Quote:
Originally Posted by Freebase Dali
I would definitely recommend using more than one microphone for your drums. At the very least, 2 directional condensers (overheads L/R) are going to give you a stereo drum track that should pick up most of the drum kit.
The problem with that, though, is you won't have individual control of each element of the kit, so you have to get the mic positions at their optimal best to provide an even sound-stage.
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There are many different interfaces that combine features and quality at reasonable prices. Musiciansfriend.com carries a large selection of them as well, and you have the advantage of the reviews to help you decide.
If you need any advice on selecting any of the things I went over, let me know.
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Hey Freebase,
A belated thank you for the good advice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Certif1ed
I only had this sort of issue with ACID when I tried to record using my laptop instead of using my main (custom built) studio tower PC.
The spec of the PC is important here - ACID 7 uses loads of resources, especially if you've got fx plugins running.
Dual Core with 4Gb RAM seems to be minimum realistic spec, despite ACID's optimistic claims of single 1.8Ghz with 1Gb RAM - and you need at least a SATA II hard disk subsystem. Your upgrade of 1GB seems pretty minimal, but should help.
The Sound interface is the single most important part - and I reckon that this is where the latency is. Spend more on that than on microphones, if your present budget is restricted. We use Motus, and they rock!
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Hi, Certif1ed,
Thanks for the info! I ended up buying two 1 GB RAM modules to upgrade my computer's memory by 2 GB after I became paranoid that my original plan of two 500 MB RAM modules wouldn't be enough.
I also purchased the TASCAM US-1641 audio interface which has a USB 2.0 connection so that I can easily plug it into the front of the computer (I don't have a laptop...but if I ever do get one then I could use the audio interface with it and see if latency problems emerge like you noticed with your laptop). I finally hooked my new audio interface up last week.
I feel you are right, as was Freebase Dali, that having an audio interface intended for music recording makes a big difference. So far I like the interface very much and have not noticed a latency problem, so hopefully the problem is solved!! I will be trying to record drums soon in a song that already has around 8 tracks, so when I record 4 drum tracks this should be when I'd expect to hear latency problems if they are going to occur with my new setup.
The TASCAM US-1641 audio interface has more inputs than I need right now, but I did want at least 4 microphone inputs and this audio interface seemed to meet my desires most closely of the audio interfaces I looked at on Musician's Friend and other websites. The TASCAM US-1641 has 8 inputs for microphones, 4 of them with a phantom power option. It also has two inputs for guitar (if I wished to use them), and some for MIDI (which I don't use yet)...all for a little over $300! Plus, it has a sleek, dark blue metal front panel (pretty pretty) and is flat, serving as a phone and lamp stand when not in use (they say not to put anything on it, but space is limited here, so I'm breaking the rules when I'm not using the interface--I take everything off it before I plug it in and turn it on).
It took me around 5 hours to set everything up to use the audio interface successfully: install drivers, check if they were the most up-to-date (they weren't), go to the TASCAM website and install the newest driver for the computer and the newest firmware for the interface. Then I installed the free Cubase LE 4 that came with the interface and managed to get that registered and set up so I could actually record from the correct input line to the desired track. It took me an additional 30 minutes to figure out why I heard no metronome click when I selected that option...but I finally got everything working!
Then I decided to try the audio interface with the Sony ACID Music Studio 7.0 recording program, since I had been using that before with the regular computer sound card and wanted to avoid spending a lot of time learning how to use Cubase LE 4 right now. Careful reading of the ACID Music Studio manual finally showed me how to select which microphone input would be used by the program: when you activate the track to record, an "i" shows up on that track; click on that and you can select your input bus. I had missed that one crucial sentence in the manual the first time I read it, so was perplexed for quite some time, and thus very pleased with myself when I finally realized what I needed to do to record using the TASCAM audio interface and my old Sony ACID Music Studio 7.0 program!
I am happy that now I can focus on recording music again instead of worrying about how best to record it at home with more than minimal sound quality.
Thanks for the help and suggestions, all!
--Erica