Home recording or banging my head against a wall.

[BigRedX]

5 minutes ago, TimR said:

My 486DX had 8Mb. It was about £35 per Mb. 🤣

 

My first memory upgrade for a Mac Quadra 650 cost £399.00 for 8MB which was the cheapest option that I could find. Unfortunately the vendor had to supply 3 different SIMMs before I got one that actually worked.

[Leonard Smalls]

2 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

memory upgrade

Back in the late 90s when I worked on a Well Known Soap, we built the first integrated Production/Post Production System in this country, possibly the world!

And we had a rack full of Seagate 50Gb drives, each of 'em about the size of a modern desktop computer giving us an unheard of 1Tb! That was £tens of thousands without the aircon and other racks of switching stuff to communicate with the stages, edit suites and sound dubbing suites. 

[SimonK]

8 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

My 486DX had 8Mb. It was about £35 per Mb. 🤣

 

My first was a 386SX which I upgraded to 16 Mb RAM - needless to say I preferred a tape based multi-track over a DAW for many years - I think I started with a Tascam Porta something or other before moving up to a Yamaha 8 track that was particularly awful at chewing tapes and ruining everything! First digital recorder was a Zoom MRS-4, and then Garageband was the first affordable software I used.

 

I hate to say this that no matter what problems the OP is having, I would probably prefer them to the old battles with cassette based multi-tracks!

[tauzero]

36 minutes ago, SimonK said:

I hate to say this that no matter what problems the OP is having, I would probably prefer them to the old battles with cassette based multi-tracks!

 

I still remember pressing the wrong track select button on my Tascam 144 and wiping out the first 30 seconds of the drum track. No Ctrl-Z with tape. 

[SimonK]

27 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

I still remember pressing the wrong track select button on my Tascam 144 and wiping out the first 30 seconds of the drum track. No Ctrl-Z with tape. 

 

...I'm having flashbacks to programming whole songs on the Alesis SR-16 drum machine (that I note is still made) and then recording both drum and bass on a single track so as to save tracks for other more complicated instruments. Then that heart sink moment when you hear the tape start to strain and try to work out how much you have done since the last bounce-down... yep life is easy with computer recording!

[BigRedX]

I think one of the problems that anyone coming as new into "home recording" has now is that in the form of their computer and DAW software they have something that would completely surpass the multi-track machine, mixing desk and outboard gear of any pre-digital studio, and getting to grips with all of that is a close to vertical learning curve.

[chriswareham]

4 hours ago, SimonK said:

 

...I'm having flashbacks to programming whole songs on the Alesis SR-16 drum machine (that I note is still made) and then recording both drum and bass on a single track so as to save tracks for other more complicated instruments. Then that heart sink moment when you hear the tape start to strain and try to work out how much you have done since the last bounce-down... yep life is easy with computer recording!

 

I sold a Sequential Circuits TOM drum machine to buy an Alesis SR-16 when they came out. The Alesis was terrible, with sounds that were soaked in a reverb that couldn't be removed and I've always regretted that "upgrade". The TOM is now worth about ten times what I sold it for as well. At least the Alesis didn't have a habit of scrambling its memory just before a gig, which is what the TOM's predecessor - an Oberheim DMX - used to do. The only solution to that was recording the drums on a portastudio and putting up with the resulting hiss that was quite something at gig volumes over a PA system.

[42Hz]

7 hours ago, Dom in Dorset said:

... I only intend to do this for my own amusement,  demos , silly ideas , possible backing tracks. 

Whats wrong with that ? 😇 

[Jack]

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

I think one of the problems that anyone coming as new into "home recording" has now is that in the form of their computer and DAW software they have something that would completely surpass the multi-track machine, mixing desk and outboard gear of any pre-digital studio, and getting to grips with all of that is a close to vertical learning curve.

I couldn't agree more. I got to a point in my career where I had to learn video editing and premiere pro really intimidated me. It wasn't until I realised I only needed about 7 of the buttons that I could make a start. 

[Boodang]

I’m an IT idiot, hate trying to set up software. When I bought an xr18 I thought I’d better make use of the recording facility so tried various recording software… went thru Ableton, Cubase, and Acid but found the learning curve too steep. I just want to record, plug in the band press record, then mix, nothing fancy and very old school. 
I’ve just downloaded Reaper and bingo! It enables me to just do that. Didn’t even bother doing a tutorial, it’s quite intuitive. Can thoroughly recommend. 

[Boodang]

PS the other thing you could try is a mixing desk with build SD card recording so no daw/pc required. I’m tempted by the Tascam model 16 or Zoom L20. That way it’s quite old school. Plug in the desk, press record then mix down. 

