(I do not know what I am doing... my goal in this post is to understand how I should upgrade my band's audio equipment most efficiently)
Me and a friend have been playing amateur guitar very casually for a few years now. Ive never really had any lessons or training and we never really played together before recently. But all of a sudden my friend mentioned trying to form a band and next thing I knew I had two other friends, a novice bass player and keyboardist who were also interested. So things are falling together pretty nicely. This past weekend me, the other guitarist, and the bass player met up and jammed for the first time. It was loads of fun and we plan to start meeting up consistently with the keyboardist. But it was obvious that we needed a better way of dealing with our audio/amps and such.
When my friend first mentioned trying to start a band I become kind of obsessed and got a lot more serious with things. I picked up some gear, started practicing vocals, working on guitar daily, and even took up the keyboard. That lead me to my current audio set up...
I have a tiny Behringer 1mic/5 input mixer that goes to this
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-UCA202-U-Control-Audio-Interface/dp/B000KW2YEI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1277188011&sr=8-2 which then goes to my comp. On my comp ive got Fruity Loops and Ableton Live with tons of different plugins. I also have a 61 key m audio keyboard which plugs into the comp through usb. Ive got a mic and a guitar going into the mixer. My guitar is a white Ibanez... I am not sure the exact model but after browsing their site it is most similar to the arx320. I also cant remember how much I spent on it but im thinking between 200-400. All of the audio is being outputted by these speakers from the comp
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Surround-Speaker-System-Subwoofer/dp/B000JJM8XE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1277189828&sr=8-2
There are a couple of problems with this setup. As far as I can tell when accessing the mixer/audio interface in Fruity Loops or Ableton I can only use it as one input. Though I managed to figure out a way of diving it into 2 by shifting 2 sounds in the mixer completely to L and another to R. Which lets me split the guitar and vocals. But this makes anything other than just one guitar drown together and the bass needs different effects to the guitar. So the first thing im curious about is is there some sort of mixer that allows me to access the different inputs and configure them individually through a DAW like ableton or fruity loops?
(So say I have a mic in the mixer, 2 guitars, and a bass I would want to be able to select each individual input and apply separate effects/plugins to each) if this cant be done with some type of mixer how is this normally accomplished?
Also depending on the effects i am using for guitar / keyboard there can be latency issues. And in general on guitar there is always very slight lag... its still playable but not exactly optimal.
The next problem is mic / guitar feedback. Mic being a much more prominent problem. I don't know anything about how im supposed to stop this from happening. I can get decent volume but I cant even put those speakers to max without causing explosions. This is the mic I am using
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-XM8500-Dynamic-Cardioid-Microphone/dp/B000TTRGUE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1277190076&sr=1-1 . I turn down the volume so I have to get really close to the mic. The mic is positioned about 12 feet from the speakers and facing away from them.
So now that you know my basic setup and that I know nothing I would like any advice you can give. I want to make improvements but im just not sure how. Currently the DAW stuff is really nice for doing covers because we can easily generate any sound we want but if I cant get all the inputs separated its kind of a problem. Am I using the right audio software? is there something else you might suggest using for my situation?
Should I invest in a guitar amp / vocal amp and try to get away from the DAW stuff? I was checking out the Spider IV 75 watt. Is an amp like this stupid or a bad idea for w/e reason? What kind of amp would I use for vocals?
If I got a mixing board that could work with the DAWs in the way I describe we could continue to practice but make use of it later once we slowly acquire more physical audio equipment. I have maybe 400 to spend on this stuff but would like to know what i should continue to work towards in the future.
Sorry for the long post any help is very appreciated.
Posts
If you're planning on playing any gigs, you're going to want a solid amp for guitar some decent loudspeakers for vocals. The Line 6 75 guitar amp will work fine for most venues, but I'd actually suggest a Peavey Vypyr 75. It's a good amp for practice and it's loud enough to gig. I liked the sound a lot better than the Line 6/Marshall modeling amps, and if you get the footpedal for $99 more you have pretty much everything you need effects wise. Vocal speaker-wise, I'd buy used and go fairly cheap, as many places you might gig are going to have sound systems.
