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So, you want to record yourself, your band, or someone else at home. You have never recorded anything on a computer and are not sure where to start. The first thing you want to do is ignore everything complex and simply try to get used to the idea of recording on a computer. This article is for you and will walk you through the process of installing your home recording software all the way to recording your first few tracks. Help me get started»

The bass guitar is an important element of every contemporary mix even though it rarely plays a prominent role. Sometimes the bass is felt rather than heard while other mixes have the bass in a much more audible sonic space. Your home recording studio is well equipped to shape your bass tracks as long as you have a basic equalizer and compressor. Show me how

There are a lot of little noises that can sneak in between phrases. These extra noises are not noticed while the vocalist is singing but you don’t want to hear bleed from headphones, rustling paper, or any other distractions in between. It is quite common in the home recording studio world to put a noise gate on vocal tracks to eliminate these types of problems. Tuning a noise gate to correct this can be a time consuming process which is prone to creating one or two unnatural sounding words here and there. I prefer a more natural sounding approach. Show me how to do it »

Latency is a word you hear thrown around the digital audio world quite a bit. A lot of people use the word latency to mean a lot of different things, and often are not clear on what it does actually mean or how it will affect their home studio workflow. You will often hear salesmen or so called experts recommending this gear over that gear because you will get better latency. The truth of the matter is latency does not matter at all for the recording needs of nearly every home recording enthusiast. Most of you literally should not care about latency at all. Learn about latency»

Your home studio is a place for you to exercise your creativity. Often this must be squeezed between going to work, taking out the garbage, getting the kids to bed on time, and sleeping once in a while. You don’t want to spend a lot of time wiring gear together no matter how little or how much time you have to spend in your home recording studio. Throw a computer based DAW into the mix and things get tougher. Fortunately you can make your life a lot easier and create a ready-to-record environment by adding a small mixer to your setup. How small? I’m going to outline three strategies for connecting your home studio through a mixer. Show me how to hook up my mixer»

The Musician’s Friend stupid deal of the day for today is the Line 6 GearBox Plug-In Silver Bundle. This is a VST and AU compatible plugin that gets you the sounds of Line 6 POD, Bass POD, and even a half dozen vocal preamps all within your DAW software of choice as a plugin effect. This software usually sells for $300 and they are selling it for the next 24 hours at a third the price. You can’t get it through the normal product link at Musician’s Friend. You have to use the Stupid Deal Of The Day link to get the special pricing.

I have always thought it was important to choose your first vocal mic carefully. After you build your home studio mic collection you may find a number of mics in your cabinet which could all work wonders on a vocal recording. Once you have the luxury of multiple mics at your disposal it can be quite a bit of fun selecting the mic that most complements your vocalist’s voice. This article will show you an effective way to quickly make a mic selection. Show me more about vocal mics

Today I worked on recording the guitar solo for The Ballad of Stumpy Ron. Of course my Line 6 POD X3 Live is all over that! I wanted the solo to sound a bit like Tony Iommi with a little C.C. DeVille sprinkled on top and be very energetic in timbre. Strange mix, I know, but that’s what was going through my mind. I set up the X3 with a dual tone blend having a fair emphasis Show me the preset already! »

Time for the next chapter in the tracking of The Ballad of Stumpy Ron. Tonight I worked on tracking the bass. My goal was to get a very solid bass tone that would add the needed beef to the mix without cutting through too much or obscuring the guitars. To keep the bass from getting lost, I wanted to achieve a particular level of attack so I used a pick on this song even though I am typically a finger player. I recorded the bass using the USB outs of the X3 Live. I didn’t bother to try capturing a DI signal from the bass on this one because I am going for a more old school sound and want to On To The Patches »

I’m currently working on recording final tracks for a song titled The Ballad of Stumpy Ron. The overall sound and feel of the song draw heavily on Black Sabbath but fall somewhere between there and Wolfmother. My new POD X3 heavily influenced my approach for tracking this song. I decided to try recording two guitar tracks, but each track would actually be two tracks using the awesome dual tone capabilities of the X3. The POD X3 has eight outputs over its digital USB connection. Outs 3-4 are Tone 1 L-R, while outs 5-6 are Tone 2 L-R. I set my DAW up On To The Patches »