[Eddie]

Hi everyone.

All of you regulars no that I am in a band, and yes, I know, I never stop going on about it, but toay I need your help. Help form inpartial outsiders and not friends.

We have just bought a new porta studio and we took it to our rehearsal last night. It took us ages to get set up and we had loads of teething problems but, after nearly all of our time was up we got a recording. I have put a copy of the recording made here for you to listen to and the question is this...

We are currently deciding whether to spend loads of money (And I mean LOADS) to record some new material at a studio like we did before (with the songs you can hear here or whether we should just carry on using our porta studio.

The recordings are really for demo use but it would be nice to think the quality was of broadcastable quality. Anyway, here is a link to the one and only song we got down. I don't like this song and I'm not asking you to judge the song, just the quality. Please, if you have time, compare it to the studio recorded stuff that cost us a fortune and I think you should also know a) this is the first time we've used the portastudio b) we haven't really mixed it at all yet (infact it's a very rough, pretty poor mix with incorrect levels and no compression or effects yet and c) we can overdub other tracks (backing vocals, keys etc) on the top.

Have a listen hereand let me know what you think - remember, you're not judging the song or the perfromance (it is shocking really).[/url]

Of course we know it's never going to be as professional as a propper stuido will make it sound but is it close enough?

[Eddie]

Forgive my typos, please!

[kendra k]

i can't really listen to them now (what with working in a library and all), but i'll definitely listen to the recordings when i get home tonight.

that said, i'm pretty familiar with home recordings. porta studio=computer with inputs and stuff? really, the way to make it sound good and quasi-professional is the mics. if you have crappy mics, no ammount of finesse will make it sound great. also, paying to have it mastered professionally is loads cheaper (in the usa at least) than recording it in a professional studio, and is essential to not sound super amateur.

it also depends on how finished you want it to sound. do you want it to be somewhat lo-fi? or super fancy? i don't know. i've never had a good experience recording in a studio, but i've heard good stuff done at home on people's computers and then finished by a pro. the mics really matter.

[Sidders]

It sounds very Radioheadesque.

[Sidders]

It could be better, but it's not at all bad. I think if you get used to the equipment for a bit it might be good enough to at least get you noticed.

[Eddie]

Thanks. Like I said, I don't like that son but I've just found out another one we recorded that we thought was erased has been saved and sounds even better. (I actually like the other song, it sounds a lot like Coldplay, more my thing). When I get a copy I'll post that.

kendra, we have excellent mics. Top of the range. Sures, Rodes etc etc. We have specific drum mics, vocal mics, ambience mics etc etc.

The Porta studio is like a mixing desk with a built in hard disc for recording and like I said before, the tracks on here haven't even been played with, mixed or mastered yet, something we do have a bit of experience in.

We want it to sound professional but not really, really polished. Kind of a "you can tell they were playing live" feel.

[kendra k]

then i say keep messing out and practicing. make sure you really understand your mics, and then get it mastered. mastering really makes it sound good.

oh, and compression is your friend.

[Eddie]

Yeah, we know all that - Both me and our singer are trained in live and studio recording. What this is, is a quick plug in and go recording (with mics and positioning all taken into account). The question is, is it worth going to the studio or is this quality good enough?

Come on people - Give me an answer. Vote in the poll and leave your thoughts too please!

[kendra k]

upon finally listening to it, if you really want to sound commerical (like radiohead), then you need to record in the professional studio where they can compress the hell out of every track and put you in those special superphonic chambers. if you want it to sound really good, i think recording it yourself and getting it professionally mastered will be the way to go.

my boyfriend thinks the home recorded one sounds fine.(his opinions from here--->) if you just want to put it out, it's good for that. if you want to get picked up by a lable, keep doing what you're doing. it's the lable's job to pay for your fancy recording studio time.(end of bf's opnions.) he's a really good recording engineer, so i trust him. i'm also very weary of spending oodles of money for recording. it seems like one of the easiest scams in the book.

[Eddie]

Thanks, I think I agree with his opinion. The demos we're going to record using the porta studio are purely just so people can actually hear our songs. They don't need to sound commercial, that would just be nice (it's always good to hear your songssounding really fancy and polished).

I've just been given that other track. I'll upload that in a while when I've made it into an mp3.

Being as people seem to think it's good enough AND this was literally take one on a new piece of equipment and, I think we haven't done a bad job - there's defnite potential in it!

[Diffusionuk]

the portastudio version is good but I'd always go for a studio version. With a decent studio set up you'll be having the benefit of someone who'll be able to properly produce/engineer it for you as well as having the benefit of better acoustics etc.