So I'm interested in buying some recording equipment...

[TheSnoo]

I'm the lead vocalist of a melodic hardcore/alternative/punk band, and we're planning on recording a 3-4 song demo sometime soon. We live in an area where there aren't many recording studios around, so we need some reasonable-quality equipment to record ourselves. The band currently has $345 saved up. We're not looking to record our songs with any computer programs, since most have terrible sound quality. I need some suggestions on what we should buy to record this demo and how much it will cost.

[we are cured]

recording is fun to do, but it sounds like you have a lot to learn. computer programs (configured with a hardware interface) are the way to go for musicians on limited (and even extended!) budgets because they offer the best combination of quality, cost and convenience.

however, your best bet is to pay for studio time at a private or home studio (these tend to be much less expensive than actual studios). you'll spend less money than you would buying and setting up gear that you don't even know to use. i know you think there aren't many studios around, but you'd be surprised - look around.

[TheSnoo]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. And since our average age is 15, we need more experience making these kind of decisions.

[sinktylersink]

You're going to be hard pressed to find any studio (home or professional) that doesn't use a computer program (DAW) to record. I'm sure there's still some all analog studios out there, but they're rare. Anyway, $345 is a really tight budget to try to get enough equipment to record a band with. If you're serious about trying to make a decent demo I would keep reading up and saving up or look into a home or project studio somewhere in your area, you might be able to get 2 songs done for around $400 depending on the studio's rates and your own efficiency (you might even be able to get 3-4 done if you can find a place that charges per song). The recording thread here is also a good place to start, some of the links in there (such as Tweakheadz) are awesome resources on recording and will give you a pretty sound fundamental knowledge on techniques and equipment.

[TheSnoo]

You're going to be hard pressed to find any studio (home or professional) that doesn't use a computer program (DAW) to record. I'm sure there's still some all analog studios out there, but they're rare. Anyway, $345 is a really tight budget to try to get enough equipment to record a band with. If you're serious about trying to make a decent demo I would keep reading up and saving up or look into a home or project studio somewhere in your area, you might be able to get 2 songs done for around $400 depending on the studio's rates and your own efficiency (you might even be able to get 3-4 done if you can find a place that charges per song). The recording thread here is also a good place to start, some of the links in there (such as Tweakheadz) are awesome resources on recording and will give you a pretty sound fundamental knowledge on techniques and equipment.


I should probably make things clearer. What I meant was home computer programs such as GarageBand. We'll use computers in a professional studio, yes. And as for the money, we're steadily increasing. Three of the members have jobs that pay minimum wage, but within a few months we should have more than twice that amount. But we're looking for some decent home equipment so we can get experience recording ourselves until we save up a few thousand to actually go into a professional studio.

[MacyCakes]

Computer programs such as GarageBand aren't really garbage...they're just limited in comparison to what other programs to do...different strokes for different folks. With a good interface/equipment and some time, you can make good recordings on Garageband and other computer based recording programs...so I don't know what you're saying there exactly.

You guys will probably want to get into computer recording as it's becoming the new standard. Recording to hard-disc or on an all-in-one physical workstation are fairly limiting in what they can do and don't offer the kind of expansion as a computer based recording system does.

I'm assuming one, if not all, of you guys in your band have a fast-ish newer computer, so I'll take that out of the equation.

- Computer
- Recording Software (i.e Reaper, MixCraft, Cubase,Garageband, ect. ect.)
- Recording interface (PreSonus, M-Audio, Edirol, Line 6, Motu, lexicon, ect.)
- Microphones (Sennheiser 421ii, Shure SM57/58, MXL condensers)
- Vritual drum software
- Accessories? Mic Cables? Monitors? Other cables? Mic Stands? Pop Filter? Midi Controller? ect.

This is just an estimation of what you'd need to start recording yourselves at a semi-decent level, with it all still being highly understandable and attainable to those who are new to recording. Of course you'll have to check specifications on all software and your computer to make sure everything will streamline together. You could probably spend anywhere from 400-1000 for all of this. Keep in mind, don't be afraid to look for items used! Save you lots of money.

[davidplaysdrums]

focusrite makes a super clean interface for around 500.. it would give you 8 good channels, then buy an akg d112, 3 shure sm57's, a decent pair of stereo pencil condensers, and a decent vocal condenser mic, and some decent monitors... you got everything you need for releasable recordings there... if you used ebay you could get all of that for around 1300-1500.. for recording software i would go with cubase or adobe audition, both are adequate and easy to obtain.

