I record my practices live using an 8-track into sonar 7 producers edition, and do my mixdowns in Acid Pro 6. My guitar setup atm is an Ibanez Prestige going through a zoom g2 into either a mixing board into a computer line in, or through a smallish marshall into the aforementioned 8-track.

I am trying to improve my signal to noise ratio between my zoom g2 and the ^two different scenarios.
What I am getting isn't hum, it's white noise. If I tweak it for less noise, it isn't loud enough, or when it is loud enough, it's noisy and prone to sounding to heavily driven.

Could some of the resident experts give me some pointers/methods/tricks they use to get a good initial recording? I am capable of mic'ing the cab, or going line out to the board, and know my way around the software I use, so your responses can be complex without losing me in explanations.

Thanks

4/22/2008 3:10:05 PM

ttt

4/23/2008 2:45:05 PM

Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor. My little solid state combo amp that I practice with has SO much grit and noise for whatever reason (its pretty old and beat up), but I put an NS-2 in front of it and it cleans it up a TON. not only that, it really cleans up your sound when you are playing fast, sweeping, or palm muting.

I used one for awhile back when i was more noobish with gear and almost sold it recently. Gave it another shot now that I know a lot more about setups and what not and Ive fallen in love with it.

[Edited on April 23, 2008 at 3:15 PM. Reason : ]

4/23/2008 3:14:58 PM

ok so i need to fix my kick drum mic'ing situation drastically. Imo not getting any of the crisp attack i want, and the bleed through from PA speakers, Bass and Guitar Cab + cymbals is driving me nuts. we have tried internal mic'ing and got a boomy sound that sucked up the bass' space, so we tried outside the air hole in the front of the drum, but now it's a big whoosh! of air hitting the mic, which is not better in terms of getting a good attack initially. my concern about mic'ing from the kick pedal's side is the amount of extra noise i'd be getting from the close proximity to his feet.
a drum room is not an option at this point, and FUCK some headphones lol *

is there a process i missed when messing with the recordings in post?
i'm using compressors, stereo bus's, eq's, sometimes the bbe sonic maximizer on bass, very rarely do i use any type of modulation effects anymore(reverb, chorus, flange, phase, wah, etc.).

anyone willing to download a project with either wav or mp3 tracks and see what you can do? I'm not awesome at this by any means, I just want to make my music sound as much like it does in my head as possible before i die.









*(in the early days my drummer and i played through a stereo out to two sets of headphones [midi drum kit, btw] and the amount of ear problems i had as a result of normal ear wax melting due to the awesomeness of my headphones made it essential to be in a position to play loud when we practice. enter the cerwin-vega 15's. so after another year of e-drums we set up real drums, broke out our amps, and finally got an 12 channel board that recording software recognizes, so now we record every practice as if it was in a studio[i say that lightly]environment.)

6/4/2008 4:17:36 PM

I have a ported head on my bass drum and they always just mic'ed it up when I recorded. Have you tried moving the mic further away from the port to see if that will help?

What kind of microphone are you using? Maybe a pop filter or a mic with a better windscreen would help.

6/6/2008 3:25:49 AM