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Comment by Jim Mitchell on December 12, 2011 at 4:09pm

Hey guys I know its been a while but I wanted to post an example of my efforts on Garage Band. I have the 08 version. I used one of my 3 string cigar box resonator guitars on this as well as spoons, a small washboard, fender bass and some shakers.  I am a builder that is trying to get better as a player.  All of the instruments were recorded with  Shure and samson (sp) mic's going through Garage Band no amps. The vocals (if you can call them that) were recorded with the internal mic on my macbook/pro.  I hope to do a video to go along with it.

http://soundcloud.com/jimendo/shortning-video-track

Comment by Bama Jelley on September 10, 2011 at 6:59am

Yes, the quality of backing tracks seems to vary quite a bit. If they are ripped from a CD+G disk (karaoke CD)  from a quality production house (soundchoice), they have the potential to be very good, however, some people rip a low quality rates to keep the MP3 file small. Some karaoke discs just suck to begin with, and they will never sound good.

Other backing tracks are midi based. If you can get the original .mid file, you can get them to sound any way you want with a good sequencer application (garageband is good for this too). But, if you download an audio file (mp3) of a midi performance, it almost always sucks.

I actually started working on the diagram to educate my daughter on how everything connects. She is the reason I use the headphone amp as well. Her ears are very sensitive and she does not like her monitor mix as loud as I like mine. There is a phones out jack on the front of the original Saffire unit and outputs 3 and 4 (1/4 inch TS mono) get the same mix. When I first got the interface, I used the phones out jack on the front, but It quit working the first day I had it. After working through the issue with Focusrite tech support, I took it back to the store and exchanged it for a new one. I have concerns about the fragility of the front phones jack to this day and am very careful when using it.

Comment by Mark Bliss on September 10, 2011 at 2:41am

Thanks for the info,

I was curious about the backing tracks because most of what I have found is so low quality.

You obviously put some effort into the diagram, thanks for that as well. I see you use the Behringer amp for a headphone amp. Doesnt the interface have headphone outs?

Comment by Bama Jelley on September 9, 2011 at 11:36am

Here is a diagram of my setup. Disclaimer: The CBG pictured is not mine... I found it on google. The jack where the Guitar connects to the Saffire 14 on the diagram will accept either a XLR connector (microphone balanced input - LO) or a 1/4 TS mono connector (instrument cable - HI). HI and LO are selectable in software.

Comment by Bama Jelley on September 9, 2011 at 1:56am

The correct website links for those karaoke sites are:

 

http://www.chartbusterkaraoke.com/

 

http://www.soundchoicestore.com/

Comment by Bama Jelley on September 9, 2011 at 1:53am

Thanks Mark. The backing track was ripped from a CD+G karaoke disk at 192Kbs. You can also buy backing tracks for about $1 per from some websites for karaoke music. Check out www.soundchoice.com or www.chartbuster.com. 

I have some other songs I will be working on that I ripped with a losless format but they take up alot of disk space. The good news is that disk space is cheap these days.

When I started down this road of building a little recording studio, I never planned to have as much equipment as I ended up with. I really wanted to use my existing mixer from my PA system, but It just wasn't ideal for me.I will post a diagram and list of equipment later today.

The last few pieces of equipment my company paid for. My work had a "HealthSouth Idol" contest a couple weeks ago and I won it all. First prize was $500. You can check out my winning perfomance here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_m8iNPq4nM

 

I wanted to play my CBG in the final performance, but I just suck so bad at it that I decided not to. Maybe next year. I need to practice.

 

Comment by Mark Bliss on September 9, 2011 at 12:21am

Those sound pretty good!

Where did you get the backing tracks?

Comment by Bama Jelley on September 8, 2011 at 11:48pm

I have been playing around with home recording for over a year now. I suck at playing guitar (or any other musical instrument) so for my first project(s) I just wanted to record vocals over a backing track (i.e. karaoke instrumental track) of some random country cover songs.

I started out with plugging in a 1/8 stereo line in connector from my small mixer directly to my laptop and recording with Audacity. It sounds ok, but there is always too much noise for my taste. I then upgraded to a behringer uca-222 usb audio interface and feed that from my behringer mixer. I also got a condenser mic. This was better, but only good for "live takes" and could not do overdub due to latency issues the tracks would always get out of sync. I could timeshift them and get them somewhat in sync, but they never sounded great. I finally decided to get a better audio interface (focusrite saffire 14 pro - firewire) and try my daughter's mac mini with garageband. This has given me my best results yet. I can load the original source mp3 into the software, and then overdub my vocals with no problem. I can also go back and overdub additional harmony tracks with no problem. Garageband is so easy to use and almost professional sounding results (I am limited by my room and my talent here). I am posting my first attempt at recording a track. You can download the mp3 here...

High Cost of Living - Jamey Johnson (cover)

or check out the alternate version here with an additional harmony vocal track added...

High Cost of Living(2) - Jamey Johnson (cover)

I think I like the first one best...

I will post more info on my setup later. I hope this info helps someone.

 

Comment by Paul Stephen Eklund on August 27, 2011 at 11:08am

Sammy, I have found and downloaded a version of Audacity for Imac. Played with it for a bit. Kinda clunky but WAY better than what I thought it would be. The first time I'd ever used it for a live recording. Used it years ago to work with wave files. At that time I had a PC.  I'd say if you have a metronome record that first. Turn your speakers off and put a set of headphones on. Play your uku to the beat. Then mute the beat track and sing along with what you played. Each time with headphones on and your speakers off.  Have fun with it! Looking forward to hearing good things from ya.

Comment by Mark Bliss on August 27, 2011 at 9:14am

Sammy

Some of the information above, in the discussion area and links should help guide your research and get you started. I also refer to various books and such, including "home recording for musicians" from the Dummies series.

Theres a lot of potential information to consume, and the very best tip I can give you is start small and experiment, expanding as you learn.

And have fun!

Mark

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