Originally Posted by
NC Zeppelin
hey guys, im preparing to record with me and my friend. he plays drums and im buying a zoom, with 8 inputs, and if i wanted to record with him would it be better to buy some more mics, like ordinary ones or professianal recording ones. im more into the live sound recording and not much into studio recording for the most part. 1. if you guys can recommend some good mics, i would appriecate it and also a good, 2. (closest or is free haha) studio software. i work with audiacity and it works well but i wouldnt use it for the zoom. 3. also if anyone uses a zoom, could you tell me how it works when you move the files from the zoom to the computer. is it all in one file or multipule wav.s?
rock on!
Awright! Well, to start you'll need two mics only to get pretty decent drum recordings done. Get two Shure SM57's (or a 57 and a 58; they're almost identical but 58 is for vocals more with its inbuilt grille).
What you do is you put the zoom in front of the drums, say six feet in front, ~four feet high and record the drums using its internal condenser mics on two tracks in stereo. In addition, use the 57 to record the snare close up (approach at 45 degrees angle from the top) and the kick (try to get the mic close to where the beater hits so you get a sharp snap and then EQ it better OR record it with the mic just outside the drum entirely, experiment what works for you.
That way you get 4-track stereo drum recordings you can adjust snare and kick on, which goes a LONG way for demoing songs etc.
For free software, no need for any, as the Zoom comes with Cubase 4 LE which is more than enough for demostudio recordings and a VERY good program, plus already configured for Zoom to be used for control etc...I've recorded two releases now on iTunes with the LE version...
As for the tracks, whatever you record on the zoom appear on the SD card as continuous tracks. If you record something on tracks 1,2,7 & 8 you get those four tracks as wav files on the SD card. Even if you do punch-ins or whatever, they will be just one file for each track on the card.
So all you need to do is put the SD card in the computer, open up Cubase and make a new project, select file/import in the menu and in the dialog go to the SD card folder (I forget, 'audio/project000/data' or something, see all the tracks there, select all, hit import and make sure you tick 'copy files to project folder' and they all appear in Cubase as ready separate tracks correctly aligned and all you need to do is start mixing.
You can also use the Zoom itself to control Cubase directly when you're using it as a soundcard, i.e. control the computer with its controls in turn. It's simply brilliant!
But, I'd also recommend you try mixing and making demos with the Zoom alone, it has very good in-built FX and master compressors etc. and it can be much easier to begin with to get good sounding stereo mixes out of it alone...it'll be good learning on the use of compressors etc. as well and then you can proceed to doing the same on the PC as well. Remember you can mixdown 16 tracks on the Zoom directly, not just eight! Of course, if you always start from 0000 when you record, you can just make a 16-track recording, get it to cubase and leave ONE track for timing in the zoom, and record another 15, and those two will align perfectly with the first ones...so there is no limit to tracks! Well Cubase LE allows only 32 or 48 tracks actually, I forget which.
Good luck, and just ask for any info or help with the stuff, we're all happy to help here!
Dee
"When life's a biatch, be a horny dog"
Amps: Marshall JVM 410H w/ Plexi Cap mod, Choke Mod & Negative Feedback Removal mod, 4x12", Behringer GMX110, Amplitube 3/StealthPedal
Half a dozen custom built/bastardized guitars all with EMG's, mostly 85's, Ibanez Artwood acoustic & Yamaha SGR bass, Epiphone Prophecy SG, Vox Wah, Pitchblack tuner plus assorted pedals, rack gear etc. for home studio use.
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