talkmagic.co.uk

So my band recently began actually recording after more line up changes forced us to delay more that we ever intended. However we've hit yet another snag on our road to actually getting anything done. The recording software we are using is horrible. The vocals dont come through well and the guitars and bass are incredibly muddled and unlistenable. Can anyone recommend any software that is relativly inexpensive(or free) that wont sound horrible.

That may be as much to do with the hardware as the software. What inputs are you using?

I have a cable that runs from a 1/4inch input to and 1/8th in that I started out running it from my bass to the mic input on the computer and that didnt work so I decided to run my bass through my amp and then run that from the output to the computer and that just made it worse.
The mic brian uses is a logitec USB mic

My main area is stage sound so music and thing's isn't my specialty. However, I'd be very surprised if it was the software that was the issue. Could be your sound card actually. All the software is doing is taking an input signal off the hardware, what the hardware gives it will be the exact same it would give any other software. If anyone on here knows more about music recording maybe they can help but until then my advice is check your hardware and maybe download a free sound program like Audacity that allows you to record directly into it and see what you get.

I would suggest grabbing some money together and hiring out a local studio for a day. My friend did it, and it sounds 100x better than his home recorded demos.

If you need software, Audacity is a simple, free and decent bit of software.

I wouldn't really suggest use it as a multitrack, but you can in a pinch. It's worth keeping around anyway.

Personally I prefer doing things in hardware - you could pick up a decent four track for very cheap, and there's actually less hassle, although you're forced to get tracks down "live" or near enough - there's less margin for error. You can always record the tracks to the multitrack and then mix them down in software - best of both worlds (for me, anyway).

Then there's always this site:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm

Well worth your time pouring through there, but if you follow all his advice your going to spend thousands.

Yeah, and I wouldn't use a computer mic, especially not a USB one - USB is terribly slow, and you pick up all kinds of latency issues.

Do yourself a favour and pick up a decent studio mic, it really makes all the difference - try a Shure 57 or 58 (basically the same mic).

For a direct recording, don't go straight to the sound card, it will sound awful. You'd be bettr off going through an EQ of some sort, either stand-alone hardware, or at a push a compression pedal might sort you out.

You don't have to spend a huge amount, but recording is one of those fields where spending above a certain threshold is well worth the end result. Buy good stuff second hand.

When I was playing regularly in a band, we outfitted ourselves pretty much entirely from Thomann - cheap and quick delivery. Microphones here.

(Curses. I've had another look at the site and I want a new guitar now...)