Honestly, I would get a different vocal mic. Go to a music store and check out their selection. You might end up with a Shure for around $99, if you sound good on it. Different mics are better for different vocal styles, depending on how close you sing, etc.
Once you get the guitars and vocals set up as standalone, you can use your DAW stuff for beats, the keyboard, etc.
Yeah, I actually agree here. Often, you can get quality used equipment for nearly the same price as new, cheap equipment. In cases like that, you're better off buying the used equipment because it's build better and will generally last longer (unless it's been abused, so test things first).
In answer to your question about how to get each instrument assigned to a different channel on your computer, you need a bigger soundcard. See, that behringer thing you've got there only has two inputs (Left and Right). You need something more along the lines of this: http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=5
Whether you end up going with Presonus, M-Audio, or whatever brand, make sure your soundcard has a firewire interface. USB does not cut it, and is likely the biggest source of latency.
EDIT: For vocals, the simplest (and probably best) thing you can do is to buy a small powered mixer and one or two speakers for it. This sort of thing: http://www.musiciansbuy.com/Yorkville_MM4D_MicroMix_box_Mixer_4ch_150_watts_MM4D.html
1 - Just to reiterate, Behringer makes the shittiest shit that was ever shat.
2 - You might want to provide some information regarding the power of your computer, as even should you invest in a decent preamp interface, which is fundamentally what you need, it ain't gonna do shit if you're rocking some 20th century Tronbox. Audio processing consumes RAM like a mufucka.
If you guys are this new as a band, and in some cases, as musicians, I would definitely focus on the music aspects before I even begin to worry about digital recording or enhancement. Get amps for the instruments and plug in directly.
If you're trying to record yourselves for the sake of listening to rehearsals then just plug 1 dynamic mic into your interface and record that. If Ableton is finicky to use, then grab a copy of Audacity (free) and let it run while you're jamming.
If you're trying to use the digital stuff to enhance your performance then you're opening up a much larger can of worms.
Yeah, this. Get you a good 12" combo or 2x12 combo (or half stack if you want to spend the money) for each instrument and stop using the computer. You can probably get away with using it for the keyboard, but you're basically making the computer do the PAs job. I would stick to the computer for recording.
I think it'll greatly simplify the entire process for you to simply amplify the instruments and use mics only for vocals (or particularly quiet instruments, although you should probably opt first for piezo-based pickups if you have those types of instruments).
If you look at a band like Battles that use a lot of electronics, they're using dedicated gear for pitch modulation, looping, effects, and so on, because they're more reliable, they're easier to mess with live, and there's no latency. Laptops used live are for backing tracks or playing synths, not so much for realtime manipulation.
Heres specifically what i was looking at (and if you can recommend any alternatives that would be great)--
speakers--
http://www.amazon.com/PPHP1290-12-Inch-Plastic-Molded-Loudspeaker/dp/B000CHW78Y/ref=sr_1_52?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1277535614&sr=1-52
Mixer--
http://greenville.craigslist.org/msg/1798382683.html
http://asheville.craigslist.org/ele/1772536143.html
mic pack--
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Shure-PG58-Mic-and-Stand-3-Pack-600334-i1320163.gc
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Shure-PG48-Microphone-and-Stand-3-Pack-773194-i1320162.gc
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Audio-Technica-M8000-Dynamic-Mic-with-Stand-and-Cable-3-Pack-485658-i1522275.gc
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Audio-Technica-M4000S-3-Pack-Mic-and-Stand-Kit-773146-i1399508.gc
Out of these mic packs what would you guys recommend? The Shure brand was mentioned if that's the best choice is the more expensive pack worth it? one of the mics would probably replace my vocal mic until i can afford a better one. Also badpoet mentioned different mics are good for different styles. Well we are mostly into industrial metal/hard rockish stuff. Vocal wise we dont do stuff with crazy screaming or anything. So stuff like Dope or Nine Inch Nails where the vocals are still audible but have some grunge.
Also something I was trying to understand is matching Wattage of the powered mixer with the speakers... The speakers are "Power handling: 200 Watts RMS, 800 Watts peak" and the mixer is has 2 separate 150 watt amps... so what does this mean exactly? do i need a more powerful mixer or less powerful speakers? or can do I just need to be careful and not crank up the speakers too high?
