My Equipment Sucks! Lol Where Do I Even Begin?

[Gemini9]

I just got into writing music and just starting out, my equipement is AWFUL! LOL. I need a serious upgraded but I don't even know where to start. Here's my set up. (haha)

Electric Acoustic Guitar: Bought in 1996. 50th year anniversery edition. Has some gold seal on it or something. Too bad it's all busted up. Big hole in the back where I dropped a computer on it several years ago and another hole in it from a flying pepsi bottle. The battery enclosure no longer holds a battery, so it's not electrical anymore. just an old beat up acoustic guitar.

Electric Guitar: Fender Squire II Statocaster. Doesn't work anymore. It's pretty old. Got it around 1992ish. No sound for some reason. Looks nice though.

Keyboard: Kurtzweil Mark 10 Ensemble Grand Old. Half the buttons don't work anymore and there's a short in the electrical system. It shuts off by itself at random.

Microphone: Some $5 computer mic.

These instruments are hooked up through a computer I built from spare parts around the house. Installed Cool Edit Pro 2.0 on it and I do all my recording through the Mic input on the back.

So tell me, it doesn't get much worse than that huh?

So I'm thinking to spend a few dollars to upgrade something.... but what? lol it ALL sucks!

[Nick]

First observation: It's worth looking after your instruments. All mine work fine and they are in some cases 25 years older than your oldest one.

What do you want to do other than 'upgrade'? What is it you are trying to achieve?

What does your current set up not do?

What can you do with your current set up and what can't you- I often think it's easier if someone posts an example of something concrete. My idea of 'better' may be much less than you are doing already.

Edited April 24, 2010 by Nick

[Gemini9]

The acoustic guitar was totally my fault. It was always left out of its case and that's how it got to so beat up. The buttons on the keyboard, nothing I did. It's just normal wear and tear. One by one the buttons just stopped working. Same with the short in the chord. Electric guitar, again, nothing I did. It has always been in it's case but it just stopped working for some reason. None of the pickups work. Notta. No sound. Truth is, none of these instruments have been played for several years. The electric guitar was in it's case for well over 10 years. But when I got it out, it didn't work. Keyboard has also gone untouched since I was a kid.

The equipment I have, well I can record on it but the quality is poor. The sound often skips, or drops out when recording, the instruments are not clear and there is allot of noise and hissing. All my recording is done on the line/mic in on the computer so it could be the soundcard. Could be the mic or my instruments or a little bit of everything. As you've read, all my instruments are in bad shape and need replaced. I'm not runing anything on a PA, everything goes straight to the computer, even the $5 microphone.

I'll try this one at a time so I'm not so unorganized and confusing. lol Let me start with the vocals. If I wanted to better the quality on the vocals, should I look into a better microphone, better soundcard on the computer or better software that can enhance the reverb/echo? Or would I need to get a PA and run everything into the PA before sending the signal in to the line in on the computer?

I also get allot of clipping and distortion in my recordings. Not sure it it's a bad soundcard, bad microphone or what.

"What do you want to do other than 'upgrade'? What is it you are trying to achieve?" - I get alot of distortion and background noise in my recordings and the sound drops out. So I'd like to try and rid of that. My sound overall isn't very good.

"What does your current set up not do?" - It pretty much does every thing I want it to, but the quality is very poor.

Thanks for your reply!

[Prometheus]

I also get allot of clipping and distortion in my recordings. Not sure it it's a bad soundcard, bad microphone or what.

It's impossible to over emphasize the need for quality microphones and a decent soundcard, and to avoid clipping a mixing console to control the input levels. The first step in recording a quality product is being able to get the sound to tape in the first place.