[JLG_Matt]

I bought a pro tools rig to demo my bands new album. buy an mbox 2 with pro tools 8,ez-drummer, guitar rig 3, and a decent wide diaphragm mic, a shure pg27 is a cheap decent mic. you might want a bass DI but if you learn how to use pro-tools and the million different plug ins you can find for free you dont need one for demos. now this is going to be all fake drums that sound way better than anything you will be able to mic up for 5 years or so and also sound very convincingly real. the bass you can run through a di or straight in the mbox and then use the sans amp plug in and fiddle with eq's and compression. guitars is the fun part. you can plug straight in to the computer, turn on guitar rig and basically start building a guitar tone that sounds hands down real and in most cases great. now is this how a real studio works? no. but you'll spend less than a grand and come out with some awesome recording if you know what you are doing. you will need to read manuals for days if not weeks and learn how to use every part of protools. then the plug in's is all trial and error which takes weeks if not months to get down. you'll need to go on gearslutz and read thread after thread on recording and watch a million youtube videos on troubleshooting. on top of this you'll need an awesome computer also. im running 8gbs of ram and a quad core and towards the end of the sessions it started slowing down. now even though i typed this whole thing out for you, i do not recommend you get into this yet. I started using pro tools after years of being in and out of studios, after working in one and i still had tons of problems at the beginning. i would take that 400 bucks and go to a studio, pay attention to what they do and remember everything. It's awesome to have the ambition you do, but i think that by recording demo's by yourselves at this point is going to make you feel in over your head once you spend all that money on gear and realize its not as easy as hitting record. I know because whn i was 15 we actually did some demos ourselves and it took us 6 months and they sounded like shit. we went and paid a few hundred bucks a month later and in a few days we have 3 songs that sounded better than anything we could have done at the time.

[TheSnoo]

I bought a pro tools rig to demo my bands new album. buy an mbox 2 with pro tools 8,ez-drummer, guitar rig 3, and a decent wide diaphragm mic, a shure pg27 is a cheap decent mic. you might want a bass DI but if you learn how to use pro-tools and the million different plug ins you can find for free you dont need one for demos. now this is going to be all fake drums that sound way better than anything you will be able to mic up for 5 years or so and also sound very convincingly real. the bass you can run through a di or straight in the mbox and then use the sans amp plug in and fiddle with eq's and compression. guitars is the fun part. you can plug straight in to the computer, turn on guitar rig and basically start building a guitar tone that sounds hands down real and in most cases great. now is this how a real studio works? no. but you'll spend less than a grand and come out with some awesome recording if you know what you are doing. you will need to read manuals for days if not weeks and learn how to use every part of protools. then the plug in's is all trial and error which takes weeks if not months to get down. you'll need to go on gearslutz and read thread after thread on recording and watch a million youtube videos on troubleshooting. on top of this you'll need an awesome computer also. im running 8gbs of ram and a quad core and towards the end of the sessions it started slowing down. now even though i typed this whole thing out for you, i do not recommend you get into this yet. I started using pro tools after years of being in and out of studios, after working in one and i still had tons of problems at the beginning. i would take that 400 bucks and go to a studio, pay attention to what they do and remember everything. It's awesome to have the ambition you do, but i think that by recording demo's by yourselves at this point is going to make you feel in over your head once you spend all that money on gear and realize its not as easy as hitting record. I know because whn i was 15 we actually did some demos ourselves and it took us 6 months and they sounded like shit. we went and paid a few hundred bucks a month later and in a few days we have 3 songs that sounded better than anything we could have done at the time.

Thanks for your input man. This sounds like a fun but complex program to use, so we can try it once we're more experienced at recording. It's something we might look into in several years. At the moment, we might just wait another few months so we have some money to spare in case something goes wrong before we go into an actual studio (by the way, I'm a HUGE JLG fan, and I'm fucking stoked for your next album).

[mylastflight]

Thanks for your input man. This sounds like a fun but complex program to use, so we can try it once we're more experienced at recording. It's something we might look into in several years. At the moment, we might just wait another few months so we have some money to spare in case something goes wrong before we go into an actual studio (by the way, I'm a HUGE JLG fan, and I'm fucking stoked for your next album).
if you want im looking to sell mbox 2 protools 8 and other plugins reason, ableton and many many more.
let me know if your interested

[JLG_Matt]

Thanks for your input man. This sounds like a fun but complex program to use, so we can try it once we're more experienced at recording. It's something we might look into in several years. At the moment, we might just wait another few months so we have some money to spare in case something goes wrong before we go into an actual studio (by the way, I'm a HUGE JLG fan, and I'm fucking stoked for your next album).

good plan! and thank you, we wont disappoint