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Hardass blues
January 11th, 2009, 12:42 PM
...this is a fairly big deal as of late as we all have straight jobs and schedules to meet. Long story short I built a 1000 sq. ft. addition over a garage addition to my house last year. I made it a studio/rehearsal room. I have a control room with view window to main room which is where the drums are mic'd with a set of Nady drum mic's into a seperate 12 channel mixer sent to 2 stereo channels on the unit. I use the bathroom as a isolation room for guitar micing it with a sm 58 on the right bottom of a 4-12 1960a (powered by a Marshall JCM2000) and a EV on the top left inside the shower stall with sound curtains (bunch of blankets) to insulate it futher. I ran the bass amp (mesa w/4-10 cab) down in the garage and put the cabinet in a SUV to isolate it (worked well by the way) and mic'd it with a sm57 about 6 inches away. The harp is miked in the conrtol room (56 fender champ and a custom Sonny Jr. 4-10) with a mxl condeser mic 1 foot in front of both angled at the mic. Vocals are done in the main room through a sm 58 or a old bullet run trough a custom harp board for distorted or "effect" vocal into a mixer then sent to the unit/ amps. We all play in the main room together with headsets from headphone bank ran from the unit to keep eye contact and cues in order.I have insulated it very well and started recording yesterday. It has worked pretty well. Somewhere in between a "real" studio and home environment. Hardly any bleed over so for the first time I will be able to retrack or over dub bass,guitar, vocals ect... I'm fairly happy with the outcome so far. It's all going into a Boss Br 1600. If you go to the myspace on my profile I recorded most of those tunes on the BR except the "Ball and buscuit " cover 3 years ago in my basement as a live recording no dubs. Fortunately I have a friend running the knobs this time. Last time I did it all while playing the guitar and it was quite trying at times to say the least. I'm trying to get just the drums and bass down first and will save the good guitars and vocals and over dub what needs to be dialed in later guitar, vocals,bass and harp dubs. Any opinions or suggestions would be appreciated. I'm fairly new to home recording having just the one past experiance. The folks here have many years of experiance combined and I look forward to your opinions. Thanks, John

sunvalleylaw
January 11th, 2009, 11:16 PM
I'll go listen a bit tomorrow and see what i hear. Cool to hear about your project!

Jimi75
January 12th, 2009, 04:50 AM
Well that is WHAT I call a "PROJECT". Cool to hear how much you have invested besides the regular job. I am in the same boat. We have built a studio with some friends, but it was worth the work. The recordings on your myspace sound pretty good.

Hardass blues
January 13th, 2009, 08:27 AM
Well that is WHAT I call a "PROJECT". Cool to hear how much you have invested besides the regular job. I am in the same boat. We have built a studio with some friends, but it was worth the work. The recordings on your myspace sound pretty good.
yeah the myspace recording were done with the BR in late 05 just live. This time now that I have the spot built I can redo guitars and what not and get more of a proper recording as opposed to just a live recording. Thanks, John

wingsdad
January 13th, 2009, 09:12 AM
Helluva ingenious studio setup, John. Especially using the SUV in the garage to isolate the bass amp/cab. :AOK:

The BR1600 is a nice DAW to track with.

I haven't listened to the recordings yet, but I do have a few questions:
1. What are you using for your control room and/or main room monitors...or are the headphones the only means of monitoring in there?
2. Are all your headphones the same or are they a variety of models?
3. Which MXL condensor mic are you using? Is it a small or large diaphragm (LDC) mic? I'm guessing small, if you use it on the harp instead of the Bullet, a 'standard' harp mic.
4. Interesting using the bullet for distorted vocal effect... The 58's a good vocal mic...but you might try a LCD condensor...especially if you do any multi-part (group harmony) vox, since its higher sensitivity will pickup better than the 58 from a distance. If that MXL is one, have you tried it? To distort the vocal signal, you might try running the vocal mic(s) through either a tube pre-amp (ART, Behringer, Samson make good inexpensive ones---$30-$60) and/or through a chorus unit, live. Or you can try juicing a dry vocal signal at mixdown adding chorus (experiment with the settings) with the BR1600's onboard effect.