You can by an MAudio Audiophile 2496 for well under $100 and it has 24 bit sampling at 96KHz and low latencies.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=maudio+audiophile&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=8592815504381270436&ei=sdXVS5ylHtGO_AbF4uHSDw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBgQ8wIwAw#ps-sellers

For quality studio microphones there are some great options too... Stagg make some shit hot cardioid condensers that are very affordable.

http://www.google.co.uk/products?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=stagg+condenser+microphones&ndsp=18&ie=UTF-8&ei=KdXVS7jZIsWg_Aad0vWxDw&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQrQQwAA

And for a budget mixer that gives you some good routing options:

http://www.technokit.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=ZB106&source=froogle

I can personally recommend all the equipment listed above...

Edited April 26, 2010 by Prometheus

[Gemini9]

Prometheus

Thank you so much for your help. You've really hit it on the nail with some of the things I need. The soundcard looks 10 times better than the one I'm using now. the computer I put together has a Creative 24-bit Live! (audigy) card in it so that probably has alot to do with my problems. I was able to come across a better microphone than my cheap $5 computer mic. I believe it's a Shure p58 or something. Not top of the line, but definately better than what I was already using. And it came to me free, so that was awesome. I also have a PA now so that will help amplify the microphone. I know I'm having a ton of issues here, but hey, gotta start somewhere right?

Thanks again for your help. I will be ordering that sound card this weekend!

[Prometheus]

Prometheus

Thank you so much for your help. You've really hit it on the nail with some of the things I need. The soundcard looks 10 times better than the one I'm using now. the computer I put together has a Creative 24-bit Live! (audigy) card in it so that probably has alot to do with my problems. I was able to come across a better microphone than my cheap $5 computer mic. I believe it's a Shure p58 or something. Not top of the line, but definately better than what I was already using. And it came to me free, so that was awesome. I also have a PA now so that will help amplify the microphone. I know I'm having a ton of issues here, but hey, gotta start somewhere right?

Thanks again for your help. I will be ordering that sound card this weekend!

Correct... The first recordings I did were f*cking terrible, but with a bit of guidance and lots of practice it all comes together...

I've used Shure P58's. They're decent pieces of kit. They're ruggedly constructed, versatile and give a good clean recording...

And you're right, they didn't call the first generation of these cheap Creative sound cards sound "blasters" for no reason...

Edited April 27, 2010 by Prometheus

[Jim622]

I just listened to your "First Song Post" yesterday. You seem to be putting out a

fairly desent product. I thought it was good. Did you use someone elses

instruments?

Jim

[Prometheus]

I thought the product was pretty decent too. My only criticism is that I think the wall of chorus and reverb effect was a bit heavy handed, but that's something that just about every sound engineer who's new at the game does at first...

[Gemini9]

Thanks everyone. I used my own instruments. I have an acoustic guitar and a keyboard. Put the mic near the acoustic and recorded the first track, then hooked my keyboard to the mic in on the computer and did the drums. Then I did the bass parts from the keyboard, too. After I got the music on there, I did a track for the vocals and back up vocals. I used Cool Edit Pro 2.1 to ad those heavy reverb effects lol. I think I added too much reverb as a result of a bit of insecurity about the work. Most likely because I'm new at it and don't trust myself yet haha.

I think I'm having problems with my server though and might have to try a different one. People are having problems downloading those songs for some reason.

Any of your have websites? I'd like to see!

What do you all use to burn your music? I've tried to save my files as WAV, but when I try to burn, i keep getting errors that media player can't detect the song length and doesn't burn. the only way I can get the songs on a CD is to convert to MP3 which I don't really want to do since it's compressed.

[Prometheus]

Thanks everyone. I used my own instruments. I have an acoustic guitar and a keyboard. Put the mic near the acoustic and recorded the first track, then hooked my keyboard to the mic in on the computer and did the drums. Then I did the bass parts from the keyboard, too. After I got the music on there, I did a track for the vocals and back up vocals. I used Cool Edit Pro 2.1 to ad those heavy reverb effects lol. I think I added too much reverb as a result of a bit of insecurity about the work. Most likely because I'm new at it and don't trust myself yet haha.

I think I'm having problems with my server though and might have to try a different one. People are having problems downloading those songs for some reason.

