I’m a new member, so to start things a little off-topic: great idea and site, Zed! It’s lookin’ good.
On set-up, I use a Tascam US-1641 interface. I decided to go the computer route as it allows a lot more diversity in composing, mixing, and arranging. I run a couple of mics from my amp (a Blue Bluebird and a Blue Ball) and if I do vocals, the Bluebird or an SM58 will do the job.
I’ve realized how important mic positioning is the more I lay tracks down. A lot of the time, the lack of clarity in my mixes is due to the way my microphones are placed around the room.
All that to say, I should really work on playing more guitar!
Not too sure how I can respond to your comment, Zed, so I hope this is the right place.
Yes, I do use a real amp. One of the advantages of living at home with parents who don’t mind loud music (too often) and a dad who plays guitar as well!
The need to grow out of adolescence aside, I mic up an Epiphone Valve Jr. Half-Stack. It’s a low-wattage amp (5W), which is perfect for some decent amp distortion. The only place I really ‘gig’ (church) can’t take anything more than a 10W amp.
Low-watt amps are great for recording if volume is a concern. I’m sure most on this forum have probably heard of these, but for convenience, a list of some of the more popular low watt amps out there:
Epiphone Valve Jr.
-
5W, combo or half-stack
Vox AC4TV
-
4W with an attenuator to bring it down to 1W or 1/4W
Fender Champ 500
-
5W combo with an 8” speaker.
Zvex Nanohead
-
1/4W amp head
(BONUS: a list! from the internet! http://www.jedistar.com/low
watt
amps.htm)
I run my guitar through my Roland Microcube (3W) and mic it with a SM57, this runs through a small Yamaha mixer and into my computer via a MAudio 24/96 card — so yeah, I’m old school using a real amp, though it’s a small one and mic’ing it up.
I use Ardour as my DAW, Hydrogen for drums, ZAddSynth for bass (and other synth voices if needed) and Rosegarden when/if needed for sequencing.
No toys/effects other than whats in my amp (though it gives several amp models, chorus, reverb and delay) … one day I’ll play with the effect plugins for the DAW, but haven’t needed them yet.
Interesting, so I take it you’re on Linux? How’s ZAddSynth for the bass? I do like a lot of how your submissions are arranged so maybe I’ll check a few of those out.
Yeah, I run linux for everything including the music stuff. It’s a pretty good setup really … like a lot of OS stuff, it’s not as well documented as the big platform stuff, but it does the job really well. Of course on most distros you have to know how to compile your own kernel still as you need a real time scheduler kernel, but other than that it’s not too hard to get going.
ZAddS is fine for what I need it to do, it’s not a real bass, but it’s better than no bass … there are quite a few voices available too … one of these days I’m going to play with the strings and arpeggio voices.
I do envy some of the drum loops that are commercially available, mostly for their sounds but hydrogen does a great job of being easy to understand and programmable to the extent I need it to be.
UI for Ardour and Hydrogen is OK … granted I’ve never used Protools or Cuebase so I don’t have any real comparison ;) Yes, this one though is brutally ugly …
I just got Propellerhead Record. It works well, and is easy to use (unlike GarageBand and Logic). I have an M-Audio USB, but that seems to flake out a lot and doesn’t work well with the mac Midi aggregate devices. Gets static then I have to replug it. My friend just lent me a firewire, I’ll see if that works better.
Sometimes I use the built-in Record stacks, which sound great, and sometimes I use my analog pedalboard (Jimi wah, compression, Dr. Distorto, Tremolo/Reverb, Digital Delay. I just bought mics so I haven’t actually tried recording my real amp (a Fender that I bought off some guy about to pawn it 15 years ago). However, it’s kinda dying, and cuts out, plus it’s really loud.
My setup is quite simple (and could explain the lackluster sound had I partake in a round yet):
instrument -
>
MacBook Pro -
>
GarageBand with Guitar Rig 2.
Guitar Rig is such a mindblowing little piece of software. I refrain from tweaking the setting too much, or I spend whole days just fiddling with sounds.
Ha, yeah I know about that. I used to use software for recording, but I found it just makes things too complicated. Also, because I code I tend to be in a different non-creative mindset when I use a computer.
I use a M-Audio firewire 1814 DI, and for Fretwar everything goes through Amplitube. I just moved into a new apartment and my 100W Fender combo will probably not impress my neighbors : ) Besides its in storage at the moment.
For a DAW I use Tracktion
-
it’s extremely powerful and flexible but also stupid simple. That stack keeps me stuck on Windows, I use linux for everything else. It might be worth trading Tracktion for real-time kernel support, but as far as I can tell there is no working driver for my DI. But I think dual booting helps me focus on what I’m on the computer for
-
keep me in the right mindset for what I’m doing.
For drums I mostly use loops, because for some reason I just don’t get drums. I’m ok with a drum machine, but can’t seem to get a decent beat out of a sequencer.
I’m a new member, so to start things a little off-topic: great idea and site, Zed! It’s lookin’ good.
On set-up, I use a Tascam US-1641 interface. I decided to go the computer route as it allows a lot more diversity in composing, mixing, and arranging. I run a couple of mics from my amp (a Blue Bluebird and a Blue Ball) and if I do vocals, the Bluebird or an SM58 will do the job.
I’ve realized how important mic positioning is the more I lay tracks down. A lot of the time, the lack of clarity in my mixes is due to the way my microphones are placed around the room.
All that to say, I should really work on playing more guitar!
I run my guitar through my Roland Microcube (3W) and mic it with a SM57, this runs through a small Yamaha mixer and into my computer via a MAudio 24/96 card — so yeah, I’m old school using a real amp, though it’s a small one and mic’ing it up.
I use Ardour as my DAW, Hydrogen for drums, ZAddSynth for bass (and other synth voices if needed) and Rosegarden when/if needed for sequencing.
No toys/effects other than whats in my amp (though it gives several amp models, chorus, reverb and delay) … one day I’ll play with the effect plugins for the DAW, but haven’t needed them yet.
I just got Propellerhead Record. It works well, and is easy to use (unlike GarageBand and Logic). I have an M-Audio USB, but that seems to flake out a lot and doesn’t work well with the mac Midi aggregate devices. Gets static then I have to replug it. My friend just lent me a firewire, I’ll see if that works better.
Sometimes I use the built-in Record stacks, which sound great, and sometimes I use my analog pedalboard (Jimi wah, compression, Dr. Distorto, Tremolo/Reverb, Digital Delay. I just bought mics so I haven’t actually tried recording my real amp (a Fender that I bought off some guy about to pawn it 15 years ago). However, it’s kinda dying, and cuts out, plus it’s really loud.
My setup is quite simple (and could explain the lackluster sound had I partake in a round yet): instrument - > MacBook Pro - > GarageBand with Guitar Rig 2.
Guitar Rig is such a mindblowing little piece of software. I refrain from tweaking the setting too much, or I spend whole days just fiddling with sounds.
I use a M-Audio firewire 1814 DI, and for Fretwar everything goes through Amplitube. I just moved into a new apartment and my 100W Fender combo will probably not impress my neighbors : ) Besides its in storage at the moment.
For a DAW I use Tracktion - it’s extremely powerful and flexible but also stupid simple. That stack keeps me stuck on Windows, I use linux for everything else. It might be worth trading Tracktion for real-time kernel support, but as far as I can tell there is no working driver for my DI. But I think dual booting helps me focus on what I’m on the computer for - keep me in the right mindset for what I’m doing.
For drums I mostly use loops, because for some reason I just don’t get drums. I’m ok with a drum machine, but can’t seem to get a decent beat out of a sequencer.