Recording Vocals/Instruments using Ableton Live

If you read the previous post of setting up a great starter home studio then continue reading this post. If not I highly recommend you read the previous post here, that will give you basics and equipment choices to set up a small home studio based around the Ableton Live DAW.

Before we get into the actual method of capturing an instrument or vocals into your system you will need to make sure that following things are working. It is better to complete this check before you have a singer or a session artist come into your studio. If you are going to be charging them for studio time, it is imperative that your stuff works right in the first place.

Pre Recording checks needed for Recording Vocals/Instrument into Ableton.

• Make sure your Mike, cables and or instrument cables and connectors are working. The mike that professionals swear by is the Shure SM58, It is legendary in performance and some say it makes a complete novice sound like a pro...:)...well kidding apart..this is the best mike you could purchase and I highly recommend you spend the money since it will make your recordings sound that much better. 

Other options would be

1. Behringer XM8500 - It is touted to be as good as the SM58 and is about 1/4 the price...:)
2. MXL 990 Condenser Microphone - this is an extremely good mike, and can also be used for miking instruments. But since its a condenser microphone you need to make sure that your audio interface or mixer has the phantom power option on it. Simple explanation of why this mike differs from previous ones is that it needs power to operate as a mike, whereas the previous ones pick up sound waves without need of external power

I could go on with a huge list of mikes from my fantasy list....but I will refrain from doing so and will let you research to find the best mike that suits your needs. The first two mikes specified above will work for almost all applications except recording a full drum kit, the 3rd option...condenser mike might be able to pull it off, but you will need to spend a lot more to cover an entire drum kit.

One more addition to have on your mike is the extremely useful POP filter. This filter supresses, the S and P sounds when the vocalist starts singing certain phrases. One of the cheap and good ones is highlighted below.

Finally

•  Check your audio interface and or the mixer where you are patching the cables and make sure that you are getting a signal into the board from the your device or Mike.
• This step is needed for folks with an external mixer, if you have only an audio interface skip this step. Zero out the mike/instrument gain using the PFL or test button so that most of the normal playing comes in at 0 db into the board or mixer, this is great way of getting a good signal into the system.

Now please Check Part 2 of the tutorial which will guide you on the recording flow in Ableton.