Very nice! I enjoyed it.
Some mixes were confusing - what's sampled and what's not, proving that - sound quality's great out of the box these days, isn't it. Amazing times .
Yeah, those boxes are a quick recorder's dream (and much more than that of course), Roland's other V-Studio models are sweet too.

Last edited: May 16, 2013 20:17:20

Home:
Pro Tools 11 into mBox 3, Summit Audio tube pre/comp front end or Radial JDI. Event Electronics Tuned Reference 6 powered monitors.

Gigs:
Zoom H2 hand recorder up on a tall mic stand at the back of the room
(If possible) USB memory stick to the FOH to record a board mix direct from the mixer. Can then bring back into PT to edit out the silence and mix.
($$) rent a digital multitrack mixer. When we were doing an entry CD for a Battle of the bands, we rented an Alesis HDR24 for $100; came with all of the hookup cables and a Firewire drive caddy. After the show, we were able to transfer 22 tracks of 24 bit/48KHz to hard drives to edit.

But most of the time, I prefer the H2 or iPhone videos people send us. More immediate. As I found out, mixing 22 tracks can be a pain.

'65 Fender Tremolux, '74 Princeton; 77 Vibrolux Reverb; '81 Princeton Reverb
'65-66 Hilgen Basso Grande
Dr. Z MAZ 18 Jr. + 1x12 Cab
Various Telecasters and noise-making pedals
Farfisa Compact Duo

Hi Pax. Interesting take you have on this. Just my humble opinion, of course -
Although it's main market is still broadcast and live, as far as usabilty goes, digital consoles are indeed an easy solution and fast to setup. OTH, if you already have a PC system that works well ("amazing" you said), I see more advantages to keeping it modular and continue upgrading whatever's needed:
Need more channels? - always better sounds in a dedicated box. How many would you need for a home studio w/o live drums? Get some quality preamps.
No matter how advanced the device's inteface is, editing with a mouse and a big screen is really hard to give up. Just for recording? Wayyyyy overkill.

Pax wrote:

But...my playing has tanked because it makes you lazy! I would record a riff for say...4-bars, loop it, cut & paste it wherever it needed to repeat in the song and play another part, do the same an so on. My tracks all started to sound the same, cookie-cutter, repetitive, blah.

The solution is easy - don't do that! Serioulsy, I've been playing with MIDI and sequencers for 25 years, and I understand the urge and the temptation to take the easy way with whatever the technology of the day is. That's the whole reason why (sucky) 80's music even exits; Synth harmony, bassline, fill, repeat...
Either way, the intent in making music should preserve it's energy throughout the process of recording, with whatever medium. Be sure you're not looking for something else entirely...

So, I'm going back to using my ears. Play more and get my chops back and then use the computer for mix downs, editing and mastering.
Sometimes I think I'm nuts but some of the best music I've ever made was when I was limited and had to figure out ways around equipments limits.

I agree, limiting yourself as a philosophy is smart, that way we learn to excel with what we got, learn our tools to the fullness and concentrate on what's important. Still, those limited tools better be selected carefully for our own specific application. Still, use of mind and intelligence to control attention is necessary. Thing is, the Tascam 24 is far from limiting, it's actually a magical machine that will do everything. Think those shiny faders and multi-function disco buttons and tiny display with 100's of sub-menus (scroll scroll scroll) would be less distracting than a PC screen? Hah! Amazing, awesome, cool machine. In 5 years it will be hard to sell, will look goofy and will be technologically inferior. It's not state-of-the-art even today.

Lastly, latency happens to a lot of computer set-ups. Latency is basically, I record a guitar riff and play it back...I know damn well I was on beat, timing was great but it plays back milliseconds later and then you have to move it to make it on time. This will make anyone tear their hair out! I shouldn't have to "deal" with it.
On your computer, You can adjust it, get more ram, turn off background services and all that crap, which I'm very savvy with but why? Plug in, power up, record.
Basically, I'm going to use the PC as a sound module. Use it for drums, synths, textures, audio samples, etc.

If you're still gonna use the PC for mixing and especially live drumming, latency still needs to be accounted for and minimized. When recording takes, the buffer can be set very low, and a modern DAW automatically compensates. Have you tried REAPER yet? amazingly efficient software! Can run anything on anything with the lightest CPU cost. Also, extensive customizing abilities that can allow you to have only the functions you need, at you immediate command.