Thanks very much for all the responses its been very helpful. This equipment should allow us to work completely independently of the computer.
I couldn't find them on the Guitar Center website, but if you can, Shure SM57/58's are a tried and true mic standard. If you're playing loud as hell, I'd stick with dynamic mics regardless of what specific models you choose for now.
Power on mixers and the like can vary a little bit depending on the context. Try to google the manual online. AC power is a sign wave, the peak being the highest positive value on the wave, which is to say the highest output. The RMS is the Root Mean Square is more like the DC equivalent or the average steady output. If the mixer outputs 150 watts per channel that's the maximum power it can send (should be 150W rms, but read the manual if you can). Two amps most likely means it's got a dedicated amp for each of those output channels.
Get a 75W amp as a minimum anyhow. Make everyone use their own amps, except the keys which you'll run with your vocals through a PA. It's fine for your keyboard to act as a USB MIDI controller with software running on the laptop, but then you're amping a laptop and I hope it's got line out.
Also as far as external interfaces go, USB 2.0 is satisfactory for recording. I have a 16 input Tascam USB rackmount and I spent four hours recording on 11 inputs simultaneously last night, no problems.
I don't know that I'd use that setup for actively applying software sound patches to instruments, or that most laptops would even have the processing power to apply decent patches to more than one input in real time at once.
For vocals you need a powered mixer and PA speakers. These are expensive. Buy them used. Get something made by Yamaha or Peavey from the 80s and it should last just fine. The upshot is you'll have at least four inputs on it, so you'll be able to run the keys and vocals through it just fine.
Personally I don't put much faith in any kind of digital signal processing on a guitar for effects or amp modelling. At the higher end it works okay but it's never exactly right and at the lower end you get 199 useless effects and 1 mediocre overdrive effect. And nobody needs that many effects in front of them. It leads to songs that are about the crazy sounds and not the music and that becomes horribly bland after a short period.
If you don't believe me, look at NIN. Lots of effects yes, but those are secondary to music that would sound good on an acoustic guitar. Strong melodies are more important than fancy effects.
So my advice is still to always start out with a big old amp and a guitar. Add discrete, single function, analog where ever possible effects pedals, and use them only where necessary.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Think of the power rating on the speakers as your headroom. You exceed that and you're in trouble. You can run up to 200W through those speakers consistently without damaging them. Odds are they'll sound pretty bad when you're actually at 200W but they will work.
The amp can put out on average a max of 150W per channel. That means that at most, you can push less power than would destroy your speakers. This means you can put it up to 10 and nothing bad will happen beyond the inevitable hearing loss.
That pairing is just fine. It will be loud enough to be audible over the other instruments. You could even play a small venue with it if they had no PA (most venues have their own, but coffee shops and rented halls often don't).
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Definitely this. It's a stereotype, but there's enough truth to the "down-on-his-luck musician pawning his gear" image that there's usually good stuff to be found. If there are decent guitar/keyboard/audio equipment shops near you you may also find they deal in used gear if they take trade-in against new equipment.
Usual caveats to buying anything used apply, but it beats ebay because you can generally at least handle and sometimes test gear before putting your money down, and you have a better shot at getting that money back if it's faulty.
Just out of curiosity, where is this coming from?
I play professionally and my gigging amps are my 15 watt Blues Jr, a 40 watt Hot Rod Deluxe, and a Mesa Boogie Mark II that I run at 60 watts.
Not saying I don't see how higher wattage can be useful, but why that minimum?
Guitar vs. keys/bass are totally different ballparks in terms of wattage needed. Also, tube vs. solid-state as well. edit: And the type of music you're playing. My current band's guitarists both use 15-20 watt tube amps and we do gigs. I also used to have a Marshall JCM800 50 watt amp which was LOUD. For bass (or keys) however? There's no way I'd use a 100 watt SS amp, and I'm glad I have a 400 watt amp for headroom. Context's everything.
Also I've been playing bass for the last two years and I forget about the volume/power disparity.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Biggest deals you will ever find-
Interface: Echo Layla24 goes for an absolute pittance now and, even today, it's got some of the best converters you can find for under ~$800. Plus you can hang another eight channels off the lightpipe port, for 16 simultaneous. I usually suggest the behringer (hsss) ADA8000, or m-audio octane if you've got some more cheddar to spread.
