Looking to get off the computer - help, please?

William Williamson

Back when I first started to record my own tracks, I was using a terrible old USB interface into Audacity to record - and then would attempt to layer in over the top. Really simple stuff and it didn't sound big, or epic or well produced at all. I then thought about trying to avoid the computer entirely and got myself a little digital 8-track that was a good laugh, but found that trying to record traditional rock/metal songs on it using a BOSS DR-55 was an exercise in frustration, the latter having almost zero ability to do anything but the most basic digital synthesis.

Since then, I've been using a Scarlett 2i2 2nd Gen into Reaper on my PC either with a DI-out or an AT condenser mic for guitar, vocals (using a VST to pitch another track of the guitar down for bass) however it seems that all the shortcuts and ease of use that are so vaunted with a DAW:

- I'm either missing out on (such as the anal-retentive EQ'ing of snares)
- or leave me feeling a little dead inside (like copying and pasting recorded sections). 
- and while there are some functions which appear to be obviously better (like, sidechaining a kick drum into a bass for some pulsing sounds, or dropping random bolivian nose flute samples) I'm fairly certain I could get by without them

Recording
So, I'm thinking of picking up something like a Zoom R8 or Tascam DP-008 and taking recording away from the PC - the main issue I think I'll encounter is shifting tracks around - it'll mean that generally I'll need to one-and-done tracks rather than my usual pastiche of cuts and edits. I can see this in particular introducing a longer mean time-to-delivery (to quote a software development term) but I think that's no bad thing in my case, as I need to push through performance anxiety.

VSTs/FX
I figure with a guitar pedal rig consisting of drive, fuzz, reverb and delay I'm fairly well appointed for 'VST' type effects - possibly with the exception of a compressor and EQ. 

Sampling / Synths 
With affordable digital synths (in the classical Roland Juno sense of the word) and newer oddball things like the Korg monotron I think with the same investment in something like Massive or the Roland VST set, I'll be OK.

Percussion
This is the only pain point I'm thinking will cause big problems. I honestly, really don't know how to handle this. I enjoy playing along to silly hard rock tunes but it seems like hardware simply can't match things like EZ Drummer or Superior Drummer. I do enjoy composing some 80's style synthwave and that whole sleazy miami nights crossover - but I'm not that a drum machine could fit into a rock/post-rock/jazz/calypso space even as an acknowledged limitation. I'd be most interested to hear about this in particular.


Overall, I think it's doable but I'd really like to hear from anyone who's done this - what did you miss? what got better? What got worse? And in comparison people who've gone from all hardware to all software (recently - as in, when both were/are viable options).

As it stands my budget isn't outrageous - something like a Teenage Engineering OP-1 would appear to fulfill a bunch of niches, but I'd certainly need to sell some gear to finance it! I'm not in the territory of Moogs and Linns! 

spark240

I went from Hardware ( reel to reel) to small Roland / Boss workstations, to Studio One software and full digital...I wont be going back, its just too difficult now to edit / share your music.  

steamabacus

I understand where you're coming from but I don't think you'll get anything remotely as good as modern drum software out of a hardware drum machine.

How about a 'half way house' approach? You could use a hardware recorder for all your guitars and live instrument/voice recording but then transfer the tracks to a computer DAW for mixing. You could prepare a drum track in advance on the computer and then load it onto the multitrack recorder ready to overdub the guitars, etc. You probably wouldn't even need to work out the arrangement/fills/etc for the drums in advance if the song has a consistent rhythm and feel - many songs can easily be played over a single drum groove. You could then work out all the fills and variations on the computer once you have the guitars down and everything transferred back onto the computer.

I find I have a distinctive 'guitar head' and 'engineer/producer head' and the biggest problem of working on a computer is trying to be both of these people at the same time! The advantage of the above approach is that when on the computer you only have to think about the production side, when recording you only have to press a button or two and make sure you're not clipping the levels.

Years ago (before I had a computer myself - I'm fairly new to computers) I recorded an album with a singer/keyboardist using a Boss BR8. I created the backing tracks on a Zoom Sampletrak loop sampler which were then loaded onto the BR8. All the guitars were recorded at my place onto the BR8 and then the singer took them home and loaded them onto her computer. She could then add her vocals and keyboards etc direct into Cubase as she was used to. We then both sat at her computer and mixed the tunes - it all worked really well.

horse

I went from a korg d1600 to using reaper, and would never consider going back. I'd change how you are doing things, not the daw

William Williamson

What kind of music are you recording? 

octatonic

Agree with @horse ;;;
I started out on 2", then digital recorders (which were worse), and now to computer.
Your problems are unrelated to the recording medium.

I am guessing you are a self-taught engineer?