A few home recording problems...

I'll take a sample.............

Scattered thoughts as I am about to leave for a show.............

I don't think you are in the ideal setting being surrounded by glass and all. Sound waves will bounce around like crazy making it sound very harsh.

If possible, hang some blankets around. That will help deaden the sound and take out some of the harshness of the cymbal crash.

One mic on a chair resting on an un-used pedal! :shock:

Ideally, you would want a few on the drums, one guitar, one bass and however many you need for the vocals.

It sounds like you are recording everything separately, which is good. If you aren't doing it this way already, record the bottom end first..... Drums, bass, guitar then vocals.

Effects- I would start with a compressor on the drums and bass. Take out some of the high end on the drums and tighten up the bottom (low) end of the bass. Slight verb to taste on the guitar and vocals.

Note: I am in no way a recording engineer or anything like that but, I like messing around.

Gotta go...........

Hi Clazon

At least get a low cost mic stand !
Doing an even faily good "all instruments in one take" recording with just one mic is impossible, especially when you have hard glass walls around you.
And as Mikes says, doing a recording of each instrument/singer at a time to a separate track is the best.
Then you can position the mic in the "right" place for each instrument/singer.

But doing a instrument(track) by instrument(track) recording requires skilled musicians and at least a simple mixer so the player can hear the backing/previous track when hi plays/records his part.

I've done some band recordings this way occasionally and a lot depends on mic volume. You'll probably end up WAY overloading the poor thing. The bass/kick will dominate the lows, rides will dominate the highs and everything else gets pumped into a blurry mid-section. Don't forget that drums have a high volume plus an fast attack and decay, it pierces very easily. Rhythm guitar is often a more permanent sound and gets washed away easily. Try lowering the volume on the recording device and, trust me, rap the mic in a shirt or such to dampen the sound a bit. Worked well enough to spot mistakes and work on the songs at home.

At the mo we record in a glass and plastic conservatory about 20X12ft.

You're enmeshed in a sea of reflected sound and standing waves. You'll need to do some kind of treatment to break them up.

Find an old sofa and put it on the wall opposite the drums, and some stuffed chairs in the corners (poor man's bass traps)

sections of old carpet hung on the glass (or any dense fabric with a tight weave - moving pads are great ) will break up the relections off the walls

Thanks for all the comments so far.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=538934

Listen to "Sample".

Here's a sample of a brand new track that we laid down straight after we thought it up. There's no lead and the bass loses his position at times, whilst the rhythm guitar is a bit too quiet and weedy in tone anyway, but it identifies all our problems perfectly.

EDIT:

We were going to buy a mixer and record parts separately, but it was a bit out of our price range. We do however record vocals over the top.

It'll be hard to near impossible to get any sort of decent sound out of what you're using.

First of all, make sure the mic you're using is omnidirectional not unidirectional. Otherwise you will find that sounds which are in the direct line of fire for the mic will be considerably louder than anything that is on the opposite end. Even two mics would be a great improvement(of course it will also introduce a whole plethora of new problems). At least you would be able to get some sort of stereo image. Some dampening in the room would certainly help. You might try using that sample as a scratch track. Re-record the drums on a new track say in Kristal, then the bass, then the guitar(mic up against the grill). This will of course require some headphones and some sort of splitter or headphone amp but not much more of an investment. Maybe another $100 at the very most. By doing this you will at least be able to get some control over the sound of your guitar and bass.

Granted, in the past many recordings were done with one room in the middle of the room of musicians and singers. Mind you those rooms were well treated and some of the mics they used are sought after even today for plenty more then they retailed for in their day and even then, it was most definitely noticeable that they only used one mic. Not the greatest recordings in the world but certainly feats of creative sound engineering and thoughtful placement of instruments and vocalists. You're kind of taking a trip back into the thirties to fifties and that's ok. If you can make it sound good. Good for you. With technology today, you can do some pretty amazing recording for a few hundred dollars investment. Start saving your pocket change.

Cheers and I'd certainly like to try out a few track recordings.

Try this.

Take that recording that you don't like and put in on an MP3 player.

One at a time, put on the headphones, go into the booth and record yourselves solo playing along with the recording.

Now take all of the tracks you just created and mix them into one recording.

You should have consistent tempo and you should be able to adjust the mix.

Not the best of all possible worlds but it might work.

Again something else to try.

Thanks.

EDIT:

Anyone got any tips about when and how much reverb etc to put on?

One at a time, put on the headphones, go into the booth and record yourselves solo playing along with the recording.
The only problem with that is, if they were off on the recording................ they'll be making a second copy.

The drummer and bass player have to be "on". This is where the dummer needs to shine. Get him/her in there, then bass etc...

This is a pain but, you can always record the basic 4, 8, 12 whatever bars and loop it. Same with bass and the guitar riff. So basically, all you would have to do a full recording on would be the vocals and the lead.

Hmmm. I'd definitely stay away from looping. I like the small errors and variations.