Lesson 3 – Recording

Hardware Section

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) 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.

Software Section

1. Follow instructions on installing software: Universal Control & Studio One 4. I would go to the internet website.
2. Click on Studio One 4.

3. Click On ‘Create a new Song.’

Intro Screen

1. I always use CD quality: 44.1 Khz sample rate, 16 bit resolution.
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. It is important to set the Tempo or speed of the song. If you use a click track or Metronome, or a midi file, or drum track, you need to set the tempo.

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 track
2. Set the format to mono. This equipment will record stereo, or two tracks at once. On the ‘Ruins’ CD I used Fake drums and I overdubed every instrument one at a time.

Live drummer and guitar player recording :

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 in on 1 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.

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.

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

View Console

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.

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

Add another track named ‘Aguitar 2’

1. Click the arrow that starts the machine at the beginning of the song.
2. Click Add track like you did for the first one. Name it ‘Aguitar 2’.
3. Click the record button on the ‘Aguitar 2’ track.
4. Press the Record Button.

Change the Size Of Your Windows

Don’t be afraid to change the size of the windows to view all the tracks.

Zoom To See The Full Song

Click on the ‘Click’ track blue part. then go to view, zoom, then ‘zoom to section horizontally’.

This shows you the full click track.

Record more tracks for:

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

Zoom – Set zoom control ‘full zoom’

Save File.

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