Left: Fender Precision Bass, New, never used on this website. Right Ibanez Guitar, not used on any songs, but used on some demonstration files on the ADA Midi Tube Preamp section.
figure 117: 16 channel Carvin Mixing Board, Standard keyboard.
Every instrument and microphone, except the drums, which are programmed, I plugged into a PreSonus Audiobox USB audio interface box. On the other end, the interface box is plugged into the USB port of your computer.
I use the mixing board to monitor the computer, the Audiobox, and other sounds. I never use it to record sounds. You don’t need this to record great albums. I think it costs $300 when it was new. If you were going to record in stereo this mixing board would work well, or if you had something that records 8 tracks at once you could use the mixer to record up to 8 toms in stereo.
| Figure 118: PreSonus Audiobox USB ($100) | Figure 119: Pioneer Stereo Amplifier. |
At the time I bought the Audiobox USB, it came with Presounus Studio One software, and cost $100. You don’t need a mixing board to make great recordings with the computer. the Audiobox has everything you need to do it. it has :
| 2 inputs 2 input volume controls 1 main volume control 1 headphone volume control USB to the computer A mix volume control that mixes between the prerecorded sounds and the present recorded sound |
I used a Peavey Bass Guitar, plugged directly into the Audiobox. I used a guitar pick when I played bass.
Audio Monitor Systems
| Audio Computer Monitoring: 2 Aiwa Speakers, 1 Pioneer Amplifier 2 pairs of Headphones Sync Car Stereo |
You can use the headphones in the Audiobox to mix the whole sound, but you are better off using several different audio systems. The bass is the part of the sound spectrum that is the hardest part to mix. I rely mostly on my Computer Monitoring System. It has the most common frequency response. Remember that changing the sound on the amplifier doesn’t change the sound on the recording. For example turning up the treble on the amp doesn’t change the sound that everybody hears, just you. Sometimes I turn up the treble a little bit because other people turn theirs up too.
I used a Breedlove Acoustic Guitar, I plugged it directly into the Audiobox, no microphones. The mike is already inside the guitar.
Figure 120: Gibson SG Guitar
I used a 1970s model Gibson SG, plugged it into a Boss Distortion (DS-1), which is probably the most common distortion pedal, it only costs $50 brand new. I plugged it into the Audiobox. This distortion sounds horrible without an amp simulator, which is part of the software.
Click the above sound file. First you hear the unaltered sound, then you hear the altered sound with the amp simulator on it.
Figure 121: Computer Work Station => Audio Computer Monitoring (Stereo Speakers & Stereo Amplifier), Video Monitor, Audio Interface Box, Mixer, Keyboard.
Figure 122: Distortion Pedals
| Boss DS-1 Distortion* | Boss MT-2 Metal Zone+ |
* The Ruins 540 & 640 Album Distortion Pedal
+The Version 2 & Version 3 Albums Distortion Pedal
The drums were programmed with Tabledit MIDI software. I used Tabledit software to produce tablature sheet music for the guitar, bass, & drums. I programmed every note for the drums. I exported the drums as a MIDI file. I used Piston software to convert the MIDI files into WAV files. This is the standard format for most of the tracks in most of the DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). The software triggers the computer to play recordings of real drums.