Hardass blues
January 14th, 2009, 08:55 AM
Helluva ingenious studio setup, John. Especially using the SUV in the garage to isolate the bass amp/cab. :AOK:

The BR1600 is a nice DAW to track with.

I haven't listened to the recordings yet, but I do have a few questions:
1. What are you using for your control room and/or main room monitors...or are the headphones the only means of monitoring in there?
2. Are all your headphones the same or are they a variety of models?
3. Which MXL condensor mic are you using? Is it a small or large diaphragm (LDC) mic? I'm guessing small, if you use it on the harp instead of the Bullet, a 'standard' harp mic.
4. Interesting using the bullet for distorted vocal effect... The 58's a good vocal mic...but you might try a LCD condensor...especially if you do any multi-part (group harmony) vox, since its higher sensitivity will pickup better than the 58 from a distance. If that MXL is one, have you tried it? To distort the vocal signal, you might try running the vocal mic(s) through either a tube pre-amp (ART, Behringer, Samson make good inexpensive ones---$30-$60) and/or through a chorus unit, live. Or you can try juicing a dry vocal signal at mixdown adding chorus (experiment with the settings) with the BR1600's onboard effect.

1.I am using Behringer Truth monitors in the control room.
2.all headphones are audio technica mth-30 models
3. The MXL is the 990 large diaphram in a shock mount. What I did was set it up in a low stand have the two amps (champ & sonny Jr. on the floor) up loud and project the sound at the mic. My singer/harp player is in the other room blowin & singing through his old bullet (custom element) run into a custom pedal board of mass proportion with pre amps and all kindsa stuff. I put a a/b splitter, one line to the amps the other direct via the 12 channel mixer. He has spent years getting the sound he is happy with. I thought guitar guys ( like me) were nuts. When you get a harp player in the band look out! HAHAHA! My ears aren't trained to the tones he's looking for but once I set this up this way and he heard it through the phones & monitors he was waaayyy happy. So that in itself was a accomplishment! I then have a straight sm58 going through a 12 channel mixer for just standard vocal.

Hey, thanks for your interest and reply. I really appreciate it. I'm using a 58 micing a 4-12 what do ya think of that. I ws running out of time and didn't a- b the sm57 with it and just went with the 58 (bottom right) & a EV (top left) for a blend (stereo?) guitar mix. Whats your experiance? Is the 57 better?

Oh, by the way the recordings on myspace are a completely different environment . It was my first time with the BR and was strictly live no dubs everyone in the room(basement dead as a doornail). Sun records style and mostly 2 takes.Thanks,John

wingsdad
January 15th, 2009, 09:39 AM
...Hey, thanks for your interest and reply. I really appreciate it. I'm using a 58 micing a 4-12 what do ya think of that. I ws running out of time and didn't a- b the sm57 with it and just went with the 58 (bottom right) & a EV (top left) for a blend (stereo?) guitar mix. Whats your experiance? Is the 57 better?
...

Frankly, I've never recorded a 4x12 cab...never anything bigger than a 2x12. If mic'd, with a 57 close (4-6"), off-axis, and an LCD condensor to pickup the room sound, about 12' out. But usually, I prefer to record guitars DI'd off the amp or pre-amp into a mixer, and add just reverb and/or delay at that point and track it...how much depends on how big a room I want or need to simulate, but in any case, I track with an ear on the side of less than I want in the final mix, then adjust the guitars' space, distance and positions in the overall scheme at mixdown.

Live or studio, I've always only DI'd bass, never mic'd a bass cab to record. The way I learned it, it was the way James Jamerson's P-Bass was tracked by Motown's engineers, with his Ampeg B-15 isolated in his studio space and he monitored himself with cans. Adjust the eq bottom end, add compression and reverb in the mixdown...again, to get the right space and place.