Recording Info needed
 

Hi everyone,

I would appreciate if you guys can help me on a couple of things, first I'm a song-writer and as any other artist looking forward to the music industry I need to start recording for a demo.

I'm currently studying and working, I've planned to save enough money to start my journey on July.

I need something like a studio at home, not really big I think I only need a Mic+gears and PC programs since me and my guitar are the only band.

Do you have experience on home recording? if yes, could you suggest me some microphones and programs? I'd appreciate it.

It's kind hard to me to focus on studies and working at the same time because I wanna start already, I got some great songs, currently 15 with great comments, but it's not easy. I gotta sign them up for copyright plus the recording and it needs money and time.

My goal is to have a mini studio at home and after having my song with copyrights, going out on gigs.

I can see Samsom has the best USB Mics, are they really that good?

What is your budget Andrey?

Secondly, do you plan on using one microphone to record a live take of vocals and guitar/piano (or your instrument of choice) during a single take, or separate microphones (one for vocals, guitar etc.) to record a single take, or record each component separately?

Personally I'll go with option 3 as then you have much more control with mixing and post-production. Option 1 requires that you get the microphone position perfect such that vocals and guitar levels are correct, while in option 2 you will have some bleed, that is some guitar in the vocals track.

With multi-tracking you should then use a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) to mix your audio tracks. As you use a PC, you could consider MAGIX's Music Studio as your own recording studio as it is easy to use and relatively inexpensive. To learn about music production on the computer, I'd recommend this free course on Cousera.

I have never used a USB microphone, and although they are convenient, I instead think that a small soundcard and microphones would be more versatile as you appear to want to take being a performer seriously.

Thanks John for your help, My budget is $2000, what I have in mind is to buy a USB mic with a filter and download a good music program, from point I'll be able to sign my songs to copyrights and then start off on some gigs, as soon as I get a label I'll let em helping me to record my songs professionally.

About the second question, I need a microphone able to record vocals and guitar at the same time, I've seen lots of people on youtube doing that and it works great.

Again, thanks for your help.

Cheers!

$2000 is quite a high budget, for less than £500 one can get decent software, cables, recording interface and 2 decent microphones.

IMO multiple microphones is a better solution. As I've mentioned with one microphone you need to get the microphone's position perfect so that you have the desired balance of guitar and vocals. If you then wanted to add an extra instrument or backing vocals, the mix would be ruined. By having individual takes (via two microphones or multi-tracking) you have much more opportunities.

If you only want to get some demos together, you could consider recording them at a budget studio, or find students studying music production to record and produce them for you.

About Copyright, I'm not sure how it works in Costa Rica, but here if you record your songs to CD, post it to yourself, and don't open it, then you have legal evidence if a case needed to go to court over copyright infringement.

To get gigs, you need to have something recorded for sure, but online is becoming more and more important, so realistically you need an online presence. Soundcloud is a great place to upload your work (you can upload 2 hours for free). As there is an upload date, then could also be used as proof of copyright, along with a creative commons agreement. Bandcamp is a good way to distribute your music.

Getting signed isn't as easy as having a demo, playing gigs, and then getting discovered. Read the history of your favourite artists and see how long it took them. Moreover the market is over-saturated now as everyone can record in the bedroom and distribute independently via the internet.

These are just my opinions and experiences, hopefully someone else here will chip in with their thoughts also.

A USB mic will have some latency. A Firewire interface with XLR plugs is a better way to go. Here's a quick search result from MF. Scroll through the list and you'll find something decent at a good price.

http://www.sweetwater.com/c683--Fire...Fe5aMgoduX4A6A

If you want to build a home studio on a budget (and quickly) then I highly recommend network4musicians.com/articles/44/Build-a-Home-Studio-on-a-Budget -- Lots of resources there to help with copyright / royalties etc. also.