Lesson 3 – Recording

Software Section

Follow instructions on installing software: Universal Control & Studio One 4. I would go to the internet website. Even If you get a CD I would still go to the internet to get the latest software. Start Here to Download your Software

We are going to put a folder called [Home] on your desktop that has all of your files in it, so if you get lost you can always go [Home] and you will find everything we worked on there.

  1. Goto the desktop
  2. Right Click on empty space on desktop.
  3. Select New, Folder
  4. Call it [Home]

Open Studio One

Click On ‘Create a new Song.’

Don’t get overwhelmed, we are going to do this process one thing at a time. It is not that bad.

This is the layout for the entire Process from front to back.

  1. Record or Download Tracks
  2. copy & paste into Backups folder
  3. Drag into Studio One –
    • add sound effects & compression
    • export stems
  4. Open Ntrack
    • modify with Sonic Maximizer & Harmonic Maximizer
    • mixdown to stereo track
  5. Open Studio One
    • Use Limiter
    • mixdown stereo track
  6. Open in Cool Edit or Audacity
    • Normalize Audio
    • Save as MP3 file.

Intro Screen

Lets tell the machine where you want to store the information.

  1. click the three dots.

2. Select Desktop

  1. Select [home]
  2. Select [Select Folder]
  1. I always use CD quality: 44.1 Khz sample rate, 16 bit resolution.So I set my computer sound this way so I don’t waist space on something I can’t hear anyway
  2. Always set the song length longer than the song you are working on at the time. I use 5 minutes for a 3:26 minute song.
  3. The tempo is important to me because my drums are a midi device and they work on time based software. If you record live I would suggest using a click track in headphones. You would need to set a tempo for that also.
  4. Click OK

Saving file:

  1. Click [file]
  2. Click [Save As]
  3. Type [Better Time]

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Manufacturing Changes

When I was designing this tutorial, the manufacture changed the way they did some things. For example, the inserts are where you plug in your effects.

This is the old way, you push a button and the insert point opens up and you drop and drag your effect into it.

This is the new way. Drag and drop the effect plugin above the track in the console.

You might see both ways in these lessons, but they both sound the same.

Creating Stems Folder

Stems are wave files that are individual tracks such are vocals and musical instruments.

  1. Goto Desktop
  1. Click Home
  2. Click [Better Time]
  • 1. Click Empty Space
  • 2. Click [New] [Folder]
  • 3. Name [Stems]

Download

The following text is designed to teach you the recording process. If you want to skip that now, you can download these prerecorded tracks and skip this part now. You would be skipping the rest of this chapter [Lesson 3] and all of the next chapter [Lesson 4]. And skip to Lesson 5. It is strongly recommended that you take time to go back and read these two lessons at least five times. The recording part of the processes is essential, but not as much fun.

Download Section

Setting Your Recording Volume

  1. Plug Presonus Audiobox in to the USB port of the computer.
  2. Plug Headphones into either Audiobox or computer monitoring system.
  3. Plug Acoustic Guitar into Audiobox input 1.
  4. Turn up the volume (1) and play, until the red light on the audiobox is red. This means that it is to loud. Turn the volume down until it no longer flashes.
  5. On the audiobox: adjust volume for the phones & main. Start with half way.
  6. Set the Mixer knob half way.

Monitor Your Sound

You may have to set Levels (Volume) of prerecorded tracks so that you can hear both the prerecorded tracks and the track you are recording at the time. You may also want to change the volume control knobs on the Audiobox USB audio interface. Don’t change the volume on the input (1 or 2) on the audio interface box, or you will screw up the recording. You can change the phones, main, and mixer. These controls are for monitoring only and do not change the recording. The ‘mixer’ control is very important. Turn the knob all the way to the left and you hear the inputs. All the way to the right and you hear the prerecorded computer tracks.