Any of your have websites? I'd like to see!

What do you all use to burn your music? I've tried to save my files as WAV, but when I try to burn, i keep getting errors that media player can't detect the song length and doesn't burn. the only way I can get the songs on a CD is to convert to MP3 which I don't really want to do since it's compressed.

I use Nero Burning ROM to make CD's and DVD's...

Website: http://www.myspace.com/moonstruckmusique

[Gemini9]

Awesome. I'll see if the nero works any better. Went to your myspace. Very nice. Thanks again for helping me out. I'm really starting to get into this. lol I was in the local music shop today and almost walked out with a new guitar haha.

[Roflcopter]

Nero will probably not have that problem WMP has, if you have a problem of getting Nero (it's not free) you can use a program called CDburnerXP (free, just google for it) - that's pretty much the same as Nero as to functionality.

Also, if the wavs from CooleditPro 2.1 give problems in other programs, maybe try Audicity (also free) and add a bit (one second or so) of silence at beginning and end of the wav - and export it as regular 16-bit wav, some programs have problems working with 24, let alone 32-bit. WMP is not exactly a stellar performer, to put it mildly.

Hope that helps.

[Gemini9]

Nero will probably not have that problem WMP has, if you have a problem of getting Nero (it's not free) you can use a program called CDburnerXP (free, just google for it) - that's pretty much the same as Nero as to functionality.

Also, if the wavs from CooleditPro 2.1 give problems in other programs, maybe try Audicity (also free) and add a bit (one second or so) of silence at beginning and end of the wav - and export it as regular 16-bit wav, some programs have problems working with 24, let alone 32-bit. WMP is not exactly a stellar performer, to put it mildly.

Hope that helps.

I actually have Nero, but I've never used it for burning CDs. Just for backing up data. The wav files seem to play fine on Media player, Media Monkey, Aimp and Winamp lol it just won't burn correctly for some reason. WMP wouldn't burn at all and Media Monkey burned, but had major distortion and clipping problems when playing back in the CD player. But I never thought to try 16-bit wav. I'll see if I can figure out how to do that and hopefully it works.

[Prometheus]

I actually have Nero, but I've never used it for burning CDs. Just for backing up data. The wav files seem to play fine on Media player, Media Monkey, Aimp and Winamp lol it just won't burn correctly for some reason. WMP wouldn't burn at all and Media Monkey burned, but had major distortion and clipping problems when playing back in the CD player. But I never thought to try 16-bit wav. I'll see if I can figure out how to do that and hopefully it works.

You can use CoolEditPro to change the sample bit rate to sixteen with various kinds of dithering... In order to be burned to a CD, a WAV file must be 16 Bit at 44100 Hz... You can do this in the EDIT menu of CoolEditPro.

EDIT / CONVERT SAMPLE TYPE /

or alternative use the F11 Keyboard shortcut.

You cannot burn a WAV at 24 bit with NERO because the bit resolution of a Compact Disc is only 16 Bit. There may be CD burning packages that do the conversion to 16bit on the fly, but the version of NERO I have is certainly not one of them.

Edited May 2, 2010 by Prometheus

[Prometheus]

Went to your myspace. Very nice. Thanks again for helping me out. I'm really starting to get into this. lol I was in the local music shop today and almost walked out with a new guitar haha.

We certainly had a lot of fun making it...

I've done that myself with the guitar shop... Went in to get a packet of strings and came out with a Digitech effects unit and a Les Paul copy...

[Gemini9]

Everybody seems to know this Cool Edit program pretty well so I assume it's what many of you use to mix your music. Seems to be problematic for me, but it's cool when it works right lol. I'll be recording a track of music and it will freeze up. Usually about 2 or 3 times throughout a track the music drops out or skips for a second. But I guess it'll do okay for me until I can get some better equipment to use. Was going o get a better soundcard for the computer and a few other little things, but when I was in the music store and was playing the guitars, I decided I want one haha. You know, I never really realized how difficult my acoustic really is to play. I could play the ones in the shop so much easier! All the struggling I've done on this guitar trying to play a simple chord. No matter how hard I press on the frets, I just can't get a clean sound, but the guitars in the shop were so incredibly easier to play. I never realized how crappy this guitar really is until I played a different one

Anyway, about this Cool Edit. What other programs out there are good with mixing and editing?

