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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Thank you, Martin, for doing this. I cannot attend live, but will watch this later. Right now, I use the video camera on my laptop computer and a USB microphone (Samson GoMic) to make videos. I just downloaded Reaper. Does Reaper take the place of the camera? Is it only sound? I guess I don't really understand what Reaper is. I am a total novice when it comes to all of this. If it is a free way to make my sound quality better, I want to learn.
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Eric Phillips Hey Eric! I generally try to avoid recording Audio & Video at the same time as it puts quite a heavy load on every machine. Reaper is an environment to edit and mix music, you would do all the audio post production in this piece of software and then sync it with the video recording you made with another camera. You could record everything at the same time into the computer with OBS, in fact, that's the software that we are using for livestreaming (but it can record as well and is completely free).
Reaper is free to use for an evaluation period which can be prolonged indefinitely. At one point (when I did the Recording Course) I purchased the commercial licence for 70€, which is still very inexpensive for this type of software!
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Martin Thanks for responding, Martin. You’re already over my head a bit, so I’ll just have to watch the livestream.
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Eric Phillips Aaaah, I am so sorry, It's always kinda difficult for me to not go into full nerd-mode when I talk about recording
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Martin No worries. I'm happy with what I'm doing right now, but if there is a better way that is free and not too difficult for me to figure out, I'm all ears.
Looking forward to the livestream.
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Hello! I have a good mic and an interface. I haven't set them up yet but plan to soon so this discussion is good timing! I think I'm pretty clear on straight audio recording using either Reaper or some other DAW. What I'm confused about is syncing the recording to video using an iPad- something you folks at TB are very good at. I look forward to any instruction you can provide. Thanks!
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Eric Hi Eric! Do you want to record video on the IPad and sync it afterwards or do you want to do the syncing ON the IPad with a Video Editing Software for the IPad? What type of IPad do you use?
While it is perfectly possible to do these steps on the IPad, I am a bit oldschool when it comes to video editing, I prefer to do this with software like "Premiere Pro" or "Davinci Resolve" for the PC or Mac.
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Eric What Interface and Mic do you have if I may ask?
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Martin Thanks Martin! I have an AKG P170 mic and the PreSonus AudioBox iTwo interface. Looks like the Presonus has it's own software so maybe I don't need another program?
I really want to keep this as simple as possible. I just want to record (audio and video) myself playing for self instruction and to share online for workshops, lessons etc.
Eric K
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Eric Thanks! It looks like you record directly onto your iPad, right? Although I have an iPad and a interface capable of working together with the iPad, I have never explored that workflow! I usually record with two separate devices, but I am pretty sure it is possible to do that.
With a quick internet search I found these discussions that point in that direction:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250734024
It seems you can select your input in your Sound Control Panel, this should enable you to use the regular Camera App together with your interface! But if Presonus has a dedicated software for iPad, I would take a look at that as well, that should give you more control!
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Eric the answer I quoted might refer to a Macbook and not to an iPad. It seems that the iPad should be able to automatically select the audio interface that you plugged it! Maybe joosje can describe her workflow with the MV88+ (I believe), which is basically a mic and interface in one device!
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Martin I changed my schedule so that I will be able to follow this instruction and your valuable insights.
I mostly record with just my Samsung Galaxy. Or, if I’m at home, with the PC cam, directly to the drive in Windows, with a USB mic (Samson Meteor). I recently acquired a Zoom Q2nvideo cam, which is quite handy and easy, but needs (a bit) extra time to copy the file to PC and then to YouTube (I more or less figured out, by trial&error, how to do that and cut out both ends of the video, the parts where your arm blocks the camera to turn it on/off.)more importantly, I am now the proud owner of 2 CM4 mics, and a focusrite scarlet 2i2. I started using that for the interactive masterclass with Emmanuel. I think it’s up and working. Now I must start doing the recordings with that equipment and experiment with positioning, distance, gain, etc. In last year’s recording workshop I couldn’t really follow, so I have to go go through that again. Working in reaper is one thing! Then find out how to combine the video with the sound……
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joosje Woooow, fantastic!!! Good Choice of mics!!!! You are at the beginning of a wonderful journey with a dedicated audio interface!
When you recorded directly onto your drive, did you use the regular Camera App of Windows?
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Martin yes.
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Martin Thanks so much Martin. I'm looking forward to your discussion later today.
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Awesome! So many questions. Here is a few....
Reaper
-set up basics (Single mic, XLR to -ScarletSolo (Audio Interface) to -Laptop)
-recording levels, input settings - single channel? or 2 channels mono L/R?
-phase inversion why how?
-source edit file and destination file technique to copy paste? 2 projects open?
-custom keyboard shortcuts for repetitive commands
-naming clips
-editing basics
DaVinci
-set up basics (USB camera into laptop + Davinci)
-recording video, while also recording sound (live, separately and put together)
-recommendations/tips for a beginner, advanced tips/concepts to approach later
-organizing work, coordinating and managing the overall workflow
-editing basics
Whatever else you can fit in this session would be welcome. I really think with your deep knowledge on this subject you could cover several valuable sessions on this topic. Looking forward to learning this, again....
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Brooke I think this calls for a new whole series, haha! In this livestream we will cover the very basics to enable people to share content on the forums (like optimal recording scenario with only a smartphone) and then run through a very simple "Mic - Cable - Interface - Computer" scenario to record in a semi-professional environment!
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Brooke btw, I have never recorded video directly onto my hard drive it's a huge stream of data directly onto your hard drive. I tend to record with a camera and sync afterwards, just to avoid that my computer crashes.
A software that can record directly onto your computer without problem is OBS, the software which we are using for Livestreams. But for that, my Cinema Camera is fed into a Blackmagic Atem Mini video interface (similar to an audio interface). There are cameras (especially webcams or built-in laptop cams) than don't need any additional devices!
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Martin Ah yes, cover what you can. It's all helpful and needed! There is so much to talk about and understand.
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Martin " I have never recorded video directly onto my hard drive.."
interesting, thanks. Tell me more about OBS, sounds like it could be a useful tool?
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Brooke OBS is great, the interface is a bit daunting at first (as with all post-production-software), but it is actually pretty straight forward!
I usually see Audio- and Video-Recording as two separate steps, it just keeps the count of point of failures a bit lower, haha! But when I absolutely have no time for post-production (or the client is unwilling to pay for that), I take the output of my interface and route it directly into my camera, that way everything is already in sync, but it gives me less freedom in post-production!
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This could be a very helpful session and save much time in the learning curve.
Keep it simple to start (step by step with procedural outline provided) to achieve decent audio and video. Looking forward to this. Thank You
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Michael Carlson This session will be very basic and high level, but we will walk through simple recording setup!
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Martin
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Michael Carlson
Thanks. Crawl, walk and then run
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