home recording and finding time

[damionj]

Simplify* your setup and keep it as turnkey as possible.

This is the best possible advice in this situation. I used to enjoy setting up to record -- getting the cables out, setting up mics, checking all the connections into and out of the computer. Now I keep a stripped-down setup in the basement that's connected and ready to record at a moment's notice. It took a little while to optimize the configuration, but it's worked out really well. And I don't miss the setup time. At all.

[dbeck]

I'd look at the RPM challenge too. It happens during the month of February but it's really fun and a great motivational tool. Some of my best work has come from it.

http://www.rpmchallenge.com/content/view/844/1/

[snoopy23]

Having been married for 17 years and balancing my musical intersts throughout the duration, allow me to share what has worked for me. I find it helpful to have a weekly meeting where you and the wife map out your time requirements for the week. Take care of the big stuff first (ie: kid duties, household chores and needs, and "couple time"-she'll like being considered a priority!) then map out a few 3-4 hour blocks in the evening or on the weekend when you can do your studio stuff. Keep in mind that she will fairly be entitled to a comparable amount of free time to go out, stay in, whatever with you keeping the kids off her, so compromise is key. One thing I noticed, once I had clients paying to come and record the dynamic changed and she was more amenable to me booking blocks of time. As long as you are holding down your husbandly duties and make her feel listened to and important, you should be able to work out enough time to do what you want. Good luck!

[Bro Shark]

I'm not even married and don't have kids and I can't find enough time/energy to work on music anymore. Fucking old age, man.

[Mankinda]

Simplify* your setup and keep it as turnkey as possible.

This is the best possible advice in this situation. I used to enjoy setting up to record -- getting the cables out, setting up mics, checking all the connections into and out of the computer. Now I keep a stripped-down setup in the basement that's connected and ready to record at a moment's notice. It took a little while to optimize the configuration, but it's worked out really well. And I don't miss the setup time. At all.

Hey, thanks.. this IS good advice. I'm workin' on it...

great, cathartic thread, and I don't want to hi-jack it.... but, since this is such great advice, can you tell us what your stripped-down setup/chain is? How fast can you go from idea at the kitchen table to pushin' the little red button?

Also, with this set-up are you using it for songwriting/idea-capture or are you focusing on the aspect of recording skills?

[damionj]

Simplify* your setup and keep it as turnkey as possible.

This is the best possible advice in this situation. I used to enjoy setting up to record -- getting the cables out, setting up mics, checking all the connections into and out of the computer. Now I keep a stripped-down setup in the basement that's connected and ready to record at a moment's notice. It took a little while to optimize the configuration, but it's worked out really well. And I don't miss the setup time. At all.

Hey, thanks.. this IS good advice. I'm workin' on it...

great, cathartic thread, and I don't want to hi-jack it.... but, since this is such great advice, can you tell us what your stripped-down setup/chain is? How fast can you go from idea at the kitchen table to pushin' the little red button?

Also, with this set-up are you using it for songwriting/idea-capture or are you focusing on the aspect of recording skills?

Thanks for putting this into context. From my perspective, I'm trying to capture songwriting ideas. I'm a songwriter who records at home, not a recording engineer. *But* I'm currently working on a project that involves sending files back-and-forth with a friend on the opposite coast who has a much more fleshed out recording setup. I'm able to record my guitar and vocal parts (to a click), then ship the whole session out to him on a DVD. He then takes my somewhat primitive tracks and builds the songs around them. It's worked beautifully so far.

As far as setup goes, I've got a very basic Mbox-into-a-Mac-running-ProTools-8.0 rig. As far as preamp goes, I've been using, uh (looks down at shoes and stammers), a Pod X3. Seriously. And I love it. I keep an SM57 plugged into one input, and a guitar plugged into the other. I also have a Roland HD-1 electronic kit that I keep plugged into the computer with one of thost M-Audio Uno MIDI-to-USB thingies. That allows me to record MIDI drum tracks and use BFD Lite to fart around with sounds. The whole setup is compact, easy to hide in the corner, and pretty much silent.

Again, I'm trying to get ideas down, and am happy to experiment with the warbled noises that come out of the Pod's built-in effects. I'm not trying to engineer perfect recordings. But it works really, really well for me. To record, I basically:

1) Drag my butt down to the basement
2) Turn on the laptop
3) Turn on the external hard drive
4) Turn on the Pod
5) Turn on the drums
6) Open a new ProTools session

That's it. The time elapsed from step 1 to step 6 is roughly 60 seconds if I don't rush. The other night, at roughly 11pm, I had a rhythmic drum part in my head that I couldn't shake. I ran downstairs, went to work, and had a complete song together an hour later. I got to bed by 12:30, and my daughter serendipitously decided to sleep in until 8:30 the next day. Not bad.

[stoneman]

yeah, communication with wife is key--remove all static from her signal chain.... happy wife = happy life...i forget who said that.

1 miute damian? cool. i guess if my mics are set up already it'd take my dell xp and motu about 2 1/2 minutes before i can press record. its the three hours after i have to bargain for. worth it. and i need to remember there are people with real problems out there in the world.

