Basic recording
 

What is the absolute minimum equipment required to record a four piece standard rock band? I have $300ish dollars and my friends have probably have 300 between them as well. Provided we have the right instruments what more do we need? Two microphones and a mixer is all, right?

No.
Given your 600 dollar budget, your best minimum setup is the following:

- Computer
$0 (since you obviously already have one)

- Music recording program
$0 (Audacity is free, but extremely limiting)

- Audio interface
$199 for this M-audio Fast Track Pro
This interface will plug into your computer via USB and allow you to record directly into Audacity. It features two mic/line inputs with pre-amps and phantom power. This will allow you to record two mics simultaneously, which will come in handy when recording L/R channel for drums, assuming you're not going to mic every drum piece (in which case, you'd need a mixer and a lot more mics).

- 3 microphones
One dynamic and two condensers.

Dynamic: Shure SM57
$99 - Use this to mic your guitar amp, bass amp, and if you have a screamer, don't ever let him have a condenser. If you don't have a screamer and you're not planning on miking your amps and you'd rather go direct... You don't need this microphone.

Condensers (times two):
[These are going to need phantom power from your interface.]
You should go for quality over price with this. You're going to need two condensers for L/R overheads on the drums. I'd get two nice condensers because you're going to use one of them when tracking your vocals. So you're making a better investment. It's never a good investment, however, if you buy crap gear. ESPECIALLY with microphones.
$79x2 - MXL Dual Capsule condenser

- Three microphone cables, and beer.

And that, my friend, will do the job.

With that setup, you can record in two different ways.
-You can go for the live feel and set both condensers up in the room and record the jam, OR, you can record each instrument separately, and have control over each individual instrument when it's recorded in your program.

The latter option, however, will require that you have a pair of sealed headphones. Reason being, is that when person A records his parts, person B needs to hear them while recording his, so on and so forth. I probably didn't need to add that, but you never know.

So..
The choice is yours. That's a pretty flexible setup. You can always upgrade in the future with a better recording program (Cakewalk Sonar ftw.) and you'll most likely upgrade to an audio interface with more inputs in the future, but that's all fine and do-able. What I've suggested is a low budget, bare minimum to get any kind of good quality recording.

Get Acoustica Mixcraft. For 30 days you can do whatever you want with abosolutely no limitations. After that the program is like $50..

and I'll be as subtle as I can when I give you this piece of advice:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...onstration.jpg

Thanks so much! seriously.

Verdical, the condensers you showed me, are those considered good?

They're considered good. It's not top of the line, but it's more than adequate.
I own one, and for the price, you get damn good quality and versatility without paying hundreds of dollars for a single microphone.

Cool, thanks.

Is it even worth glancing at Craigslist?

If you can find what you're looking for and you're confident that the gear you're buying is operable, then yes.
I'd personally buy new, but that's just me. If you're on a budget, you may be better off seeing what used gear you can find.

Cheers, that's it for questions from me.

Sorry for the bump but I just have one other question. With the set up there, would it be possible to do.

Vocals - 1 condenser
Guitar/Bass - 1 dynamic
Drums - 1 condenser

at the same time? Would that sound like shit or could that be a compromise (sort of) between the two options you said in your first post?

The thing about using a condenser for vocals while in the same room as the drums, regardless of what's being used to record the drums, is that the vocal condenser microphone is going to pick up A LOT of the drums and you're not going to get any separation and will probably end up with some anti-phasing on your drum channel when mixing in the vocal channel. It will degrade things a good bit and you won't have any clarity on your vocal channel.

But, if you absolutely need to record all elements at once, you're going to need to have separate rooms to do it in... otherwise the bleed-over is going to be impossible to avoid.

I'm not sure if you understood what I meant when I said the three microphones don't have to be used at the same time, but just to be sure, I mean that each element; the drums, the guitar, bass, and vocals will NOT be recorded at the same time. It's a process called "tracking" and it's done in practically every major studio these days.
The guitarist, to a metronome, plays and records his parts for the whole song. The bassist can come afterward and record his parts onto a different track while listening to the guitarist's already recorded parts in headphones. The drummer can come after and record his parts into another track while listening to the guitar & bass that's already been recorded (in headphones, obviously).
Then the singer can record his parts in the same fashion.

If you do it like that, you will only need the microphones I listed. The only requirement is that in between instrument takes, you re-position the microphones as necessary.

Let me know if you understand what I mean, or, if I'm not understanding what you mean.

Yeah I get it now, thanks. I've never known anything about recording.

man, all i use to record is my laptop with Audicty, Vamp, and plug my guitar in via Aux port in my laptop, and i use electric drums the same way =]

If you're satisfied with the kind of sound quality you get with that, then that's all you.

I use a four-track tape recorder and some tin-foil.

Experimental music
It's made from tin foil.

If any of your friends have Apple computers, Garage Band is a FAR better program than Audacity or anything you're going to find for free on the internet. You just have to work with it a little and you can get some pretty good recordings. Most people don't realize that. It's nothing compared to Protools obviously...but it'll get you some decent sounding recordings.

Craigslist is a great place to look for used equipment. Unless you're super nit-picky about your sound (which you can't really afford to be on a $600 budget), pretty much any microphone will do. You can use a dynamic mic for pretty much everything if you can't afford a condenser. EQing and adding compression with the program you use will clean up the sound pretty well.

My last tip: if you're using a small mixer, don't go direct with the stringed instruments (if they're electric that is). It will sound like garbage. Mic an amp, even if it's a small practice amp. It will sound a thousand times better and again, you'll be able to refine the sound digitally.

^Take this bloke's advice but instead of Garageband get Logic. Of course Logic really sucks (atleast in my experience) with VST plugins like EW/QL (which has pretty much become the industry standard for professional-midi). But for recording a band you should be fine, just keep a PC handy as well.

If you do mic an amp, make sure you are not picking up too much static, as this makes digital refinment tricky. If you are picking up too much static, going direct and then messing around with your amp simulation software should do the trick.

^Logic is definitely a better program than Garage band. I just recommended it because it's free and easily accessible if he knows anyone with a Mac.



Or you could just take the easy route and find someone like me with their own equipment who would be willing to record a few songs for you for an hourly (or even flat) fee. My band has recorded a demo and an EP with a guy who has a studio in his house. I think we paid him about 200 for a three song demo, and about 400 for a 6 song EP. Some students and/or self teach-ers are even willing to do it for free just to gain the experience.

That's just another option you could explore. It would probably be cheaper in the long run, and sound much better.

Freebase's list looks good. I would really recommend you buy used and get a little bit better quality. Just be extra careful and smart about it. If you're buying off ebay, only buy from someone with a large amount of SELLER's feedback and over 99% positive. Check out ANY negative feedback they have from something they sold and read the comments. Don't be afraid to ask them about that situation and see if you feel confident about their response. If you buy off Craigslist, make sure you use everything before making the purchase. I have been buying sound equipment from both of these channels for several years and have never had a problem. Even if you buy NEW on ebay you're going to get it for a lot less than new from Guitar Center!

Yeah, you might be better off finding someone at a flat rate like the dancing avatar above me says--especially because your new to recording.

...BUT If you really want to get your hands dirty, you'd do well to follow Freebase's advice to the T. Garageband is a better replacement if you've got access to an apple.

peace,
-nick