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The recording concept here on this page is expressed through the Roland VS 840. However, the concept of recording throughout is the same. Its routing signal to "tape" or whatever format you choose.lick here to add your text.
This is also for people who are new to recording and need a little
boost in understanding recording. Let's begin.
The technique expressed here is a technique that I developed and works to my benefit and may not suit your needs. This is just my
style of recording from over a period of time.
The Equipment of my choice is primarily based on 2 things. Reliability and affordability. Pretty common choices. Reliability being
defined as "gear with alot of stuff, but in an efficient package".
Affordability "I want it all, but I don't want to pay for it".
Well, the great thing is, thats somewhat true. This is where my gear of choice is the affordable and reliable Roland VS 840 with only the100 megabyte zip disk drive. I also use the KorgN364 16 track sequencer keyboard and the Roland SPD 20 drum pads.
Time to record.
Ok, by now you have a song and you have all of the parts worked out and you are ready to make a recording of it. Again, the method that I am going to show you is my method that works for me and may not suit you but might help you.
The first thing that I record is the drums.How do I record the drums? Very simply with no microphones strictly midi. The first thing I do is route the SPD 20 drum pads to the Korg N364 sequencer (optional,you can use any keyboard with a built in sequencer and has midi ins and outs)the spd20 has 8 pads and we also added an external pad for snare plus a bass drum pedal. I set each pad on its own midi channel.(just a reminder,you can use any pads as a trigger as long as it has midi ins and outs)In this case, I am using 10 total pads so I am going to use channels 1 through 10. On the korg, I set it the same way, 1 thru 10 to receive the signal from the spd20. Now, I can go in the Korg and set up each channel to have a different drum sound. Once that is accomplished I am ready to record. The drummer is now ready to play. I have him set the tempo by tapping out a number of beats, anywhere from 4 to 8. I do this with the sequencer in record mode. After the 4 or 8 beats,whatever you choose, I then wait another 4 beats with no drum sound and after the four we both start playing, I on my guitar and him on his drums being recorded on the keyboard. After that is complete, I then take the midi out on the keyboard and go to t midi in on the VS 840. I set the keyboard to internal and the VS 840 to sync track(refer to your manual for VS 840 owners)after I have synched the korg to the recorder I use the stereo outs on the keyboard and send them to 2 inputs(your choice but I use 3 and 4 )on the 840. Now my drums are complete and I am ready to proceed.
Ok, now the drums are ready. Now I am going to go back and overdub the guitar part that I played with the drummer and get that down to "tape" in this case disk. I will now record the rythmn guitar parts. In my recordings I love using the stereo tracks. They are great.I will record 4 stereo guitar rythmn parts, 2 parts electric 2 parts acoustic if I choose. Depends on the song. I will record these parts on tacks 1,2,3,and 4. then I will bounce them in stereo over to stereo tracks 5/6 with no effect. I record everything dry until I mix. Now, remember, on the VS 840, to here the drum parts that you recorded on your keyboard, make sure you have your input levels at a level that does not peak and the button at the top that says monitor,make sure that is lit orange. Now you can use a stereo fader 7/8 to monitor your drums. Make sure that your input config is right. Go into input and set 7/8 to inputs 3 and 4, in this case. I think you get the overall idea. The purpose of recording the drums the way I do is to free up a stereo track for other things. I like to use 7/8 for stereo harmonized backup vocals. Backup vocals when used correctly makes a world of difference in a production. On the VS 840, I will again use tracks 1 to 4 and I will set each track to a different virtual track. I will have our singer who is great at harmonizing sing on each track with a different style, like one low, high, mid, etc, Then I will mix that over to tracks 7/8. It works great. I almost forgot, dont forget to set your VS 840 to the max level, I use LV2. Or, the setting that gives me 75 minutes approx. of recording time and optimize often. (Refer to the VS 840 manual)
This is pretty much a basic way of how I record. After I used my stereo tracks and it doesnt matter what order you record. Thats the delight of having virtual tracks. You now can go back and use tracks 1 to 4 for whatever. If you use this method and optimize often, you will have lots of recording time left over.
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