I've been thinking more and more about adding vocals to my music, but I know I just can't sing properly at home. I live in a smallish apartment with neighbors upstairs and downstairs, plus my wife is usually in the next room. I know that I just can't sing as loudly, freely, and effectively while being surrounded by people like this.
So I'm thinking a good option would be to get a multitrack recorder and do my recording somewhere else!
I've read a lot of the specs for the various models out there (Zoom MRS-8, Fostex MR8 MkII, etc.), but one thing I haven't figured out is how easy it would be to transfer tracks to these recorders (rather than from the recorder to the computer). I would want to put my backing tracks on the recorder, go off into the woods somewhere and record vocals (OK, maybe I'll find a better place), and bring it back and upload to the computer for mixing and mangling. In all the advertising blurbs, uploading to the computer is mentioned a lot, but they don't seem to emphasize going in the other direction.
So any thoughts on this? Does anyone else work in this way? Any alternative ideas? Can you offer any notes on your experience and methods?
Thanks!
Digital Multitrack Recorders - advice?
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- KVRist
- 231 posts since 20 Jul, 2002 from Connecticut
[url=http://www.dangries.com]
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- KVRAF
- 4265 posts since 21 Oct, 2001 from my bolthole in the south pacific
The environment in which you mic your voice (room, hall, studio) is part of the sound.
You can try doing it in a really dry place like the woods but you might find it disconcerting performance wise not to have the room sound. You can of course add ambience afterwards with reverb eg convolution and if you have a mobile DAW (eg use a laptop) you could have this artificial ambience in headphones while you sing.
You can try doing it in a really dry place like the woods but you might find it disconcerting performance wise not to have the room sound. You can of course add ambience afterwards with reverb eg convolution and if you have a mobile DAW (eg use a laptop) you could have this artificial ambience in headphones while you sing.
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- KVRist
- 467 posts since 24 Oct, 2003 from Adelaide
Anyone ever try recording vocals in their car?
KVR - the many headed beast.
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- KVRist
- 256 posts since 23 May, 2006
I was thinking this exact thought. Why not track your vocals while driving to work? Brings a whole new perspective to the phrase "traffic jam"papawillow wrote:Anyone ever try recording vocals in their car?
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- Rad Grandad
- 38041 posts since 6 Sep, 2003 from Downeast Maine
grease lives up the street from me (literally)...he'd have more horns, loud stereos and harleys than vox...loveless wrote:I was thinking this exact thought. Why not track your vocals while driving to work? Brings a whole new perspective to the phrase "traffic jam"papawillow wrote:Anyone ever try recording vocals in their car?
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.
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- Rad Grandad
- 38041 posts since 6 Sep, 2003 from Downeast Maine
btw drivin mass with headphones is illegal
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.
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- KVRist
- 32 posts since 7 Mar, 2006 from Indiana
i have a similar problem (small house, thin walls, nosy neighbors, ever-present wife). i make an effort to get home during the day when everyone is at work and the noises of the outside world can somewhat mask my singing if you were to walk by my house. i record my vocals on a fostex D80, doing multiple takes, because it's easier (for me) to do that than to fire up the PC and set up numerous audio tracks, attempt to record, hope there's no latency issues, etc.
i use the optical digital out (SP/DIF) from my D80 to feed the digital in of my soundcard (Emu 0404). i record each vocal track as a WAV using wavelab lite. once they're in WAV format, you can use them in just about any application.
so, in your scenario, i would guess it depends on what sort of output a portable digital recorder offers. i don't know that any of them would be generating a file you could just copy off of the removable media (SD card, or whatever they use). i suppose it's possible, but it's just as likely that they're storing the file data in a proprietary format.
edited to add: my process works the other way around, too. i do what i can on the PC, and then send it to the D80 (i use an outboard mixer for this, but you could easily come up with your own way that doesn't necessarily require a mixer). if i wanted, i could send the optical digital out of the PC to the in of the D80, and bypass the mixer altogether. i tend to record my 'backing tracks' on tracks 1 and 2, and all my vocal takes are on tracks 3 through 8. that gives me enough to work with later.