Combo Amp: 80s Roland Keyboard cubes. They're ugly and usually weird colours but they sound great pushing guitars, bass, keys or vox. They're dirt cheap and easy to work on.
Signal processor/preamp: Boss GL-100. Great sounding guitar pre with two channels, footswitch selectable. Works good on bass and keys, and vox if you play industrial. :P
Ensoniq DP/4+ Best thing this side of an eventide. Dedicated ins on the back, mic/line/instrument level input on the front. Everything from silky halls, cold-to-lukewarm plates, funky pitch shifting, tube amp sim, speaker sim, vocoder, etc. You could have a 100% good to go live vox signal chain with an SM58, this and an amp. If I could only have one signal processor it'd be this, but I'd like this with a midiverb II duct taped on.
Reverbs: Midiverb II! Ridiculous cheap, the last two I bought were under $40. No adjustable parameters to get in your way, patch changing over midi or front panel. Very good utility reverbs, some funky reverbs (7sec bloom go) and some usable chorus and delays. Some people say it's too noisy but when you're tracking digitally it's good to have a little dirt, otherwise everything sounds fake.
HiFi Reverb Tanks. My favourite are the Pioneers, they usually have less wrong with them internally. Use them in an effects loop, they're grungy and dub-y. Last one I bought was $10.
Mic Pres: Probably best just to stick with your mixer unless you want to futz around. FMR RNP is amazing for the price. Some of the classic Shure mic mixers can be roused into better use, individual outs, etc.
In any case, you have to not be afraid of some soldering to get some excellent deals. Audio frequencies are some of the easiest to work but musicians get fucked all around on gear. I used to sell the stuff, the margins are some of the best in retail.
To all the behringer haters, there are some gems... The aforementioned ADA8000 is a great piece for the price, and upgradable. Their analogue delay pedal is a real BBD at a price point Boss couldn't touch if it wanted. Some of the signal processors are not bad for the price, too. If you don't like the company for some of their early questionable practices, I can understand that, but blanket statements of "all their gear is shit" is kind of silly.
Above everything, gear is fuck all if you don't play. Just get together and jam. Hit records have been recorded with not much more than a portastudio. Don't sweat the gear.
I would really suggest a modeling amp. The current models are lightyears ahead of where they were 3-5 years ago. They have all the effects you could want, and the effects sound good. I personally think the Peavey is the best sounding one, and when you put it on a Marshall Stack with Overdrive, it sounds great. Add in that you get delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, rotary speaker, etc, and it's a great deal.
This runs contrary to my experience. My guitarist has a 30W Randall that the cymbals drown right out and a 75W Marshall that has no problems. And a 300W Randall head with a 4x10" Traynor cab that she uses as her mainstay these days.
Also I just don't agree that digital effects sound particularly good or that it's wise to start out with any effects beyond distortion and maybe reverb. It's distracting from good song writing.
But I'm a curmudgeon and I always believe in overshooting the mark from an available power standpoint.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
My Hot Rod Deluxe (40W) does this. Easily.
Hell, the Blues Jr. (15W) comes extremely close to that when running through a 2x12. Certainly loud enough for anything that's not balls out pedal to the metal rock.
Having a high-wattage head for headroom is nice, but you've also got to think practically. Unless you're pretty big, you won't be playing very often in situations where you'll be able to push a 75W amp very hard. In that case, you're better off having a lower-wattage amp that you can push at a reasonable level.
Now, if you want high-volume crystal cleans, then the bigger wattage becomes more appealing.
Of course, the actual volume that the amp puts out has more to do with how many speakers it's driving, rather than the rated wattage. And how audible the amp is over cymbals has more to do with EQ than anything else.
T-Bolt said it: context is everything.
EDIT: this is all about guitar amps. Bass amps and PA are different beasts.
Context IS everything, though. I will not disagree with that. But if we're looking at low to mid range solid state combo amps, I'm suggesting the 75W range based on my experiences. You can very likely get the job done with less, but always best to have headroom on a solid state. Especially if you're running a lot of effects pedals, the degredation you get from a solid state amp under strain can really become a problem when you want the signal coming off your pedals to come through exactly as you planned.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I have a 700 watt Peavey bass head, so I think I would agree with this statement.
