Introduction to Home Recording!
By popular demand, we will explore the very first steps of home recording together! 
We will look at recording with a smartphone and actually get that recording up on YouTube in order to share it on the forum, but also will be looking to record directly onto your computer with the free digital audio workstation Reaper, an audio interface and a microphone! 
We are going to be using this thread to gather suggestions and questions!
- What questions do you have on this topic?
- Any particular area you would like me to focus on?
Forum questions will be answered first!
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I have been using Audacity and find it very easy to use. Are there advantages to using REAPER over Audacity?
I use a smartphone with Shure MV88+ microphone, or audacity with MV88+ when I record audio directly into my Lenovo laptop (running Windows 10). I record audio several times per week as part of my practice sessions, and then delete them after listening.
If I record audio separately from video for something I want to share, I edit and combine them using SHOTCUT.
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Martha Kreipke Hi Martha! I don't think that there is a big difference between those two pieces of software, not for the workflow we will look at at least!
Same goes for SHOTCUT, it looks to any other video editor to me! Davinci Resolve has its own logic sometimes, but it differentiates the different steps of video post production quite effectively!
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Martin Thank you. I tried to use DaVinci Resolve but it seems a lot more complex than Shotcut. At least for the videos I have been making.
I am still working on the best way to "fix" a few notes in Audacity. Maybe if you can show us in REAPER I will be able to figure it out in Audacity.
See you Monday.
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Martha Kreipke I'll take a look at Shotcut!
So you mean you want to know the best way to cut a certain section and insert in there, right? That is always a bit cumbersome since classical music doesn't work "on the grid" meaning with a steady tempo, but there are workflows that should speed things up in Reaper!
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I have a question...
How can I not get paralysed with all the different parameters and possibilities and not get fed up and give up? Distance from mic, angle, place in room, which microphone, AB, XY, MS, WTF, OMG, IDK...
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Roni Glaser Most of the recording techniques you mentioned are very standardized stereo techniques (or, lets say, the first three, haha) that aim to get the most realistic stereo field representation and mono-compatibility. But you don't need to bother with these at all at first, simply trust your ears and see where your guitar sounds the best and see, if that translates into the recorded file!
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Martin Thanks Martin, but it's really all the other things that trouble me; I suppose the only thing to do is record the same thing a bezillion times changing one parameter at a time...
I think the problem I've had most is comparing several recordings, because sometimes they just sound sort of the same, but not... Maybe I just need to be more systematic about it, making notes all the way, and just find a satisfactory point in the room with a satisfactory distance.
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Roni Glaser Yes, that's what you would call a soundcheck
No room sounds the same, no guitar sounds the same, and nobody can play a couple of notes identical to one another, so there is always a certain ... uncertainty! The initial process is to setup your recording gear, capture some notes and really listen! When you hear too much room, you get closer, wenn it's too bass-heavy, you move away from the sound hole, when it's too thin , move more towards the bridge insted of the neck. There are a million different possibilities that will work, so there is no real right or wrong when it comes to find the sweet spot!
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Martin Roni Glaser I would also say that, for me at least, use your headphones by the time you're testing out multiple setups and after compare with the recorded session. That would give you a better idea while experiencing it as you're doing it.
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Martin said:
When you hear too much room, you get closer, wenn it's too bass-heavy, you move away from the sound hole, when it's too thin , move more towards the bridge insted of the neck.Thanks Martin! This is very helpful! It often feels like stabbing in the dark without knowing what does what to the sound.
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Hi Martin... thank you for doing this .... so far I have been very hesitant to load any video of my playing to any of the forums/ challenges, although I have joined the challenges (playing to myself) and following along to some of them... partly I'm shy but also I have not fully understood how to get a smartphone recording to YouTube or how to record using Reaper. I have just commenced the Recording Course to use my computer for recording, and have completed the first session and onto the second session.. I am using Reaper, and have USB audio interface Focusrite Scarletti 2i2 and a studio Microphone MXL440 (cardioid). I would use the webcam on my computer (Apple MacBook Pro) for video. So far so good ... however I am very excited about this Home Recording live stream (I am in Australia so 6am for me)... hopefully it will help me understand a little more to complete the previous Recording Course and also get me up to speed with the alternative of using my Apple smart phone to YouTube and then take the leap to sharing content to the forums. I hope the session will be step by step.
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margaret macarthur Fantastic, hopefully this will enable you to share more videos! I will show you how to upload a video to YouTube in a way that you can share it on the forum!
And congratulations to completing the first session! With a setup like that, I would recommend to record audio onto your computer and video with your smartphone and sync it afterwards in a video editor, that should give you the best quality. But be assured that it absolutely sufficient to simply share a smartphone recording, in fact 90% of the videos on the forum are recorded that way!
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Martin Many thanks Martin for a very informative Home Recording live session. After watching the sessions and i think I understood most of it .. Just to clarify I have a few simple questions
1. Smart phone to You Tube - do i just use video recording on the phone and then share to YouTube - ie no need for any other software
2. If (as you suggest in your reply to me above) I use smart phone as video and audio on my computer through mic and Scarletti audio interface to Reaper - do I need something like OBS Studio software to sync audio/video etc
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Martin Hello Martin, i will participate in this workshop
Best Regards Olli -
Olli Nice!
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Hello Martin,
I have a Fender acoustic amp, a mixing board (both passive and active - for powered speakers and non-powered speakers) and an Apple MacBook Air. Also a Spire Home studio. I seem to have everything I need, but do not know how to configure any of it to record. Any help would be great.
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Paul Kennedy Hi Paul! The Spire itself is a pretty powerful recording house that works in conjunction with a dedicated App, Does the mixing board connect via USB to the MacBook?
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Martin Did you ever try it the Spire? It looks like an awesome product for quickly produce music.
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Paul Kennedy How do you like the Spire?
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Blaise Laflamme I've never used it! I already had so many microphones the time it first came out, haha
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Blaise Laflamme I love it, I just do not know how to sync it with video. It is the best sound imaginable
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Paul Kennedy great to hear! you should be able to sync your audio/video within your video editor, they normally provide some options to ease the process, or you can manually align the audio-clip and video-clip waves and then mute the video-clip sound.
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Blaise Laflamme Thank you Blaise, I will spend some time this weekend experimenting.
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Martin
I've two questions:
1) Is there any advantage of recording directly with the ZOOM H4N acting as a sound card via Reaper or recording first with the H4N and then loading the wav file on Reaper?
2) Can better results be obtained by simultaneously recording with H4N and Tascam MK100Dr and then with Reaper to treat the files one as right channel and the other as left channel, adding the recordings?-
ivan paolo personally, when I record myself alone, I prefer using my MixPre6 (similar to your H4N) for a recording session and then import and clean it in my DAW after. For shorts I'm about to try a setup with a webcam and a USB microphone to see if I can good results. Lets see what tips Martin has for us!
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