i'm still a little old school, and i like my outboard gear, and i like bouncing tracks back and forth between the PC and the D80. once i have everything recorded to the D80, i mix down to the PC and attempt to master the song in that environment.
at least that's the theory...i haven't finished a song in months.
i use the optical digital out (SP/DIF) from my D80 to feed the digital in of my soundcard (Emu 0404). i record each vocal track as a WAV using wavelab lite. once they're in WAV format, you can use them in just about any application.
so, in your scenario, i would guess it depends on what sort of output a portable digital recorder offers. i don't know that any of them would be generating a file you could just copy off of the removable media (SD card, or whatever they use). i suppose it's possible, but it's just as likely that they're storing the file data in a proprietary format.
edited to add: my process works the other way around, too. i do what i can on the PC, and then send it to the D80 (i use an outboard mixer for this, but you could easily come up with your own way that doesn't necessarily require a mixer). if i wanted, i could send the optical digital out of the PC to the in of the D80, and bypass the mixer altogether. i tend to record my 'backing tracks' on tracks 1 and 2, and all my vocal takes are on tracks 3 through 8. that gives me enough to work with later.
i'm still a little old school, and i like my outboard gear, and i like bouncing tracks back and forth between the PC and the D80. once i have everything recorded to the D80, i mix down to the PC and attempt to master the song in that environment.
at least that's the theory...i haven't finished a song in months.
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- KVRAF
- 5629 posts since 22 Sep, 2005
The ambiences that you would get in your vocal would be amazing! Yo pure genius.. HEY WHAT ABOUT THE TRUNK??Hink wrote:grease lives up the street from me (literally)...he'd have more horns, loud stereos and harleys than vox...loveless wrote:I was thinking this exact thought. Why not track your vocals while driving to work? Brings a whole new perspective to the phrase "traffic jam"papawillow wrote:Anyone ever try recording vocals in their car?
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 231 posts since 20 Jul, 2002 from Connecticut
Funny you guys should mention recording in the car - that was actually one of my first thoughts! I've noticed that I sing so much better in the car - it's of course because I'm isolated from the world there. But I wasn't going to do it while driving! Mainly because of the headphones thing (and the Harleys). But I'll go park out in the woods somewhere. Get some of that cricket and cicada ambience.
[url=http://www.dangries.com]
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 231 posts since 20 Jul, 2002 from Connecticut
OK, I guess I'm not the only one with this issue!chimpuat wrote:i have a similar problem (small house, thin walls, nosy neighbors, ever-present wife). i make an effort to get home during the day when everyone is at work and the noises of the outside world can somewhat mask my singing if you were to walk by my house. i record my vocals on a fostex D80, doing multiple takes, because it's easier (for me) to do that than to fire up the PC and set up numerous audio tracks, attempt to record, hope there's no latency issues, etc.
i use the optical digital out (SP/DIF) from my D80 to feed the digital in of my soundcard (Emu 0404). i record each vocal track as a WAV using wavelab lite. once they're in WAV format, you can use them in just about any application.
so, in your scenario, i would guess it depends on what sort of output a portable digital recorder offers. i don't know that any of them would be generating a file you could just copy off of the removable media (SD card, or whatever they use). i suppose it's possible, but it's just as likely that they're storing the file data in a proprietary format.
edited to add: my process works the other way around, too. i do what i can on the PC, and then send it to the D80 (i use an outboard mixer for this, but you could easily come up with your own way that doesn't necessarily require a mixer). if i wanted, i could send the optical digital out of the PC to the in of the D80, and bypass the mixer altogether. i tend to record my 'backing tracks' on tracks 1 and 2, and all my vocal takes are on tracks 3 through 8. that gives me enough to work with later.
i'm still a little old school, and i like my outboard gear, and i like bouncing tracks back and forth between the PC and the D80. once i have everything recorded to the D80, i mix down to the PC and attempt to master the song in that environment.
at least that's the theory...i haven't finished a song in months.
Thanks for the input. My Presonus Firebox has a digital in/out (I think!) so I could do the transfers that way. OK, I'm going to start looking for a recorder...but money is tight so maybe I'll wait for a bargain.
[url=http://www.dangries.com]