More Reverend home recording excellence

[TheGoodRev]

Some of you may remember a couple tunes I posted some time last year. I play guitar, bass and drums and was recording a series of riffs in the attic of my old place. It was all analog, with three mics on the kit running through a mixer into the analog line-in of my computer, and bass and guitar amps mic'ed up in similar fashion.

Anyway over the weekend I became the proud new owner of a Presonus Firepod, a firewire audio interface that includes 8 mic pre-amps, so no external mixer is necessary. I've got it all configured with Cubase and it's working like a charm, but haven't had a chance to mic up my drum kit yet to give it a full test run. Instead, I found an old drum track, one of the last ones I did in the attic of my old place. It was meant to be the foundation for a dub, and last night I decided to finish it. It was a real quick job; bass and guitar went straight through the Firepod, so they're real raw. The playing is pretty raw too, I only did one pass each for bass, rhythm guitar and lead guitar. Listening to it now, the lead is pretty overbearing, but I wasn't really taking song structure into account; I just sort of wanked over the whole track. Anyway then I sat and dubwised it a bit using CoolEdit and Cubase. So again, it's pretty raw, but I think it's pretty cool and worth posting. Would love some feedback. It's called Kitchen Dub because my kitchen, being closest to the door to the basement where all the instruments are, is now a full-fledged home studio.

http://www.bigupload.com/d=19C3AA54

Edited February 18, 2006 by Guest
Generalization of the subject line due to generalization of content, motherfuÇker

[TheGoodRev]

I had the wrong link there for a second, I had uploaded an unfinished mix. The right one is up there now.

[TheGoodRev]

Right then, so I've done some more recording. Feel free either to comment or let this thread sink like a stone. This is me playing drums, bass and two guitars, and the same disclaimer as always applies: each of these is a first take, and it hasn't been mixed. You'll hear two riffs, I wrote the second. The first one is courtesy of the other guitar player in my band. Please to listen and enjoy, and please not to steal. Thanks.

http://therev.neenerneet.net/riffage2006-02-18.mp3

[shainhouse]

Mississippi Queen!

Nice work mate, I'm diggin the Drive By-Truckers, Tishamingo-influenced sound... You need a high pitched man with long hair to belt out ode after ode in tribute to alcoholism, rock and roll and mullets and you are rockin' and rollin'.

[richbass]

pretty cool stuff man, would love to come and do some recording............sounds cool......enjoy that

[geomouse]

Hey nice groove there Rev...The kids overheard it and came boppin' in from the other room.

I've been experimenting with Cubase as well. Timouse crammed it into a laptop that I use for recording our live stuff and I've spent a little time figuring out the inner workings of the overdubs and MANY features it has. I've got a long way to go getting it all in line with the processes though. I find that one mistake like a cyber switch that's not turned on or a number that's not set correctly can flush an entire take down the toilet for me...ah the learning curve

Willy showed me his Firepod (no pun intended;) that I believe he rented for taping the FUNdraiser downstairs. Sounds like a similar setup to what you have there. Keep it up man and we look forward to some more of this stuff,

cheers

geomouse

[Jared]

hey man,

keep us updated with the progress on your firepod. i almost bout 3 of them yesterday at long and mc quade.

i read to ton or really crappy reveiws of them, saying mostly that they broke after a few months of use, but there were also some really good reveiws.

what would your recomend for 24 track recording? i was looking into the motu 828 and 24i/o but that has no pre amps or anything

let me know, i'd love to hear from someone using one

p.s the reveiws were at www.zzounds.com

Edited February 19, 2006 by Guest

[TheGoodRev]

Thanks for the comments all.

