How to set up a Home Studio to record live Acoustic music..?

The simpliest set up is:

1. PC/Mac

2. Microphone: start with a cheap one because you can spend a fortune on them.

http://www.turnkey.co.uk/products/recording-microp...

3. Audio interface (gets the analogue mic signal into your digital computer).

4. Software audio recorder. ie Audacity, Soundforge or Garage Band Audacity is free shareware:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

5. Software sequencer mid range (Reason, Garage Band or Fruity Loops) or high end (Cubase, Logic or Pro Tools).

http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason

6. Monitor speakers these are essential to know exactly what you have recorded: once you get some you wont look back!

http://www.turnkey.co.uk/products/monitoring/

This is a hard one to work out. When you say acoustic music what exactly do you mean? Acoustic guitar and vocals? Live style music with no amps but basically a full band? Or just the vocal tracks layered over ready made music? Even if you give us that much information then we would have to hear the type of music that you are playing and know how competent you are with equipment. I have tried several different options with my band but we ended up wasting a vast amount of money before recording our first CD due to random advice. I'd say ignore all comments on here and go to your local music store and talk to them about equipment. They can gage what you want and give you pro advice and get your response straight up. You will only waste money if following tips from us and my studio wouldn't suit your type of music without more money being invested. If you want a simple recording of a lowish quality then you can buy pretty much anything on the market. If you want it to sound good then you either have to build your studio to your style or invest on a whole professional set up. Personally I'd go with the former rather than the latter.

well firstly you will need some half decent microphones ! , the sure sm58`s are always good , i use these often , next forget about recording in your bathroom as this can add unwanted reverb , that you cant remove later , the piont of recording is to try and record as "dry" as possible and add effects later , next either use a computer to record or a dedicated unit , apple macs are the industry standard , but expensive , so use ya pc !!! just get some freeware , there is plenty available to download , but if you are looking at the more high end look for cubase sx , or logic audio , these will let you chop and awap yor digitall y recorded bits !!! but most of all have some fun , with whatever you write / do , ok ?? god bless and good luck x x x x

set home studio record live acoustic music

most of these geeky answers are just making things very complicated and no one's asking you enough questions to offer any useful advise. It doesn't have to be expensive or complicated, especially if you're recording live acoustic music. I could recommend all the equiptment you'd need for under a thousand dollars and I'd defy anyone to know the difference. A lot of it is tec snobbery. Tests have shown time and time again that most people can't tell the difference between a Carlsbro mic at about $50 and an equivalent Sure Mic at $350. You don't need expensive equiptment. You can waste an awful lot of money. Concentrate more on what you're putting into it. I'd sooner hear great music decently recorded than awful music fabulously recorded.

it can be really hard to find a setup that works for you especially with so much good equipment out there. this site helped me heaps, it's a free online music production course, with plenty of advice and suggestions, the forums are really good too and they have quite a few professional audio engineers participating. it goes from beginner stuff all the way to pretty complex analysis.

but if you want equiptment/software suggestions i use a PC based DAW, Presonus FireBox, Event ASP8 monitors, Shure SM57, Cubase, Wavelab, Waves, Battery, Guitar Rig

and heaps more VST and VSTi, and i'm very happy with all of it.

The problems are unwanted noise, echoes and sound mixing.

The general answers are as follows:

Unwanted noise: Recording in urban areas will always cause a problem. Anechoic facilites are out of the question (I doubt that £1/2million would be within budget).However, noise reduction mics will make such sophistication redundant

Echoes: Heavy drapes and a carpeted floor should do the trick.

Acoustic instruments can be easily isolated, for recording, by use of stick-on ceramic pickups (they are very cheap!).

You then have pure and separate recording channels for all voices and instruments.

All you need now is a PC, with a multiple audio card. Tthe raw recording can be mastered on to CD/DVD and mixed with any decent audio mixing software!

http://www.nch.com.au/vrs/index.html

http://www.ampltd.com/prod/audio2k.html

http://www.shop.bt.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000OGHAPS/ref=...

I have MAGIX music maker, which is a nifty FREEBY bit of software.

For a start STAY AWAY FROM THOMANN, They are so expensive, soundsalive are one of the best to buy cheap online equipment, http://www.soundslive.co.uk/

also DV247 are another very good online shop that sell very good equipment http://www.dv247.com/ and go to the clearance pages, a decent 4 track is needed also a decent microphone, dont go for cheap as this will sound bad on your computer,lso get a free online mixer that will also be good

http://acoustica-mixcraft.en.softonic.com/

cheap way is to set up a mixer from radio shack and also get you a 4 channel mixer also......the reason for the 4 channel mixer is that you can record drums on one and guitar on 2 and etc.....its like having 4 recorders cheap....then you ping them back through with more recordings and walla you can sound like Sony or bmi or what ever studio you want ...good luck

I'd have to recommend the Boss BR600.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBMZeqnpKlM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAoSlhABr_c

Straight out of the box you can get recording - it's got built in drums, mics, multitracking - you can also import/export files on your PC - though you don't need a PC to work it. I have a Friend at the other end of the country who used to be in a band with me - we both have one of these units and because we can export files we can record on each others material without having to travel. We're like Pink Floyd but without the money (or talent!!!)

Just check out the videos in the links - the presenter is a bit annoying but he shows what it can do.

You can use the built in mics with great results but I plug in my Shure PG58 and it sounds great.

I record acoustic, electric and bass guitars as well as vocals and keyboard/piano. It's got a couple of nice features on - things like pitch correction and the ability to add effects after a recording.

You can also record up to 64 tracks by using the "virtual" mode.

Pretty nice bit of kit.

Shop around and you'll get one for £180.00 - get a power supply though as well as it goes through batteries a bit.