Musician's question about ProTools

[rayshin100]

I am a pianist, not a recording enginner. I have recorded
in local studios that were using ProTools and it came out ok,
but would like to try something different. I have located a
great-sounding grand piano in a local university practice room,
and would like to record there. I would like to record myself using
some inexpensive device----probably to cassette-----and then take
the cassette to a ProTools recording engineer to clean it up,
and then "bounce" the tunes to a CD.

- Any suggestions for an inexpensive recording device that I can
use to record myself?

- If the ProTools engineer knows what he is doing, can he do
something about the poor "practice room" acoustics that will
be on the recording which I have brought him? Does ProTools
have that capability?

Thanks.

Ray

[Frosty]

> - Any suggestions for an inexpensive recording device that I can
> use to record myself?

I am also a musician, and have used small portable recording devices
over the years. Cassettes, minidisc, etc. Among the current crop of
recorders I would recommend the Zoom H-4 ($300) with a 2gb SD card
($30) recording wav files at 44.1kHz sampling rate. The built-in mics
sound pretty good to me - and H-4 has the ability to power external
mics of the quality you might find in a studio. (On the chance you can
borrow a couple).

Good luck!

[Scott Dorsey]

rayshin100 > wrote:
>I am a pianist, not a recording enginner. I have recorded
>in local studios that were using ProTools and it came out ok,
>but would like to try something different. I have located a
>great-sounding grand piano in a local university practice room,
>and would like to record there. I would like to record myself using
>some inexpensive device----probably to cassette-----and then take
>the cassette to a ProTools recording engineer to clean it up,
>and then "bounce" the tunes to a CD.

What cleaning up do you think can be done?

>- Any suggestions for an inexpensive recording device that I can
> use to record myself?

Call local film rental places. Ask to rent a sound kit, with a portable
DAT recorder and a pair of Schoeps mikes on a boom. The kit should run
around a hundred bucks a day, less if you check it out for a week.

>- If the ProTools engineer knows what he is doing, can he do
> something about the poor "practice room" acoustics that will
> be on the recording which I have brought him? Does ProTools
> have that capability?

No. There is nothing you can do about poor acoustics, other than to
try and hide them by superimposing fake reverb on top. Sometimes that
is sufficient, often it is not.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[rayshin100]

$300 is not bad. I'll check into it...
Thanks for the quick reply.
Ray

Frosty wrote:
> > - Any suggestions for an inexpensive recording device that I can
> > use to record myself?
>
> I am also a musician, and have used small portable recording devices
> over the years. Cassettes, minidisc, etc. Among the current crop of
> recorders I would recommend the Zoom H-4 ($300) with a 2gb SD card
> ($30) recording wav files at 44.1kHz sampling rate. The built-in mics
> sound pretty good to me - and H-4 has the ability to power external
> mics of the quality you might find in a studio. (On the chance you can
> borrow a couple).
>
> Good luck!

[rayshin100]

Scott,

Thanks for the info. I had a feeling that nothing could be done about
the acoustics, but just wanted to check.

Ray

Scott Dorsey wrote:
> rayshin100 > wrote:
> >I am a pianist, not a recording enginner. I have recorded
> >in local studios that were using ProTools and it came out ok,
> >but would like to try something different. I have located a
> >great-sounding grand piano in a local university practice room,
> >and would like to record there. I would like to record myself using
> >some inexpensive device----probably to cassette-----and then take
> >the cassette to a ProTools recording engineer to clean it up,
> >and then "bounce" the tunes to a CD.
>
> What cleaning up do you think can be done?
>
> >- Any suggestions for an inexpensive recording device that I can
> > use to record myself?
>
> Call local film rental places. Ask to rent a sound kit, with a portable
> DAT recorder and a pair of Schoeps mikes on a boom. The kit should run
> around a hundred bucks a day, less if you check it out for a week.
>
> >- If the ProTools engineer knows what he is doing, can he do
> > something about the poor "practice room" acoustics that will
> > be on the recording which I have brought him? Does ProTools
> > have that capability?
>
> No. There is nothing you can do about poor acoustics, other than to
> try and hide them by superimposing fake reverb on top. Sometimes that
> is sufficient, often it is not.
> --scott
>
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[hank alrich]

rayshin100 wrote:

> I would like to record myself using
> some inexpensive device----probably to cassette-----and then take
> the cassette to a ProTools recording engineer to clean it up,
> and then "bounce" the tunes to a CD.

It'd be better just to shoot yourself in the foot than to try to get
fine recorded piano from a cassette. Nothing in PT will save the
cassette from itself.

> - Any suggestions for an inexpensive recording device that I can
> use to record myself?

What are your expectations? Decent mics, a decent preamp, and a small
digital stereo machine may not meet your expectations of "inexpensive".
The suggestion of the Zoom recorder might be appropriate for you. You'd
be constrained by the quality of the mics, their configuration, and the
room in which you record.

> - If the ProTools engineer knows what he is doing, can he do
> something about the poor "practice room" acoustics that will
> be on the recording which I have brought him? Does ProTools
> have that capability?

The influence of the acoustics cannot be successfully removed from the
recording.

What is your goal here? Something to sell? A demo? A memento for your
granparents? Just something for you to listen to?

--
ha
"Iraq" is Arabic for "Vietnam"