Re: the Firepod. Before buying I read a number of glowing reviews, most notably from Sound on Sound, a UK pro audio magazine. I saw some of those poor reviews on zZounds too, Jared, but I have a theory about online gear reviews. I personally own a whole arsenal of gear, from my drumkit to my numerous guitars and amps, effects, etc, and I have never once written a positive online review at Harmony Central, zZounds, or any other such forum. I'm sure, though, that the minute I ever have a problem with a piece of gear, I'll be shouting it from the rooftops in every online forum I can find. Simply the fact that there were so many POSITIVE reviews at zZounds was further reinforcement to head out and grab it. The way I figure, there's a warranty, and I really take the absolute best care of my gear that I can. The thing is pretty light and small considering its functions, and you get the sense that there may in fact be $5 worth of parts inside, but then you have to consider that it's probably the most affordable multitrack interface on the market, and it includes eight quality preamps. The preamps really are awesome, by the way. Crisp and clean, they do the job. Bear in mind that I've barely owned it a month, though.

As for 24-track, I could see how three Firepods would do the job quite nicely. I guess it depends what you're recording, though. Only two of the Firepod channels have loops, though, so if you're looking to add a bunch of hardware effects while still using the FP pre's, you're limited to 6 channels. I checked out a few MOTU units before buying the Firepod, but there were several drawbacks. The MOTU 24 I/O looks like an awesome unit, but don't forget it operates with a proprietary PCI card which is liable to up the cost considerably, and you'll have to open up your computer and put the card in there. A good friend of mine has been using a MOTU 2408 mkII for a long time and absolutely swears by it. It's also PCI though and also does not have preamps, and compared to the 24, it only has 8 analog inputs. What's nice about both these cards, though, is that they are built considerably sturdier than the Firepod, and most importantly boast ADAT I/O. The 2408 could then accept up to 24 ins through the ADAT if you had an appropriate ADAT unit to plug into it. That's handy if you can get by with 8 ins day-to-day, but then when the time comes to record your masterpiece, you can rent a digital desk with 24 channels and an ADAT out. As for the 828, it seems like it'll do the job, with two preamps and eight TRS ins. It's a pricier than the Firepod, but it does have that optical support that can come in handy.

Anyway, yes. It's a crowded marketplace. If you have the money and you feel like you'll get a great deal of use out of your home studio gear, MOTU is probably the way to go, along with one of the higher-end Mackie mixers (with direct outs for each channel) for preamps. For my purposes, and many others it seems, the Firepod is the affordable way to go without sacrificing a great deal of audio quality and without paying for a whole host of features (like ADAT) that we may never use, and without having to solve the preamp problem as well. Good luck and let us know what you end up with.

[Jared]

after hearing that i think i'll go back and look at the firepods again. i mostly want it for recording live shows, i don't really do to much home recording and my friend has a full studio next door

how long is the manufactures warrinty?

and what do you think of the rme fireface? do you know of any other 24 track interfaces that have good preamps? i don't really think i'll be using any effects so i'm not to concerned with loops

Edited February 20, 2006 by Guest

[Tungsten Gruvsten]

What about 3x Presonus Digimax, or Focusrite Octopre, or Mackie Onyx? lots to choose from.

[Jared]

yeah a friend just recomended the digimax, and i just read up on the onyx. so mucg to choose from, and there all pretty expensive so i want to make sure i get it right. i really like the firepod, and that was my first choise, so i'm still leaning that way. i think i'm going to try and stay clear of the motu stuff cause i want to only use it on a lap top.

all my friends whit studios recomend i get the rme fireface, but after reading up on the onyx it seem like a good choise too

[TheGoodRev]

I thought the Mackie was proprietary PCI as well, no? Or maybe Firewire, I could be wrong. What I DO know is that, while it seems like an awesome system to have a Mackie mixer that doubles as an interface, the mixers themselves are more expensive than their non-interface Mackie cousins, and the actual interface component is a pricey extra. Weird system. I wonder what the advantage is of having an Onyx WITHOUT the interface guts in it, as opposed to just a regular Mackie mic/line mixer. I suppose you're paying for the possibly that one day you'll be able to afford the PCI or Firewire card or whatever...

Anyway back to the topic at hand...

Thanks for the replies, y'all, I truly appreciate.

I just did this next one over the past few hours.

EDIT My god I talk alot about my own music, how terribly lame. Listen please.

http://therev.neenerneet.net/2006-02-21.mp3 12 MB

Edited February 22, 2006 by Guest