Other sites: Robin Janssens | Strawberry Forks
Ok the first set would be to find a comfortably large place to practise but before you move everything in you should find out weather noise will be a problem to anyone who lives nearby because getting interrupted all the time gets really annoying preferably you should look for a place with think walls to keep the sound bouncing back at you and solid floors to keep vibration to a minimum.
Second find all the power outlets and if so get multiplugs and extension leads for amps and other gear. Once you have found all your sockets get your drum kit in because it will be taking up the most space try to put it against a back wall or behind where the rest of the band will be will be set-up that is just what I usually do anyway then set-up a speaker behind the drum kit or at the left or right of it facing the kit because in some cases the drummer may not be able to hear the vocals and lose track of what to play so this keeps the drummer informed of whets happening.
Next move the amps and cabs in again try to put it near a power point of in reach of an extension lead put them on wither side of the drum kit but keeping them from going to far back so the drums are heard well over the guitar and bass and if possible put floor speakers in front of the band so they can hear the vocals and themselves much better.
And the last step is Vocals its best to have these coming from some powerful speakers or turn the amps down so the vocals can be heard over the guitars and drums if you cant get the balance right get a mate to stand infront of you and listen to what’s loudest so they can direct you till you have the right sound put the speakers at head height so the vocals can be heard clearly by either getting speaker stands putting them onto cabs or some sort of stand home made or otherwise.
And that is a basic practise set-up if you want to know more about set-ups and more complex ones using boards and mixers use the links on my page.
Ok
An advanced set-up will be more costly if you don’t have the gear to make a set-up allot more clear and ready to record from you will need a recording desk of some kind to run all the amps from as I said before in Basis set-ups Behringer are my preferred choice if your buying gear imp going to use a fairly basic desk as my example imp using a Behringer UB802 mixing desk first in your amps don’t have an aux out or main output all you will either need to get one that does or mice up your amp but basically putting a mice on a stand and putting it in front of it you can use as many micas as you want id suggest either a powerful mice that picks up well or 3 regular vocal micas.
once you have done that you should take a look at you board in 802s case it has 6 channels so you can patch 6 things id suggest bass, guitar and vocals one each and drums at least 3 or 4 but the 802 cant handle that many so its best to get a better model if not just use less micas.
First of all patch all your amps to there own spate channel but make sure you know what channel is what (just write it down or summink) then you will have to move onto the drums, the drums are tricky if you don’t have enough mice stands because you need a mice for
Micing all of these can take up space so try and get small stands, but if you don’t have that many micas or don’t have the money to buy them you can group them together by putting micas
This will reduce the quality but it will still be a good sound but make sure the stands and micas are not in the way of the drummer aka the cymbals don’t hit the micas that can really damage a mice.
Once all the stands are in place you will have to patch all the micas into the board but before you do any of that make sure you have a board with enough channels IMP's are something good to look for in a board if you intend to do vocals through it as well ( Invisible Mick Preamps).
The Vocals are next these are the easiest to set up simply place the mice on a stand where the vocalist and if needed backing vocals will be and patch the mic directly into the board. As I said before balance is very important in playing live but even more in recording its best to get someone to run your board I call them techies or roadies but basically someone to were head phones from the board and change the Gain, Eq, Middle, Treble exetra but once you get the balance right and the micas in place there is only a few more steps to cover.
The next bit is to get PA speakers of some sort of load speaker where it can all be blasted from because even if the amps still blast and the drums are still played the final sound out of the speakers will make the audience think its seems more mixed and together. To attach the speakers just place them in the Main output sockets of the board so sound going through the board will go thought the speakers but still its best to read the instructions for your amp and the board just incise you blow it or something isn’t compatible and also on most boards there is a sound meter keep an eye on it so the speakers don’t bust and you have to spend money repairing them.
And that is it there are other links for things like recording and instrument preservation if that is any use to you as well.
Recording its the most annoying thing in the world but there are simpler ways to do it without spending major money in a studio or buying loads of recording gear when you don’t have to spend anything for example if you just want to record yourself doing guitar or bass that’s easy just get a lead going from your amp to your stereo and put it on Aux then record it onto a tape I cant be very precise because I don’t know what stereo you have but the process it quite simple I did it with my cousin and made demo tapes quite easily.
But if vocals are what you want to record get yourself a headphone jack and put it onto one of the audio inputs different stereos use different ones of get an adapter they don’t cost much then just record it the same way you record guitar or bass just put it on Aux and record it to a tape or CD if your stereo does that. Or if you want to add effects depending on what amp you have you can run your mic through the amp and into the stereo but id read the book on your amp and mic first.
Drums are a bit more tricky you can do the basic play drums and have a micas hanging above them or use the board and mic up you kit and run the micas into the board and thought the tape out, main out, phones or what ever sounds best for your type of board, the same goes for doing vocals and guitar doing an acoustic guitar and singing at the same time can come out quite nicely without using a board but I think using a board assures good quality.
A four track tape recorder is a really good way of recording to it gives you for channels so you can run guitar into it then bass then drums then vocals and if you need more you can balance that all out then put that onto one track and use the other three again and keep layering it till your happy but if you mess you the balance then to it onto one track you will have to start again so that is a more patient sort of recording but very good if you like adding percussion or keyboard and effects.
There are more complex ways of recording that im aware of but im not sure now they work so ill leave that till I learn how to do it then explain it on hear.