Recording Interface and DAW software

[Tommy Ng]

Hi

Need help!!!

I am going to do recording at home using my notebook. I tried it once long time ago "without an audio interface" and the results were chaotic.

I know very little about recording using PC. Thinking to buy this audio interface.

Alesis iO2

Can someone suggests a good recording set-up (audio interface, mic, software)? I was using Audacity but i know some interfaces only work with specific softwares. I want to be able to "modify" the sax recording a bit (such as adding reverb etc) before combining it with the backing track.

Budget ... say £200+ -

Cheers ;}

 

[Chris98]

Hi Tommy,

The Alesis iO2 Portable Audio Interface is what crazydaisydoo uses, I think, and he certainly gets good results. There is also the iO2 EXPRESS which is cheaper and on a cursory glance I think the only thing you loose is the 24-bit S/PDIF I/O.

The Alesis comes with Steinberg Cubase LE software which will probably be a step up from Audacity. The LE software, I think, is only available bundled with hardware but the Cubase family of products is well established. I'd suggest if you are getting the Alesis interface have a play around with Cubase and see what you can do, I would expect it to have a better reverb pluggin than Audacity.

Microphones... there are so many that would do a great job for around £100 or less. Do you want a dynamic mic or large diaphragm condenser mic, or small diaphragm condenser mic? If you are only intending it for studio use then a condenser mic is probably the nicest.

Don't forget to budget for a mic stand, XLR cable and headphones.

If you are using a notebook you might at some point want to look at getting an external hard drive, uncompressed high quality audio files take up a bit of room.

All the best,

Chris

 

[jonf]

Or, if you want something dead easy to use, with pretty good sound quality at a low price, get a Zoom H2. Mine was £100 used, and it's great, or you can get them for £170 new.

 

[Jules]

Or, if you want something dead easy to use, with pretty good sound quality at a low price, get a Zoom H2. Mine was £100 used, and it's great, or you can get them for £170 new.

I was about to suggest the same thing. great bits of kit

 

[Moz]

Zoom H2

I was about to suggest the same thing. great bits of kit

Me too, marvellous piece of kit. Please see several other posts on various forums where I put the H2 on a giant pedestal and pray fervently to it!!

 

[Jules]

MI put the H2 on a giant pedestal and pray fervently to it!!

try sacrificing a goat to it- works wonders

 

[Tommy Ng]

Many thanks to everyone for your suggestions.

 

[eb424]

Evening all..I was looking to start recording just for self assessment. I was thinking a basic interface like the focusrite solo..is there any software that lets you import in a backing track so you can listen through headphones and record over..

 

[jbtsax]

I am just a novice at recording, but Audacity has the capability of recording a backing track, recording yourself playing along with it, and mixing and editing the result.

 

[Veggie Dave]

Evening all..I was looking to start recording just for self assessment. I was thinking a basic interface like the focusrite solo..is there any software that lets you import in a backing track so you can listen through headphones and record over..

Reaper plus Focusrite = you can do anything.

 

[eb424]

Reaper plus Focusrite = you can do anything.

If I already have the backing track on the tablet and just need to recird the sax will the one input and output focusrite do the job.

 

[thomsax]

I have Roland Go:Mixer. Easy to use. You need;
- some kind of player (I use a laptop) with backing tracks.
- a smart phone for recording and power supply (you don't have to use the camera)
- microphones for your sax. I just have Shure SM 57 or 58 which are not ideal for recording.
- headphones. I use AKG K52

Roland - GO:MIXER | Audiomixer för smartphones

GO:MIXER: Audiomixer för smartphones - Uppträda, mixa audio och spela in video med din smartphone – allt på en gång

www.roland.com

Most of the time I play with a PA and mixing in my sax. I record as it sounds in the room into a Zoom 1 or a Iphone with the Zoom 1 connected as microphone. I selldom use the camera.

I try to spend most of my " sax time " with honking. So I'm probably not the right guy to give you advice.

 

[eb424]

I have Roland Go:Mixer. Easy to use. You need;
- some kind of player (I use a laptop) with backing tracks.
- a smart phone for recording and power supply (you don't have to use the camera)
- microphones for your sax. I just have Shure SM 57 or 58 which are not ideal for recording.
- headphones. I use AKG K52

Roland - GO:MIXER | Audiomixer för smartphones

GO:MIXER: Audiomixer för smartphones - Uppträda, mixa audio och spela in video med din smartphone – allt på en gång

www.roland.com

Most of the time I play with a PA and mixing in my sax. I record as it sounds in the room into a Zoom 1 or a Iphone with the Zoom 1 connected as microphone. I selldom use the camera.

I try to spend most of my " sax time " with honking. So I'm probably not the right guy to give you advice.
View attachment 20652View attachment 20653

If only I read Dutch..lol

 

[thomsax]

Roland - GO:MIXER | Audio Mixer for Smartphones

GO:MIXER: Audio Mixer for Smartphones - Perform, Mix Audio, and Record Video with Your Smartphone—All at Once

www.roland.com

Dutch ????? ..... where did you get that from"? I live in Sweden. One of 22 countries that never were invaded by England/UK.

 

[eb424]

I know @thomsax...the link is now in English it was in Dutch.. weird..

 

[Targa]

Roland - GO:MIXER | Audio Mixer for Smartphones

GO:MIXER: Audio Mixer for Smartphones - Perform, Mix Audio, and Record Video with Your Smartphone—All at Once

www.roland.com

Dutch ????? ..... where did you get that from"? I live in Sweden. One of 22 countries that never were invaded by England/UK.

Though 'you' invaded 'us'.

 

[DavidUK]

I started with my iPad and Garageband. Used the iPad's inbuilt mic and plugged phone ear buds into the iPad's headphone socket. Downloaded backing tracks and laid my track alongside whilst listening to the bt through the earbuds. Good results and no outlay. You could use a laptop instead of the iPad.

I've bought mic and earphones since, but you don't need either for your requirements.

@nigeld did a Garageband tutorial somewhere on the Cafe.

 

[mizmar]

I think the solution I found with the H2n (and linked to in your previous "recording" thread) is worth a honerable mention.

Recording - Home recording options - are these the main options?

Hi, and thanks for reading this. I'm completely new to (home) recording and yesterday I browsed through many of the threads on this topic. To say I learnt a lot is an understatement! The threads pointed me to some excellent articles, videos and products I'd never heard of before. So it's been a...

cafesaxophone.com

 

[Ballymenaboy]

I use zoom r8 and ipad generally with Jazz backs tracks.Import backibg track into zoom and then add sax track on top..no daw or software needed

 

[sax panther]

I use a focusrite Scarlett 2i2 with Reaper and agree with Veggiedave, this combo does everything for me. Veggiedave has posted some helpful reaper tutorials and Pete has got some resources on how to use Audacity, another free DAW. As another option, I think the focusrite interface comes with Ableton, although I've never used it as I'd already settled on Reaper.