Part 11 - July 23
As you requested, by Nicole @NicoleKKB here is my progress, with the kit I got for my birthday Michael’s NGearD It may be of interest to others who are thinking about going down this path.
Will add an update on more general matters at a later date.
What I got was Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Studio which comes with condenser mic and headphones. Also got an external web cam, Logitech C920.
I knew the birthday presents were coming so I had done some research beforehand, watched quite a few videos on YouTube, as well as reading various posts in the community, so I think I was quite well prepared.
I had installed OBS beforehand, had a quick look at that but didn’t do very much than just look.
I intended to take things slowly and not rush so hoping I was understanding things as I went along. One of the issues that came up was that there was a whole lot of jargon that I didn’t have in my vocabulary so had to look things up.
First thing was to install the 2i2. If you do this through the Focusrite web page it takes you through registering the product, getting it connected to your PC, with necessary software, in my case it was to my Windows 10 laptop.
You also get to install a DAW and I went for Ableton. Again, Focusrite take you step by step through the process.
Connecting it all up to OBS was not particularly easy in the sense that the terms were all new to me and made a few false steps but when you do that you tend to learn a lot. Connecting up the sources at a basic level I managed.
Connected up mic and guitar and made a simple recording in the DAW and OBS just to make things were sort of working OK.
Did all of this over a couple days. Must say the videos from Focusrite are good and explain things very well. I had them on my iPad so was able to stop and do the task or rerun if I was not sure.
Last week I started to really get to play with making recordings in OBS. What I had in my original set up was the 2i2 as just one input. However, I had had seen Keith’s @Majik thread mentioning that you can split the inputs and control them separately. You need another bit of software installed in OBS to do that ASIO-OBS. There is an updated version from the original post which is mentioned in the later posts in that thread. Got it installed easily but getting the settings right took a bit of time as the is slightly different to the older version of the software. To be honest without Keith’s thread I don’t think I would have been aware you could do this as it had not been mentioned in any videos I had seen.
So, I did some recordings of parts of songs, so I had something to review. At the time I listened via the speaker on the laptop and it didn’t sound very good and I think I was a little disappointed. Then the penny dropped so I plugged in some ear buds and the sound was so much better. A beginners mistake I am sure. The quality of the sound is light years better than an iPad.
So, I am about to play around with the settings to get a decent recording balance between guitar and vocals so I can post up an AVOYP. Being realistic I don’t think this is going to be for a little while.
I have not set up OBS to go to Zoom yet but Keith’s thread gives you info on virtual cables etc. Think I will leave that for the present. Although I understand there may be some updated guidance coming that.
I am pleased with progress so far, but a long way to go yet.
Michael