[jgimbel]

This whole recording setup-startup thing is something I've been thinking about lately. When I started I was on a 4-track with a built in mic/doing guitar direct, so I'd turn on the recorder, plug in if necessary and press record. That was nice. With my recording setup now I turn on the interface, plug it into the computer, open the software, turn on my powered monitors. Then get out a mic or two, stand, and cords, external pre if I'm feeling like it. Definitely not great for just getting down those ideas before I forget them. For that kind of thing I'll open up Audicity on my Macbook, which has a pretty decent built-in mic, so I'll just hit record on that if that's the objective. I'm working on arranging everything for a new album, so I've got a lot of ideas in Audacity, then I'll do a mock-final setup/test thing with mics closer to what I'd want to use or try for the real deal. That way I get a demo that's a little closer to what the final thing will be than just a quick recording, so I can see if anything needs filling out or a different mic or something.

[CedarSound]

These are some good ideas.

I too, have been trying to setup my basement studio to be ready at a moments notice. I find my biggest limitation is:

1)Not enough cables
2)A small collection of really good pres


Por exemplar, I have my drums all mic-ed up and ready to go... (4-5 usually)

I want to do a guitar overdub. Oh, i'll just unplug one of my two API's and plug in for the guitar mic.... Ah hell, I'll put two mics on the cabinet... now the snare and the kick drum are unplugged.

Oh, and I think i'll record an acoustic guitar in the living room for more ambience.. I'll just unpatch this cable and take my interface upstairs... oh, i'll need this..and this... and this paddleball, and this lamp, and that's all I need....

I need this...

So, 9 times out of 10, I just grab my minidisk recorder or my cell phone and record moments of inspiration that way.


Someday i'll have enough cables, dammit.

[CurtZHP]

Well, the "not enough cables" problem is easy enough. Make some.

[jgimbel]

Make some.

+10, maybe 12.

[CedarSound]

Seems so simple... Maybe next paycheck i'll give Redco some business.

[shedshrine]

"can you tell us what your stripped-down setup/chain is? How fast can you go from idea at the kitchen table to pushin' the little red button?"


Commit to effects. Lots of d.i. Mic acoustic gtr;percussion. Electrics usually direct. I have a daw, but I tend to just go with a small rack with a 4 track looper (electrix repeater), or a small mixer w/a racked 8 track cassette deck (tascam 238) and a couple outboard pieces. A few versatile outboard boxes. My token high end piece is a Distressor, and I made a Hamptone JFET pre. Beyond that, an ART ProVLA and an effectron, a gsp1101 which is an apparently off the radar Digitech box, Lexicon mpx1, and a boogie studio pre. Shure SM7 or TapeOp ribbon, Groove Tubes GT66 are my mics.

I'm also finding that a more bloop bleep type drum machine is better for initial tracking as it acts more like a more interesting metronome than a preset sampled drum rhythm that can lock you into a way of playing. I have an electronic drumset I?ve pieced together that I can track the ?real? drums with later if need be, often just mono through the distressor, or stereo through the vla, quick and dirty.

The mixer/238 rack has a patchbay straight into the 238?s ins, and I monitor through the Soundcraft 200b?s 8 inputs.



Lately..
Plug a bass into the hamptone/distressor/238
Plug guitar into gsp1101/and/or boogie pre and/or effectron into 238
Plug keys through hamptone/and/or effectron/238
Vox, Plug sm7 through Hamptone/distressor/ and/or effectron, mpx1, a3/ 238
Or vox, plug sm7 via xlr to ? ts into boogie pre/ effectron or mpx1 or a3/ 238
room mic Groove Tubes gt66/hamptone/distressor/238

[Aquaman]

never feel like daddy's music time is some kind of perverted hobby to be hidden from the family.

You DID say he was a jazz pianist, didn't you?

[shedshrine]

Coming back to this after awhile to really think it through...

I had to cut off purchases and I have sellers remorse anytime I unload something. I had to get back to what inspired me in the first place. Making MUUUSICC!! The glory days of prolific writing with a cassette four track, one guitar, one bass, one keyboard, one effects box, an amp and a Beyer Dynamic equivalent of a SM57.

THen you start wanting your recordings to sound bigger better sparkllier thicker rounder warmer .. more glorious in general. But 47 purchases later, I realize what I need to get better is work on my songwriting. A good song is hard, recording is easy.

BUt I loved/love reading about the theory, the history, the modifications, the best bang for the buck, easy fixes, self maintenance, fellow recordist's stories...hours go by. And free time of course takes a hit with marriage and a child.

WHat I am finding I have to do is to set out a simple setup to use at one time, all else is stowed away covered under a bed or above the closet on a little loft. ONly then can I come into the room, have a little recording setup connected and ready to rock to capture ideas and actually produce things...music, snippets, sketches, whatever. The old fulfilling feeling comes back.

I love my collection of sought and sourced gear. I love learning about them and their history and uses. BUt i need to store all but a few at a time which I can rotate out for display like my own little Louvre museum.

THank you for your time..

Mike