Hi all,
this Forum lately has seen the active participation of many members, who have shared their talent with the rest of us; this has motivated me to record something new, after a hiatus of a few years due to personal problems that kept me away from music, but I have discovered that I am in the process of learning the basics again -so to speak- and this gave me the idea of opening this thread and asking how do you record your own music, and in particular:

1- Do you prefer the hardware route (i.e a dedicated multitrack recorder, like a Tascam DP-24) or the software route (i.e. a computer and a DAW like Sonar, Cubase, Audition, etc) or a combination of the two methods? And why?

2- How many tracks do you record at once? Two or more? In other words, have you ever taken advantage of the multiple outputs that some keyboards have to record -say- the drums on tracks 1 & 2, the bass on track 3 and so on?
This of course would enable later to process each instrument in a different way (adding effects, Eq, compression, etc), but not all the recorders can do this and -in the case of a computer based system- one would need a more sophisticated (and expensive) interface (read audio card).

3- Do you prefer to record your performance "live" (be it in stereo or multiple tracks to be mixed later) or do you prefer to lay down one track at a time?

I am really curious because -like I said- I have to face the same choices right now and what was good in the past might not be good anymore now (people change and so do their needs or priorities).
Thank you.

About the only way I record anything is to plug into my Tascam digital recorder while I'm on the job. I run from a left and right tape or stereo output into the two channels on the recorder, and hit record.
Occasionally I record something at home using the onboard recorder on PA3X, but no often.
I have dabbled in multi-track recording in past years, and you can no doubt get a better recording with much more control. However the main purpose if my recordings is to hear what I sound like when I'm actually performing and use that knowledge to improve.

Don,
what Tascam do you own? Can you comment on its quality? Pro vs cons? Thanks.

I keep it very simple, Dreamer. I like to record on the Tyros4's midi recorder "live" as it captures the feeling best.

If I don't succeed on the first two takes, I will take a break and try a bit later, as too many tries seem to lose the "feel". The only post recording editing I do may be panning, effects and volume adjustments.

I use high quality headphones when recording, again taking regular breaks to avoid ear fatigue. If I'm happy with the result, I use the Tyros4's Audio Recorder to make a Wav. recording of the tune, and then I put the Wav. on a flash-drive, load in my PC for use in making a Cd, or convert to Mp3 for emailing or uploading to 4Shared or Box net.

Sometimes I will re-record the right hand parts afterwards, and keep each sound on a separate track, again for minor editing, but I rarely record anything I can't reproduce "live".

However, that may change if I don't start back to gigging.

I'm sticking to only using the Tyros4, as I want my "sound" to remain consistent, as if working with the same orchestra.

It's great to hear you are getting back into recording...I went through a bit of a slump several years ago, but it was only for about 4 months and I broke out of it by basically forcing myself to record.

Once I got started again, I was fine.

Ian

I am currently using DR-05. Small, inexpensive and the quality is extremely good. The built-in mics are pretty good, but I use the line-inputs almost exclusively. You can record in WAV format or a variety of MP3 compression ratios. It records directly to micro-SD card. The one I have in there is 16 Gigs and it holds a LOT of songs in WAV format. It takes 2 AA batteries for power and battery life is excellent. I use rechargeable ones. It can also be powered by USB and that's what I generally use both on the job and in the car.
I also have a PR-10, that is even smaller and even less expensive. I also have 16-gig micro SD card in it. It works just fine, with fewer options and smaller built-in mics (which I don't use anyway). It is about 1" x 4" in size. I lost the battery cover from it, so I have clear tape over it, but it still is fully functional.
I previously had another model or two, plus a couple of Zooms. I prefer the Tascams, but all have been quite good.

Until recently, I used the Zoom H2 and a number of PC based programs that provided pretty good results - but not great. Now, I just press the record/USB button on the S-950 during a live show, and as you can hear, most of the time the recordings come out great.

Good thread Adrian,

Gary

I prefer the 1 track "live" method. I record vocal and melody directly from a Yamaha PSR-S910 into a Digital Recorder (BR-864) with multi-track capability but, for the sake of time, one track does all I need for my songwriting recordings. From the digital recorder, I send a WAV file to my computer and use a free audio editor to clean up minor glitches or to cut and paste certain sections if needed. I often change volumes on intros, breaks and endings and finally, normalize the edited WAV file before copying into MP3 format (or other formats as needed).

If I am dis-satisfied with the result, I simply re-cut the entire song until I'm happy with the results. Often, I will wait a day or two, listen again and see if it still sounds as good as I originally thought. Fortunately, the ability to save the style settings makes a second cut much easier.

The older I get, the less pleased I am at my vocal abilities but I get significant practice this way.

I agree with Don Mason about higher quality if several tracks are used but, time is not on my side and I am doing my best to complete 1000 songs for my catalog before the grim reaper comes calling. Only 93 songs to go now to reach this self-imposed target, not including instrumentals or children's musicals in this category. I have been writing songs for nearly ten years after retiring from a job involving industrial automation.

I enjoy several genres including, Easy Listening, Country, Americana, Blues, Jazz and Novelty songs. Fortunately, I don't depend on making a living with my works... unless I can attract top of the line vocalists with significant fan acceptance and "record sales." If and when that happens, the entire ballgame can change overnight.

Let's face it... hope is the spring that drives the songwriting mechanism for thousands of us.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Dave Rice

http://www.ShowcaseYourMusic.com/DaveRice/

Get yourself a dedicated desktop (not a laptop)
I use adobe audition 1.5 – 3.0 is ok, never warmed up to sonar or pro tools, it’s up to you. I only use audio so 128 tracks is good.
Add an audio card, I recommend, RHE sound card,
Get a mixer – I have a Heath and Allen mixer
Run your keyboard to the mixer, then to the audio card and run the outs to your speakers.
To listen to the results I get you can listen here.
http://chipos.com
Let me know if you have questions are even want to go this route.
I have messed with every USB sound device (Motu, Mbox, ect..) and nothing beats a rig…

Good luck

Thank you,
you have written everything I needed to know about the live/straightforward approach and you kept it very concise. All the words needed to convey the message and not one more.
A real zen-man.