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Author Topic: Home recording guys  (Read 3584 times)

Stevepage

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Home recording guys
« on: October 26, 2010, 09:19:22 PM »
I haven't gigged in about 4 years now and considering the job I have now, I won't be able to gig due to working nights and never really knowing for sure of when I'm working or not. So I've been thinking of just sticking with recording music at home and making something out of it in my own time when I can.

I've been recording stuff at home for a while using a Cakewalk program which gives me decent results and using a Line 6 Toneport which is a great little cheap bit of kit.

My question is, with the software and hardware I've already got, would I be able to use drum sampling programs on my Laptop?

I know a laptop isn't the best for recording due to limited memory space and processing power but would I at least be able to create realistic sounding drums using some thing like Toontracks?

The laptop I have is a Compaq Presario CQ61. Here's the specs

1.8 Ghz processing power
Dual Core Intel Celeron T3000
4 Gb Ram
180 Gb  hard drive
Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics card

Any help would be great guys  :P



adamj

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2010, 10:17:23 PM »
the program recommended to me was EZ Drummer, not used any other program but havnt needed to. Not sure how good it is with cakewalk but very simple in Cubase.  Takes a bit of tweaking to get an individual sound tho.

Transcend

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2010, 06:30:46 PM »
Your computer will run anything with ease apart from maybe BFD2

i highly recommend steven slate ex i have used most in order and found each to be better

ezdrummer +drum kit from hell
superior drummer 2
addictive drums
BFD 2
steven slate ex

i find steven slate is by far the best and easiest to use

MDV

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2010, 07:01:15 PM »
The graphics card isnt important.

The processor is slow, moreso that its a laptop processor.

The ram should get you by, but its a little light. 6gb would be better.

But it should be good enough to muddle along with with proper optimisation for audio, control of latency buffer for tracking Vs mixing (as low as possible and as much as you need, respectively)

I've only used superior and superior 2 on the drums side. Expect good samples and suberb mixing control over them, but you need to know what youre doing mixing wise to get the best out of them, but pretty much maximum quality drums can be had. Also expect it to take up about 1.5-2gb of ram, more if you use one of the bigger expansions (metal foundry takes up more like 2-3, depending on kit config).

The computer will not inhibit the quality of the drum sound in any way. It may, in conjunction with all the other stuff you need to use, be a resource hog and leave you wanting for a faster CPU and more ram.

Get a decent interface (like a focusrite pro 40 - I just got one of these for tracking on locations other than my house, where I use my fireface, and I'm very pleased with it) and see how you go.

JDC

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2010, 08:47:33 PM »
My head exploded looking at that focusrite pro 40.

I would rather find a nice free VST then use the toneport as a DI for it if that's possible.

Transcend

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #5 on: October 28, 2010, 06:10:01 AM »
My head exploded looking at that focusrite pro 40.

I would rather find a nice free VST then use the toneport as a DI for it if that's possible.

What kind of music is it that you are playing?

There are many VSTs that can be had for free

Metal Amp Room is by far the best that i have found for metal but i dont think they do the free version anymore

nfe

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2010, 10:57:17 AM »
The graphics card isnt important.

The processor is slow, moreso that its a laptop processor.

The ram should get you by, but its a little light. 6gb would be better.

But it should be good enough to muddle along with with proper optimisation for audio, control of latency buffer for tracking Vs mixing (as low as possible and as much as you need, respectively)

I've only used superior and superior 2 on the drums side. Expect good samples and suberb mixing control over them, but you need to know what youre doing mixing wise to get the best out of them, but pretty much maximum quality drums can be had. Also expect it to take up about 1.5-2gb of ram, more if you use one of the bigger expansions (metal foundry takes up more like 2-3, depending on kit config).

The computer will not inhibit the quality of the drum sound in any way. It may, in conjunction with all the other stuff you need to use, be a resource hog and leave you wanting for a faster CPU and more ram.

Get a decent interface (like a focusrite pro 40 - I just got one of these for tracking on locations other than my house, where I use my fireface, and I'm very pleased with it) and see how you go.

Recorded drums for two of my bands plus guide guitars live last week with a pro40. Tremendous bit of kit, made it a breeze.

MDV

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #7 on: October 28, 2010, 01:52:02 PM »
Good to know

Drums are exactly the reason I got it - fireface 800 only has 4 pres. Pro40 has 8 and the sound quality isnt far behind at all.

JDC

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #8 on: October 28, 2010, 06:53:42 PM »
My head exploded looking at that focusrite pro 40.

I would rather find a nice free VST then use the toneport as a DI for it if that's possible.

What kind of music is it that you are playing?

There are many VSTs that can be had for free

Metal Amp Room is by far the best that i have found for metal but i dont think they do the free version anymore

Never got round to trying it myself but heard loads of good stuff on TSE X30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neoG2kGZAu0

_tom_

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #9 on: October 28, 2010, 06:59:40 PM »
I'm doing some recording on my laptop which has way worse specs than yours. It only becomes a problem when running multiple instances of Amplitube 3.

CanadianMetalhead

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #10 on: November 01, 2010, 04:40:55 PM »
a little late reply but better late then never!

i know there is a version of BFD called BFD eco that just came out that is alot less system heavy.

http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=103&tab=276 there we go

Same stuff as BFD 2 with the same engine and what not but stripped down to only do the bare essentials
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Stevepage

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2010, 12:39:32 PM »
Well my brother just got promoted at his shop (Apple stuff) so I can now get a discount on a Focusrite Pro 40 and I've also seen a KRK monitor but, I may have to look on ebay for monitors.

The KRK is £249 on it's own which is gonna be out of my budget when I need a pair of them.

He also has some microphones and leads so I've lucked in on this  :P

MDV

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Re: Home recording guys
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2010, 10:57:51 PM »
If youre after decent bang for buck monitoring....well, I dont like KRKs, they sound like Hifi speakers to me, not terribly good ones. Yamaha HS80Ms will get you by.

Dont forget the importance of placement and treatment of at least one listening position. And get one good set of isolating headphones. I use ATH-M50s, and cant recommend them enough (I also have HD25s and ultrasone pro750s, and the ATH-M50s kill them both. Also, george massenberg says 'they're the only headphones I trust': good enough for Mr Massenberg = good enough for anyone)