Optimize, get a dedicated HD array and you're off, cheaper, and more future-proof.

Last edited: Jul 05, 2015 10:25:45

Hi Everyone, first time posting...

I just recorded my first surf album using a Kemper Amp into a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6, then into Reaper as my DAW. I've used Reaper for years, and I still love it. The Kemper I've had for a year and a half, but this is my first time using it for 'clean' tones and I'm very happy with the results.

Cheers!

thelurids.bandcamp.com/

For quick and better than dirty live recording, I can't recommend highly enough the Zoom R16. It's very light weight and I can set that baby up in less time than it takes to put up 4 lava lamps. It has a solid stat drive which is most important when recording live (the hard drive recorders crash easily if set on or near the stage). It's got 8 XLR in's and can record that many tracks simultaneously. . Typically I'll take the direct out of the bass amp, mic the two guitar amps by hanging a SM 57's through the amp handle and over the cabinet, then I'll use the internal mics of the R16 to capture the drums or I'll mic the drums if I know I'll have more than the usual 15 minutes between bands. Yes, this is far from professional recording but much better than an audience recording. I upload the files to Sonar and can usually manipulate the tones quite well. -Marty

"Hello Girls!"

crumble wrote:

Marty. Since the Zoom R16 price has been dropped I've been interested in buying one myself. Have you tried the Quilter MicroPro direct out into the Zoom and if so was the result pleasing.

I haven't yet tried it with the Quilter direct out. I have heard other recordings from the Quilter direct out that came out quite nice. With the price drop, I have to recommend the R16 even more highly. I should add that the learning curve is the shortest I've experienced with hard disk recorders.

"Hello Girls!"

Last edited: Jul 30, 2015 13:26:44

My setup is very simple and crude. I use a Boss BR 80. I direct in with my guitars and bass. guitars Fender Strat, Ibanez Artist, Gretsch Pro Jet a Carvin Kitbass and a Jazzmaster exporer hybrid partscaster called the Narwhail.

I want to do more surf stuff now but the reverb is not convincing.

https://soundcloud.com/dresden-conspiracy assorted instrumental tunes

I did use the guitar to bass emulation on it and you are better off getting a bass. If you can get a decent shortscale you will be even better off. I have the Carvin which has a bowed neck but I still play on the first 7 frets or so. I have a new neck for it come in today. I will do the swap this weekend if I can. ( I think I might need new tuners because the holes are bigger on the one I bought.

The BR 80 has good effects and the amp emulation is decent. The menus are tiresome but I have been at it for so long, it is now second nature have over 30 of my own presets for my riffage.

Look for a used squier P bass you can pick those up for 100 or so.

https://soundcloud.com/dresden-conspiracy assorted instrumental tunes

Last edited: Sep 30, 2015 00:56:50

Pax wrote:

Have had all kinds of different setups from reel, cassette 4-track, minidisc 8-track and currently a PC that is extremely powerful but I'll be changing that soon again!!!
I'm going to get a Tascam DP-24. It's a digital 24-track.

Finally someone else who's going to use a Tascam! I got the TASCAM DP-03SD 8-track Digital Portastudio about 2 years ago and it's all I use. Now for me 24 tracks is way over my budget and skill-set but you've summed up the problem of too much technology-

The PC is AMAZING!!!! But...my playing has tanked because it makes you lazy! I would record a riff for say...4-bars, loop it, cut & paste it wherever it needed to repeat in the song and play another part,

I need simple, crude and effective. 8 tracks give me just enough room to spread out a tad but it forces me to focus on the song, and it is all about the song.

I am forced to do, do, redo and redo over and over and over which has improved my playing to the point that I am capable of things I never would have tried even 6 months ago.

Plus I suck at technology.

My last tip. Buy lots of cheap guitars!

Da Vinci Flinglestein,
The quest for the Tone, the tone of the Quest

The Syndicate of Surf on YouTube

http://www.syndicateofsurf.com/

http://sharawaji.com/

http://surfrockradio.com/

el_camello wrote:

I got a Torpedo Reload recently and really like it. It lets you connect your amp to your computer (among other things).

I watched a video demo of the Torpedo Reload. Wow that's a serious piece of equipment! Running the amp hot while keeping noise down to a whisper, without the need for a bulky isolation box is something I dream about.