making
| (which is great by the way, well done!). It all comes down to
| workflow, and it seems you're getting it done just fine with
| the Yamaha. I'd look to upgrade if you find yourself needing
| more inputs.
|
| The more obvious upgrade would be a new microphone to replace
| the Kenwood you are currently using. An SM-58 will last you a
| lifetime or if you have a bit more to spend something like an
| SM7b will be a great investment particularly recording in
| untreated spaces.
|
| Also, you could try recording the midi information of your
| electric drum kit and then loosely quantising/editing the
| takes to retain the feel. You can map these to Logics in-
| built drums which are pretty great.
|
| Congrats on finishing a body of work, most don't get that
| far!
| romes wrote:
| Thank you for your suggestions, and specifically on the
| microphone one. I wanted to get a new one but I was having
| some difficulty choosing a good one for me. I will look
| into this. And thank you for your nice words!
| swatts wrote:
| Yeah going down the microphone rabbit hole can be
| confronting. It's always best if you can try a particular
| model before purchasing it (particularly for your own
| vocals), as microphones are very source specific.
|
| Not always an option depending on where you are, but
| often you can find an audio-rental company nearby. It's
| hard to go wrong with the mics I mentioned above though.
| Keep it up!
| ambivalents wrote:
| Just on the first track, but this is quite good! Thanks for
| sharing your process.
| moomin wrote:
| It's surprising how many albums are made in home studios these
| days. Most of David Byrne's stuff, Jagged Little Pill...
| ajross wrote:
| Jagged Little Pill was cut a quarter century ago. "These days"
| have been going on a while, I guess.
| duncan-donuts wrote:
| Another thing I find pretty amazing is how much guitar work is
| 100% digital these days. The progress in DSP technology has
| allowed thousands of sounds available to the masses. $500 goes
| a long way these days which wasn't true a decade ago.
| iakov wrote:
| And those digital units are not only "legit" sounding, but
| also much more flexible and hassle-free. Lighter, with
| instant preset recall, different input/output routing.
|
| I love this tech, really, and the fact that it brings people
| closer to making music.
| grujicd wrote:
| Can both of you share what is now used for guitar sounds?
| aooeeu wrote:
| If you're ok with plugins https://neuraldsp.com/ and
| https://www.stltones.com/ are often recommended. I demoed
| them all and ended up buying Nolly and Plini (nice clean
| Fender sounds).
| swatts wrote:
| The Strymon Iridium is fantastic, if you have more to
| spend and want more flexibility Kemper profilers are hard
| to beat. AxeFX also gets a lot of love.
|
| On the more budget end most audio interfaces these days
| will have a Hi-Z input for guitar, there are many great
| amp/stompbox emulation plugins these days.
| duncan-donuts wrote:
| Sibling posted some good stuff people are using. AxeFX
| and Kemper is pretty much the standard stuff. Line6 has
| been in the digital game forever and even their budget
| stuff is worthy (pod HD500, pod studio, Helix). Hell, I
| record a ton of stuff with guitar amp modeling in
| GarageBand and even some of those sound pretty awesome.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2020-03-16 23:00 UTC)