My understanding, though, is that high wattage has more to do with how it sounds at lower volumes than how loud you can get it. Like a lower wattage amp won't get that good overdrive sound unless it's cranked, whereas you can get that sound at lower volumes with more wattage.
But regardless, I could never see having too much power being a bad thing, so I'd get the most powerful one you can afford. It's better to never need it, than to wish you had it.
I just wanted to second this.
In my experience, the biggest mistake that bands just starting out make is that they get obsessed with effects - be they pedals, amps, digital amp modelers, etc. - without 1) the experience to know when to make the best use of it, and 2) the money to actually buy decent kit.
Every cheap pedal you add to the circuit between your input and the output lessens the power and clarity of the sound. If you start with a cheap amp, it'll only ever sound worse from there (likewise if you have a cheap guitar on the other end).
Get yourself a decent head and cab and learn to get the most out of that setup - learn how to get expression and sounds out of your instrument without relying on effects. You will become a better musician in the process. When you do need to add pedals, you will be in a better position to do so sparingly and find the best pedal for the job.
I use a 1977 Marshall JMP and a 4 x 12 Marshall cab. And that's it. It's the sweetest sound, and it's just the sound of the amp and guitar (Fender Strat with Seymour Ducan humbucker).
As for PA equipment - you shouldn't need to worry about buying this unless you're opening a venue! Just find a decent practice studio with that stuff already installed. Decent PA kit is expensive.
Good luck!
Humping monsters to gigs gets pretty tiring.
True, carrying like 300 pounds of equipment is a pain in the ass.
Though strangely enough I was the only person I ever met at gigs that also packed a handtruck.
Having too much power can definitely be a bad thing. Of course, having to lug it around is one thing, as is fitting a 4x12 on a cramped stage sometimes.
But the more important thing for my money is that for the amp to sing it has to be played in a particular volume range. Also, being able to control your volume with precision is important. You're going to have a hard time managing your volume if you need to set your amp's volume somewhere between 1.5 and 2.0.
Also: Grenn, come over here so I can hit you with a wrench and steal your amp.
Then show the sound guy how awesome your rig is.
Then he'll tell you to turn the fucking thing down.
My practice amp was a 1000 watt Ampeg on a small rackmount system with a 2x10 and 1x15. My actual gigging amp (as long as the place had a dedicated PA) was a 200 watt Peavy combo bass amp.
The Peavy sounded better, and when you get to a point where you play shows with huge fucking PA systems, all you need to do is have a good sound.
And getting loud, undistorted sound from the amp is especially a problem if you're looking at lower cost solid state combo amps. If you're using effects pedals to do your distortion, the last thing you want on your $300 custom modified Russian Muff is blocky ass solid state overload distortion.
But really for getting distorted sound, a decent amp should have pre and post gain, or some way to drive gain on the pre-amp specifically. Really good amp distortion is usually the result of overdriving the power amp, which then just sets the actual volume of the tone. If you don't have discrete pre and power amps in your amplifier, or you don't have independent control over them, I feel that you made a bad purchasing decision. Sometimes the pre-amp gain is just "gain" and the power amp gain is "level" or "volume". Some amps have multiple pre-amp stages where you can add additional gain to further overdrive the unit. It's actually a fairly complex topic that requires a good amount of experimentation to really master. Nothing shy of experimentation will do the trick either, so start with just an amp and branch out.
Also, should you buy a separate head and cab (and you should because you'll have better versatility AND improved sound, but it's not something that will make a difference until you've been playing for a good while), modify any cab that lacks casters and good quality handles so that it does. It'll be the best $30 you ever spend.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I played 3 to 4 shows a month for 2 years at various clubs all over Texas and was never told to turn it down.
One guitarist had a Peavey 5150(2) full stack and the other dude had some Marshall full stack with a 1000 watt Marshall power amp. There was even one show in Houston where the club had video recording equipment for the stage and the sound guy was recording all of the bands, and after the show asked if he could use our footage in his demo reel for selling the service to bands because he said we sounded better than the other bands, mainly because our equipment came through clearer.
So your mileage may vary.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH