"The Studio"
After practicing for a while in a 10'x12' bedroom in my house, we moved up to my "man-cave" for a little more space. I don't know the exact dimensions of the room but it is definitely bigger. We put the drums up against the window so the angled ceilings don't get in the way.
One of the first purchases we made for the studio was some studio foam. In the smaller bedroom we got a lot of junk sound from the walls so we decided to see if this would help. It definitely makes a difference. This set was on sale for $60 when we bought it and we plan on getting more if they go on sale again. 32 panels seems like a lot but they can go fast. The one downside is that you need to plan on using the provided caulk to adhere these to the wall. I haven't seen what kind of problems that means if you want to take one off. You can see how the tiles are laid out in some of the other pictures.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/auralex-studiofoam-designer-kit
Here's the studio foam on the wall behind the drums.
Upgrades
Our initial recording setup was about as bare bones as you could get. We were using the free, open-source recording software, Audacity. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ This hasn't changed except we do have CakeWalk Sonar X1 still yet to play with. http://www.cakewalk.com/products/sonar/X1-Producer/ The computer setup was just a Windows 7 based PC from a few years ago. The Microphone was a USB Logitech mic (borrowed from my Rockband kit... really). And that was about it. We just recorded the live audio from the room with the Mic in the middle somewhere. We picked up way too much drums/cymbals and had no way to adjust the levels for each instrument so...
We gradually started adding stuff to our setup. It kind of all snowballed but here's our initial gear changes.
Behringer XENYX802 Mixer - Probably the most crucial piece in getting a better recording. This allowed us to record individual instruments. We also use this when we're just jamming to record everything all at once. The guitars and mics all feed in and we put a few mics around the drums. It usually leaves the drum a little quiet, but compared to what we were getting it works well. This is good for recording sessions where you just want to get some riffs down or song structure, etc...
PC Setup - I'm using an older (Windows 7 launch) HP desktop with a second monitor setup for viewing lyrics and song structure, etc... For speakers we just have some standard Logitech 3 piece speakers and the second monitor's speakers.
We're trying to stay wired as much as possible so we can all stay in the loop. We're using Microsoft OneNote for lyrics as well as Google Groups and Google Docs to share files with each other. We also use Box.com and Amazon MP3 to share songs.
Here's the rest of the setup:
Guitar/Lead vocals:
Shure SM58 Microphone - This is a standard in the industry. They range from $75 - $100 typically but they're durable and high quality so they should last. Good for live performances and more than ok for recording. We have one of these for the backup vocals as well.
Guitar & Amp - "Vintage" Slammer Hamer Stratacaster body type: The first and only guitar purchased so far. Cheap but it works. New Boss ME-70 guitar pedal: This is a digital effects pedal with everything you need including tuner, distortion, WahWah pedal, looping and the like. This was about $300. Acoustic 150w guitar amp: acoustic brand, not type. Decent amp with plenty of settings, adjustments, plugs, and built in effects. $150 - $200. Basic mic stand, a few spare Boss analog pedals for distortion and overdrive, cables etc...
Bass - Original Bass is an Encore brand pawn shop bass: free to me (Thanks Corey!), short neck, has some shorts in the knobs. The short neck means there's less punch in the bass. New bass is a Schecter Omen Extreme 5 string. This one has active pickups and the 5th string for a lot more low end. $450 Fender FM-212R amp: This is a decent guitar amp and It works well enough for bass. Depending on who you ask, using a guitar amp with a bass could either ruin the amp or blow it out, etc.. so just be forewarned. $250 used for the amp and the pedal board (below).
Bass Pedals - Technically I don't have any "bass" pedals. Here's what I've got: Boss DS-1 distortion pedal $20 used. Behringer 3 pack: Tuner, distortion (3 types), and delay. $50/set. The board is a Boss BCB-60. It was included with the amp. Reg $150
Drums - Ludwig 5 piece set with a double bass pedal and Zildjian cymbals. Custom bright green glow in the dark covering.
For the recordings with the mixer we have each instrument running in as well as the Mics and a couple of mics on the drums. We can either record everything at once for a master track or record each instrument at a time. We typically record the drums first because a. it sets the tempo for the song. and 2. It's difficult for the drummer to hear the other recordings while drumming.
That's about it for this time. We'll get into the equipment we've upgraded to and the changes we've made to how we record.
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