[lurksalot]

I have to say that learning to home record was probably one of the most frustrating things I ever did, however, having eventually sussed with the help of loads of people on here, it is a fantastic opportunity to have some great fun.

 

even the language that is used, really doesn’t explain the job in hand when you looking at the recording software and the DAW, it just doesn’t seem to make sense until one day it clicks and it just all falls into place.

 

As BRX says, it doesn’t mean you produce some fantastic material, however you can record and produce songs, tunes and ideas. whatever it is just great fun.

 

Edited Monday at 19:41 by lurksalot

[Dom in Dorset]

2 hours ago, 42Hz said:

Whats wrong with that ? 😇 

Nothing but I haven't been able to do anything yet .

 

[ardi100]

I've got reaper running and can record OK,  my main problem is midi.

 

I can import a midi file, but I can't get it to make any noise. I also can't install any more apps on laptop as its for work and I'm not an admin (reaper is running off my hard drive). 

 

I had all christmas holidays to sort it and hit the 'non admin wall and gave up.

 

It is indeed frustrating. 

[Pea Turgh]

Surely there’s a basschatter in your neck of the woods who can assist?  If you were Dom in Dunvant I’d gladly assist.

 

Which reminds me, I need to pop over my mates house to help him with his piano & Audacity!  

[mcnach]

On 05/01/2025 at 18:41, Dom in Dorset said:

It might be useful to clarify...

Despite some of the claims made by the manufacturers being debatable the device itself probably works.

I just find digital recording impenetrable. 

 

It's definitely more "faff" than the old tape multitrack recorders (more capable too, there's that).

 

While I don't mind learning new stuff (I just got a Behringer X32 mixer to work as our IEM center, and main mixer when there isn't one at the venue) I don't particularly like clicking on menus etc. I have a couple of Zoom R16 units that work pretty much like the old tape ones. It has built-in FX, metronome, tuner... But to use it as a simple recorder, you can almost plug and play, it's very intuitive. It also can run on batteries, has built-in stereo mics (great to quickly record an idea), 16 tracks (can record 8 at once, and you can link two units to double all that) and unlimited saving of alternative takes as long as the SD card it records onto has room.

The R16 is no longer being made but you can find them used for £125-175 typically. 

I then moved the tracks to the PC and mix with Reaper (which, for the basics, is also intuitive and a couple of short videos was all I needed to get on with it). Simple.

 

Newer units, such as the R20 have even pretty colour screens, touch sensitive, and you can edit directly... It might be worth considering that route.

[mcnach]

On 05/01/2025 at 22:10, 42Hz said:

You need to focus on this part: 

 

There is a typo on the third hieroglyph, though.

[Len_derby]

I feel your pain @Dom in Dorset. Situations like this make me grateful that, somehow, I managed to raise smart kids who’ll come and dig me out.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Just had a flashback to a blues band I joined back in 2005/6..

We used to practice in the guitarist/singer's basement once a week . As time progressed, he started recording us on GarageBand .

Sounded quite good tbf . We were all mic'd ( including drummer) with each mic going into his computer . He managed to plug in my mini disc as well.

I may have to dig them out. 

 

I'm a semi amateur when it comes to recording , but somehow have got some ' likes' on soundcloud . 
 

Annoying really , as I modestly used to make great cassette recordings of albums and radio broadcasts etc. it's a shame that recording instruments isn't as straightforward.

I have improved with GarageBand over time , but I don't want to do anything too complex . That takes th3 fun out of it .

[petebassist]

Another GarageBand fan here - if you can get hold of a Mac I'd recommend it. I use it with a Focusrite and create my own songs that I put up on YT. I don't think you have to be a technical wiz to use it, just invest a bit of time in learning the basics, then you can concentrate on creating music rather than fiddling with dials and software. 

[42Hz]

On 06/01/2025 at 20:00, Boodang said:

PS the other thing you could try is a mixing desk with build SD card recording so no daw/pc required. I’m tempted by the Tascam model 16 or Zoom L20. That way it’s quite old school. Plug in the desk, press record then mix down. 

 

Just looked at the manuals for some of these. Looks like really good options in comparison. Good mention.

[chriswareham]

12 hours ago, 42Hz said:

 

Just looked at the manuals for some of these. Looks like really good options in comparison. Good mention.

 

I'd recommend the Sound on Sound review of the Tascam Model 12 - it improves on the 16 in so many ways, so if you don't need the extra tracks it could be the better choice of the two.

Edited 2 hours ago by chriswareham