Creating A Metronome Track

  1. Click on the wrench icon in the lower right part of the screen.
  2. Click Render

3. Click ‘OK’

4. X out of Metronome Setup

Recording your first track

Open the ‘Track menu item’. Click ‘Add Tracks’

Add Track

  1. Name the mono acoustic guitar track Aguitar.
  2. Set the format to mono. This equipment will record stereo, or two tracks at once. On the ‘Ruins’ CD I used midi drums and I overdubbed every instrument one at a time. The midi drums triggered samples of prerecorded drums to be converted by the Pistonsoft Direct midi to mp3 converter.

Live drummer and guitar player recording :

The AudioBox USB Audio Interface is what we are using to record our music. It only records 2 tracks at once, but it can record an unlimited number of tracks, I mean literally 1000 rhythm guitars if you want it. If you want to record more tracks at once, like a full band, or putting a different drum on every track it will cost you a minimum of $500 for an audio interface box that records eight individual tracks. Protools has a rack mount that records 16 tracks at once. Normally you would record the drums in one track, and the guitar in the other. Minimum drum mikes are an overhead drum mike and a bass drum mike.

You can record the guitar in one track, while listening to click track. Then go back and record the bass drum on track (1), and the overhead mike on the other track (2). Then you would overdub all of the rest of the instruments and vocals later, one or two tracks at a time.

You can use a small mixer to mix both drum mikes on track 1 and record the guitar on track 2. That way you can record both instruments at the same time.

Just because you record in stereo doesn’t mean the drums are in the left speaker and the guitar is in the right speaker. You can change the placement later with pan controls. These controls are like the balance knob on a stereo. All the way to the left is the left speaker, when the knob is all the way to the right it is in the right speaker.

Recording the first track that isn’t a click track.

  1. Press the record button (1)
  2. Press the record button (2)

View Console

Select [Console]

  1. Turn off the record button for the first track. If you don’t it will be erased when you record the next track.

Mixdown

We mixdown our mono acoustic guitar track to stereo because the special effects, the chorus and the reverb are stereo and they are mono when you use them on a mono instrument.

Export Mixdown

  1. File Name : Stereo Aguitar
  2. Click the 3 dots.

  1. Select [Desktop]
  2. Select [Home]

Select [Better Time]

Right Click [New] [Folder] On a blank, white part of the window. Name it: Mixdown.

Select [Mixdown], then select [Select Folder]

Select [OK]

This window opens up.

Drag New [Stereo Aguitar] file into Studio One. Delete old mono file of aguitar. or mute it and turn it off so you can’t see it.

Drum Track

We will learn about creating drum tracks in lesson 5. For right now, we will download a prerecorded drum track that I created using Tabledit & Pistsonsoft software.

DrumsDownload

Turn off the Click track.

Finding Stems Folder

Goto Desktop

Click [Home] Folder

  1. Select [Desktop] icon
  2. Select [Home]

Select [Better Time]

Select [Stems]

Copy & Paste Drums from [Download] folder to [Stems] folder.

Drag drums from [Stems] Folder to Studio One Software.

Add another track named ‘Rguitar 1’

Click Add track. Name it ‘Rguitar 1’. Make sure that the pervious track record button is off.

  1. Click the arrow that starts the machine at the beginning of the song.
  2. Click the record button on the ‘Rguitar 1’ track.
  3. Press the Record Button.

Add another track named ‘Rguitar 2’

Click Add track. Name it ‘Rguitar 2’. Make sure that the pervious track record button is off.

  1. Click the arrow that starts the machine at the beginning of the song.
  2. Click the record button on the ‘Rguitar 2’ track.
  3. Decide if you want to listen to the other tracks like the drums and other guitar.
  4. Press the Record Button.

I put one guitar in each speaker by panning one of them hard right and one of them hard left.

Record more tracks for:

  1. Bass Guitar
  2. Lead Guitar (Left Speaker)
  3. Lead Guitar (Right Speaker)

Make sure that the pervious track record button is off.

Zoom – Set zoom control ‘full zoom’

Save File.

It doesn’t hurt to save your project every five minutes.