New to recording. Gear question.

[KiLL-A-HertZ]

Hi all. 

Haven't been on here in a while.   I recently bought a keyboard to help me learn harmonica and music theory a bit better.  So i got the idea that i wanted to record a backing track.  I have a guitar (which i can't play) and the keyboard (which i can't really play either).  I can play the drums a bit, but don't have a set.   So i think I'll Fake it on the keyboard.  And maybe fake some other instruments aswell.

The thing I'm really trying to accomplish with this is better understanding music from different angles and different instruments.  And better understanding music theory and scales.  Specifically the blues,  but also all music in general.
I figure i can learn the same 12 bar riff across all the instruments and put it together.   Then play harp over it.  I think it would be pretty satisfying as well as informational.  So i wanna give it a go.

The real question is .... what's the best gear to use.

Right now I'm looking at the digitech jamman stereo.  It looks like it's got tons of uses.  But i also don't have a computer anymore.  Since smartphones i really haven't had a need for one.   Anyways,  can anyone point me in the right direction here?

Thanks

[Beelzebob]

Hey Chris,

I think a keyboard is great to have even if you never get proficient with it.  I use mine a lot for figuring things out, it's all nice and linear on a keyboard.  I mainly use it for horns and strings in Kontakt.  Toontrak makes EZdrummer and a lot of people swear by it.  You might think about Band in a Box, I use it, little bit of a learning curve but still easy as this kind of thing goes, and results are very good.  As far as learning your guitar and other instruments, there's so many free lessons on youtube.  But it can take a while to get proficient enough to make a quality BT if you're playing most of the instruments.  The timing of the pros in Band in a Box is hard to attain.  They are so dead-on.  YMMV, but that's how it's been for me.

If you want to use your smartphone for making backing tracks, IK makes a bunch of useful stuff.  I think they are ikmultimedia.com.  IIRC, Blue Boy made a lot of nice backing tracks last jam with his tablet and IK
software.  I have a dumbphone, I'm not much help beyond trying IK.  I can't imagine doing it myself, I need lots of monitor real estate to do audio production.  But many do.  Like this girl:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK15Fwho6Ys

Hope you have some success with it.

[KiLL-A-HertZ]

Wow!   That girl is amazing!

But notice how she used 3 guitar chords for that song.

Not that I'm going for that style of music, but that's similar to what i was thinking the guitar parts would be like.  I-IV-VI. A few chords to get thru a 12 bar.   Maybe a lil bit more to fancy it up. 

But thanks for showing me all you can do with a phone.   Amazing.  Should be more than ill need.   Or at the very least enough to get me started.

I bought a second hand jamman solo xt.  It's pretty amazing itself.  Without even have read the instructions i made a pretty cool loop.   I was just watching brendan powers do some pretty cool stuff with the looper and a harp.

I was curious what yall use to record.   I guess anything will work.  The jamman will prolly do a fine job for now.


Well Thanks Bob.  Gave me a pretty good place to start.   

I also have another question.  I was wondering if i can get the amp sound to record.  Can i use the out on the VHT into the jamman to get the tube breakup sound to record?  Because if i use it in front,  it sounds good when i playback thru the amp.  But thru another speaker i lose the breakup because obviously I'm recording before the amp.

I'm not sure if you need to have effects loop on the amp or if it will work just as good with the output.   I figured possibly better with the out because you get the full breakup.   I don't want to mess anything up tho by just randomly plugging stuff in.

[Beelzebob]

Hey Chris,

I don't know anything about the jamman, but I could record from the VHT out to my audio interface with no problems.  However, you do not get speaker breakup and that is certainly part of the tone equation and why many like to mic their amp.  For me, I have so many room issues that going straight in to my AI was a better compromise than micing the amp.  If I were a better player and doing commercial stuff, I would have to address the room or else go to a studio.  Don't know if this helps at all.

[KiLL-A-HertZ]

Helps alot actually.  I had considered the speaker breakup, but didn't really know if it was worth the trouble.   And wasnt really sure how to go about it.   I will try micing the amp actually and see how that goes.

Thanks

[Matt]

Helps alot actually.  I had considered the speaker breakup, but didn't really know if it was worth the trouble.   And wasnt really sure how to go about it.   I will try micing the amp actually and see how that goes.

Thanks

For the best of both worlds you could try both micing the amp and using the audio out and record two separate tracks. This way you have the option of blending the speaker sound with the amp sound and creating something that is exactly to your liking - for example: warm breakup which can cut through the mix cleanly.

[KiLL-A-HertZ]

Thats not a bad idea either.  Infact i coukd still use the jamman to do this as it has stereo in/out.  It doesn't have seperate volumes however.   I would have to get the mix right ahead of time.  But still an interesting concept.   Ide like to take it one step further and have a dry and two different amps.  See what kinda sounds i could get mixing various levels of each.  Maybe ill keep my eye out for a cheap mixer at the flea market.

Oh the possibilities!  8^)>

[Matt]

You can also mic the room, or set one mic at the grille cloth of the amp and one a few feet away.