[Prometheus]

Everybody seems to know this Cool Edit program pretty well so I assume it's what many of you use to mix your music. Seems to be problematic for me, but it's cool when it works right lol. I'll be recording a track of music and it will freeze up. Usually about 2 or 3 times throughout a track the music drops out or skips for a second. But I guess it'll do okay for me until I can get some better equipment to use. Was going o get a better soundcard for the computer and a few other little things, but when I was in the music store and was playing the guitars, I decided I want one haha. You know, I never really realized how difficult my acoustic really is to play. I could play the ones in the shop so much easier! All the struggling I've done on this guitar trying to play a simple chord. No matter how hard I press on the frets, I just can't get a clean sound, but the guitars in the shop were so incredibly easier to play. I never realized how crappy this guitar really is until I played a different one

Anyway, about this Cool Edit. What other programs out there are good with mixing and editing?

I use CUBASE NUENDO for recording, mixing and editing.

I use COOL EDIT PRO for Mastering work. It has one of the best hard limiters I've ever come across as well as a very powerful Parametric Equalizer that can do multiple sweeps with a versatile configurable Q. You can actually edit right down to sample level with COOL EDIT PRO. I've never had the problems you describe with COOL EDIT, so I suspect it may be your computer that's causing them, although I wouldn't like to try and guess why without more information.

CUBASE NUENDO has beautiful PRO TOOLS style draw in automation and non destructive edits. It is also VST compatible, so there are many cheap and free plugins available for it.

Edited May 3, 2010 by Prometheus

[Nick]

One of the things that is particularly good at cocking up sound on my computer is anti-virus. I have AVG9 free version and it has an indexing component that works in the background and hogs processor power - so I turn it off when doing music. I use an uncrippled shareware program called Reaper (which costs $50 if you are honest - which I am!) and get reasonable results when I've used it. Most of the issues sound wise were improved by a switch to ASIO drivers, fiddling with the buffer settings and truning off Anti virus when using it.

I only know what I have leanred myself from reading the manual so there are many people who know hugely more than me but I have managed to record stuff that sounds ok to me for demo purposes or just to send to friends or for practice. I would guess that ANY software product will yield results as long as you are prepared to invest the time in finding something out about how they work.

Here's a couple of things recorded at home with a very basic soundcard, a basic microphone and a set up that cost very little. The first is something I recorded with Alistair who uses this forum some while ago and a recording of a friend who I played with a while back -

Inescapable Truth

Lakes of Ponchartrain

The first one was played on local radio when Alistair sent it in and appeared just after the Arctic Monkeys and didn't sound too bad. Most of the comment on the radio was based around whether the drums were real or programmed (which they are) rather than how basic the recording was so I take that as a compliment. Outside of the computer which I owned anyway and the Reaper software (which you can try for free) my set up cost less than £20.

Edited May 3, 2010 by Nick

[Prometheus]

I had the same problem with antivirus software updating when I was in the middle of recording a track, so now I have two computers, one for audio and video only and one for general use and internet...

[Gemini9]

I had the same problem with antivirus software updating when I was in the middle of recording a track, so now I have two computers, one for audio and video only and one for general use and internet...

This computer doesn't have any software on it except what I use for the recording and mixing. I put it together specifically for that purpose. The processor and memory are sufficient. computer repair and networking was my major in college, so i know a thing or two about computers. actually, quite a bit lol. It's most likely a memory issue. When I get the motivation I'll try putting some different memory sticks in it. Might even help to hook it up to the internet and update it. But anyway, I'll mess with it someday and see if I can figure out what's up.