Audacity Recording Tips/Tutorials and Q & A

I plan on organizing this better once I have time, right now this is just my own knowledge of basic tips through experience

I'm not sure if something like this already exists. But I kinda want to start a thread to talk about a great way to record your own music, programs to use, and tricks to get good results. (It would be weird if something like that didn't exist, but even if it does, I want to give you my own personal input (And if you want, I want you to share to).

I've been recording my own music on Audacity for almost 3 years so I've got a good amount of experiences, also releasing 2 self produced demos which had pretty good results. I think it's important as a musician to be able to record your music. Not having the capability is like an author who has a pen to write with, but no paper to write on. Recording music is also very important in the writing process because you can listen to it over and over and think about what you want to change, or what second instruments could go like, and most importantly, what the lyrics and vocals will sound like. (And if you're like me and you are doing everything yourself, it saves a ton of trouble.)

First off, would anyone be interested in a discussion like this? (Think of the "Site/Forums Help Q & A" but dealing specifically with helping musicians on a tight budget record with a decent quality.

Preparation

Programs I use:
For Recording:
Audacity
(If you've been into music very long you most likely know about this amazing FREE program. On the surface it looks and works a little bit cheap. Even crashes a bit (especially on Vista, but what doesn't on that?). But with the right plug-ins and the right tricks you can turn out pretty good quality recordings.

For Drums:
Acoustica Beatcraft
This is a simple very user friendly drum program for a reasonable price. You can download the demo on the site. This has professional recorded drum clips included so the drums don't sound fake. And once you get the hang of how it works, making complicated rolls and fills is really quite simple. Plus it's great for any genre, from Hip Hop to Techno to Death Metal.


Plugging in:
I honestly don't know a thing about how professional studios record, or even where to start with plugs and hardware for having a professional re.cording studio. But with 1-2 1/4in. cables, a Microphone ($20-30) and a 1/4-1/8in stereo adapter from radio shack ($7) you're good to go.

When I recorded my demos, I plugged the microphone (make sure the end is a 1/4in. input) into the adapter, and the adapter into the Mic Port on my computer, and simply leaned the mic up next to an amp. Granted the better the amp the better the quality. I had a Single Speaker Marshall amp and plugged it into a Marshall 4x12 Cab and it worked great. It really comes down to getting the volume just right. Too loud and you will hear alot of static noise on the playback, to low and you will have to turn the volume up on Audacity and you end up with the same problem. I usually put the amp as loud as I can take it, and put the Microphone volume in Audacity to 5-6 to make sure it's picking up at a controlled volume.

To Click, or not to Click?
I was in a band for a year and a half with a guitarist who refused to record our scratch tracks to a click track, this made writing my parts more difficult than they had to be because there was no exact beat. So always make sure to add a click track. To add a click track in Audacity go to "Generate>>Click Track" and fill out all the spaces to what fits the song.
Tip: Always make sure the click track is way longer than you intend the track to be. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to recordand get near the end of a song and than the click track goes off. Once you mess around with that for awhile and get an idea of what tempo works, go ahead and do a test recording with maybe about a minute of the song.

I will be updating this post with pictures and organizing it frequently. I think this should do for the preparation part for now though. And it's all I have time for. If you have any questions about any of the things above before than, please post them. I'm surely not a professional, but like I said, I have a ton of experience with this stuff and I want to share it because I love music, and realize, as a musician, the importance of having recordings of your work, even if it's not to release and is only for self improvement reasons. For me personally, recording is a vital part to progressing as a musician and with the instrument you play. Thank you and I hope this will help!

Instrument Experience:

Guitar (3-4 1/2 years)
Piano/Synth (1 1/2 years)
Vocals (4 years)

P.s. Right now this post looks like it's going to be all the stuff I know. But if I didn't already mention it, I also want you to share what you know, and any tricks you've picked up.

Battery is *bleep*ing awesome. I bought it when it was half price.

You'll need a program capable of using VSTs to use Battery, considering it is a VST instrument.

Cubase, Renoise, Fruity Loops, Ableton etc.

I'm trying to record something on Audacity. It's going ok. I'm recording directly from the recording out/phones socket on my amp, I've got a guitar lead going from that to an adapter, so it will fit into the mic input socket on the front of my laptop.

Whenever I try to record any guitar part with some distortion on it, the sound always drops to about a 3rd of the volume after playing a few notes/chords. Anyone know why this is happening and a way around it?

To give you a visual example:



That's playing the intro to my song. As you can see, the volume suddenly drops down just after the start. This is without any change in the way I'm playing. I'm simply picking two notes over and over.

1/4" to 1/8" cable.

If you've got software that can give you effects and distortion and what have you then you could go direct from the guitar to the computer if you wanted to, but I personally would say it's better to go Guitar -> Amp -> Computer...Then you have the sound you want from your amp, and anything else you want to add on top of that you can do...

quote Pompey Fan

Yeah, but I can't. Because I've only got Headphones and Input on my Amp.
Can someone also give me a link to the cable I need on ebay or something. Cheers.

Have you even tried to search for the item yourself? We're not to be set to task for everything you don't feel like doing yourself.

And also, the headphone out SHOULD be well enough to record with. Just start with all amplification levels at minimum and turn it up slowly to a comfortable signal level.

just go to your guitar store, chances are they'll have one. if not audio stores may carry them.