Download recording sessions , to practice on your mix skills

[Atomic Angel]

I got this off of Sound On Sound, some, or most of you may already have this.

You can download recording session tracks in different genres of music, to hone your mixing skills. plus there is a forum that discusses the mixes, and how to improve them.

http://www.cambridge-mt.com/index.html

[Wildone]

Man I would love to get into this recording business in my home but every time I look into it I not only get a little intimidated but it can cost huge money. I read stuff like you posted and its all foreign to me.

[Atomic Angel]

Man I would love to get into this recording business in my home but every time I look into it I not only get a little intimidated but it can cost huge money. I read stuff like you posted and its all foreign to me.

I started a long time ago with a 4 track tape machine. Kept progressing from there.

I'd suggest to start cheap till you get the hang of it.. reaper (free or cheap version), or Audicity (free), get a cheap Audio interface, and if you have a mic that's enough to get you started.

you can purchase stuff like drum software (samples of real drums and drummers, manipulated by midi).

If you have a newish mac computer.. they come with garageband.. that;s good enough to do most stuff. Look at cheap audio interfaces AI's if you have a lot of money get a good one to start off with, if not start cheap. Once you get the hang of it, upgrade later on.

there are to many of them to post up,, here are a couple links

http://www.guitarcenter.com/TASCAM-US-1 ... 1478020.gc




http://www.guitarcenter.com/Lexicon-Alp ... 1126259.gc

http://www.guitarcenter.com/M-Audio-M-T ... 3042636.gc

These have mic inputs, there are cheaper ones out there but , most of those do not have mic inputs.

then it's just research and experimentation. there are ton of teaching sites too. This is not one I use but I like it.. $27.00 a month , you get to watch and learn from professional mix engineers , watching them mix a session. The gear they use and how and why they use it. I've jammed with Alex Austin, been to his studio. If he endorses it , it's probably very good.
http://mixcoach.com/downloads/mixcoach-pro-member/

http://mixcoach.com/downloads/

[Wildone]

Or just go over to some gearheads house and use his stuff. I have been looking at these cheaper interfaces and such but I suppose the best thing is just to jump in and get started. Our bass player records our stuff off the mixer but I would like to record my ideas, you know the cool stuff you come up with then absolutely forget the next morning.

[Atomic Angel]

hell if it's just guitar riffs, buy something like a zoom recorder, or if you have a smart phone of somekind,

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Peavey-AmpK ... 1554221.gc
somwthing like this.. I've used just the record feature of my phone on it's own, just to get a guitar riff I didn't want to forget.

back when I was first starting playing guitar my teacher told me to record everything, so I got one of these,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Old-Vintage-Pan ... 1050970786
used it till it finally shot craps.

[Blues_N_Cues]

you could even get away w/ a usb mic,Audacity(free),and then a usb/midi keyboard controller for doing the drum parts or any other thing you wanted to add.

I never looked ito my Reaper to see what all vst & vsti's it had but I do know it's $60 if you're straight up & pay for it. or for $75.00 you can get this-
http://acoustica.com/mixcraft/

it's got everything you need as far as virtual insturments & fx,it's even got good drum kits,& more than enough options to keep you busy for years.lol
plus,after the 2 week free trial you can buy outright or pay as you go for $10.00 per month.