Recording Music

Bourne

I want to get three things to record some music just for giggles. I want to combine the sounds of the trumpet, and ukelele (sp?). Much like Beirut does in their music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWSz_PAfgNc

So I need some cheap insturments. I have a few years of experience with the trumpet, but sold mine a good while ago. A cheap but nice sounding ukelele, and a basic recording program, preferably free.

go.

TychoCelchuuu

Audacity for recording.

toolbert

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Audacity for recording.

This is pretty much what you need. It'll take a little time to get used to recording with it, but it works well for personal recording. I've used it for recording vocal melodies to play around with and it give me the basics that I need to work on for later.

Jimmy King

I also use Audacity for recording. Mine is all electric guitar, but that doesn't really matter. I've done it with direct line in from an amp and with a microphone.

You'll probably want a microphone of some sort. In the guitar world the shure sm57 is the standard that all others are judged by and is relatively reasonably priced (depending on your budget, possibly a bit pricey for just screwing around). For just goofing around I believe the most important thing will just be to have it be a unidirectional mic per my old sax teacher.

Bourne

as far as recording the trumpet, and ukulele what physical equipment do I need? I don't know if a mic would pick those up good enough. Unless it would, in which case I'll just need the mic.

Jimmy King

Yeah, I would think just a decent unidirectional mic. Not sure what else would even be used. Recording trumpet shouldn't be significantly different from recording sax, and like I said, my sax teacher always just said to make sure to use a unidirectional mic. It seems like she had a small one that clipped to the bell of her horn and pointed down into it, like people clip to their ties, rather than a full size mic like the sm57 but it's been more than 10 years and I'm sure she used a lot of different equipment.

The unidirectional bit is so that you can point it right at your instrument and pick up only your instrument and not all of the other sounds going on around you, echoes off of walls, etc.

I'd imagine you do the same for the Ukelele.

Bourne

Oh, okay now I understand. Thanks.

Icemopper

To record with a microphone like Shur (not a computer microphone) and get pretty good quality you'll need a preamp. M-Audio makes decent ones that can be a vast range of prices.

A good unidirectional mic, as others suggested, will be your best bet for a wide range of uses. Shur is definitely a great path down which to travel.

Technicality

The most cost effective way to make a ukulele sound nicer is to take off the terrible fishing line strings most of them come with, and put some proper strings on. Aquilia are usually the recommended ones.

mooshoepork

What is your budget for the uke and mic?

proXimity

For a microphone I would recommend the AT2020 USB. I'm not quite sure of your budget, and that might be too pricey, but it is a rather fine mic, and doesn't need any other equipment to work. Otherwise, check out something like a Snowball

The "unidirectional" type that people have been suggesting is a good idea, and that type of mic is know as a "cardiod" mic, which has pretty good off-axis rejection.

You'd also probably want to make sure whatever mic you get can stand on it's own/have a mic stand for it.

As far as software goes, Audacity is basic, but free, and will probably do fine for the level of work you're looking to do, but don't be afraid to try out Reaper, it's almost free.

theconductor221

Has anyone tried using the iphone as a mic? I don't know what applications or such you might need, but that could work too for a microphone.

shutz

I second the Blue Snowball USB (the mic isn't actually blue, Blue is just the trademark).

You can check out one song I recorded (just voice and ukulele, each one recorded separately, but using the same Blue Snowball) here: http://50wordstories.ca/blog/?p=216

It's a short song, but it should give you an idea of what you can do with it.

The only thing that really annoys me about the Snowball USB is that it's DAC only samples at 44.1kHz, 16-bit. That's CD-quality, but it would help to produce better music if it could record at 24-bit/96kHz, so that mixing could be done at that higher-quality rate, preserving a better sound up until the final mastering down to 44.1kHz (or 48kHz, if the audio is to go on a DVD).

But at the price it sells for, the quality of the results it produces is impressive, and the fact that you don't need to get a preamp or audio interface to use it (you don't even need to install drivers with most modern versions of Windows!) makes it ideal if you're just starting out.

Just make sure you get a good mic stand, so you can set up the mic in almost any position (though my Snowball came with a small tripod that's maybe 8-10 inches tall, which is great for positioning the mic on your desk, in front of the computer.)

Also, the recording above was made without a pop-shield. I would sing in such a way as to aim slightly off to the side or above the mic, to avoid those bad "pop" sounds when pronouncing P's, but you might still hear some of that in the recording. A pop shield is cheap, just get someting in the 10-20$ range and you'll be OK.

Bourne

my budget is probably a couple hundred dollars all together.

Thanks for all the responses, I've read about the recording stuff and I'm pretty confident in ordering that.

Instead of making a whole new thread I have a facebook question. My account password keeps getting reset. I've reset it so many times now that facebook won't let me reset it anymore. Is there anything I can do rather than waiting for customer support to email me back?

Amphetamine

not audacity for recording- it's great but it's not the best. Reaper is essentially to Cubase what Openoffice is to Microsoft Office, a free, nearly on-par offering.