1 man "banding" it on myspace

[cliff hetfield]

hi friends. just a (noob-ish) question.
i want to put my own songs on my own myspace site. call it a solo project, featuring my own heavy, progressive stuff.

what do i need?

i want to buy a 4 or 8 track recorder, and i want to be able to do my own drums via drum machine. a friend uses a dr 660 and it sounds good.
i guess the recording unit would require a usb port to tranfer the tracks to my computer.
could you folks please leave some suggestions for how i could go about recording my music and putting it online?
thanks in advance.

 

[JamesD]

What kind of price range on buying the recording stuff are you looking at?

 

[cliff hetfield]

hey james!

altogether $500 to $700.

thanks!

 

[JamesD]

Well i know some would disagree but check out the Line 6 TonePort UX2:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Line-6-TonePort-UX2-USB-RecordingModeling-Interface?sku=249701

It is a decent little recording interface. It supplies phantom power so if you want to use a mixing board in the future or a condensor mic it is possible. You can also mic a guitar just normally with it, you don't have to use it's modeling since most hate the digital sound. It is user friendly, nothing too complicated.

For mixing you would probably like some monitors for the best sound but could get by with some decent headphones, depending on what quality your after. Here are the monitors i have and really like them:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/MAudio-BX5a-70-Watt-Active-Studio-Monitors?sku=603707

If you want the cheaper route and want to just get some headphones i have these also and really enjoy them:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Sennheiser-HD280-Pro-ClosedBack-Headphones?sku=242411

Of course you will want a decent microphone if you don't have one and we all know some good ones like the SM57

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Shure-SM57-InstrumentVocal-Mic?sku=270102

Now the toneport comes with a sample of abletron recording software but i can use for quick projects a program made my Magix, i will see if i can find a place to download it and update you on that. It isn't anything too special but get's the job done for little projects. Easy to use also and free.

Now as far as drum machines i use for simple stuff a computer based program called Acoustica Beatcraft. Pretty simple to use, again maybe nothing too special but with a little time with it you can make some decent sounding drums. Or you can look into drum machines as hardware like the boss:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Boss-DR670-Dr.-Rhythm-Drum-Machine?sku=700289

This of course is all assuming you have a computer at hand all the time. Again it is all fairly simple to use and with little time spent reading you can start recording, which is what i like when trying to just get idea's down or fiddle. Of course there are many other things to look into that can cut some price i am sure, if you have any questions let me know. Also the toneport has bass amps and stuff modeled into it, so if you get your hands on a bass you can put down decent bass tracks too.

I will look into finding a link for that recording program and get back to you in this post on it. Hope this helped some.

 

[JamesD]

Well it seems i have forgotten how long it has been since i got this program that i was talking about and am having trouble finding it for download anymore but they have newer versions which i found and i am sure it is probably better too as it is more recent. It isn't free but it's cheap:

http://www.amazon.com/Magix-Music-Studio-10-Deluxe/dp/B0009MH5OI/sr=8-1/qid=1168208145/ref=sr_1_1/103-4856562-9855845?ie=UTF8&s=software

 

[cliff hetfield]

hey thanks james! im gonna take some time now to look through this stuff!

 

[JamesD]

no problem. hopefully it is of some help

 

[cliff hetfield]

james, what do you think of the boss BR 600?

 

[JamesD]

To be honest, i haven't had any experience with it. Although i have played with some of the bigger boss recording stations in music shops just messing around and they seemed to be pretty nice. This one also seems to be pretty nice, good reviews, which can go either way, but looks good to me.

 

[cliff hetfield]

it has a usb port, its got a drum machine, although i dont know it sounds. i like the all in one-ness to it.
theyre on ebay for under 400 bucks, so....hmmm...

 

[JamesD]

I think the best thing you could do is pick one up from musicians friend of somewhere of that nature, and learn as much of it in as short of a period of time as possible. Then if it's not for you, then send it back and get your money back. That way you get a good test run of it. you may pay more for it, but with the option of getting your money back it's kinda a win win situation.

 

[cellardweller]

If you're anything like me, then I welcome you to the money-pit known as homerecording!

Here's a good site for info;

http://homerecording.com/bbs/index.php?