Hello!

I am looking for recording equipment for my one-man black metal band. The sound is very Burzum/early-Darkthrone influenced, so I would like to have a similar 'raw' tone in the recordings. I already have the instruments, a microphone (really cheap one I bought at a local store) and an amp (Roland MicroCube, not the best, but it's ok). I don't have any pedals, but with an EQ I can achieve a nice black metal style distortion. However it's probably a good idea to get some distortion/fuzz pedal.

The songs have just vocals, 2 guitars, bass and drums, and a couple of them also keyboards. Since I can't play drums, I'll probably also need some kind of drum machine or something similar. Right now I'm using a MIDI sound generator (Guitar Pro 6) to make the drum parts, but it sounds pretty bad...
Also, I intend to record the tracks at home using my computer (with Windows Vista).

Given all those details, what kind of recording equipment do you guys recommend me?

Thanks and if you need more information, just ask.

Greetings,
Feigr

If you want to keep it simple, Audacity is a decent free recording program. I used to use it and no complaints. I've also heard praise for Reaper, but I've got no experience using it so I can't say much on that end.

As for the drums, I would recommend either Superior Drummer, or Drumkit From Hell. Superior Drummer is better (hence the name) in my opinion, and can be used as a stand alone program. Both are very easy to program and sound heaps better than Guitar Pro.

Pedals are a bit more tricky. I have added several several distortion pedals to my collection in the search for the right distortion. In your case, given the sound you are trying to achieve, I would recommend the Arion "Metal Master" (NOT Digitech) pedal. It's relatively cheap, and will give a you a nice early Darkthrone/Celtic Frost gainy type distortion. Supposedly it was used on some early Mayhem recordings.

If you want to go a little further, maybe grab a better amplifier and microphone. The Shure Sm57 is pretty much the standard in the mic department. Amps vary, so it'd be better to do your own homework on that.

Hey man!
Thanks for the advice. That pedal looks perfect and it's affordable, so I might buy it.
About Audacity, I already have the program installed, but I don't know how to use it. How do I record the guitar/bass/vocals? Should I plug the instruments through the amp/pedals or directly into the computer by using some sort of cable to do it?

You can get an adapter for your soundcard if you want to go direct. Something like this: http://www.ramelectronics.net/audio-vid ... 5551G.html You could plug in from your amp's headphone jack, or straight from the pedal with this.

Personally though, I would recommend micing your amp. You may need a direct in interface depending on your mic. M-Audio makes cheap boxes that are okay quality. Maybe find one used.

After that, it's only a couple tweaks in the settings of Audacity and you're good. Pretty simple adjustments, basically just telling the program where the sound is coming from, and which line to record from.

you might want to get an interface of sorts, they can be as low as $30 for bare bones interfaces. Now sure the tone dosent have to be great with black metal, but what iv learned from going direct is you will get delays do to frequency differences. if your mic is good, just make sure you account for ambient sounds, air-conditioning, computer fan, outside sounds, ect. you can always put your mic buy your amp and put a blanket over them both to seclude the sounds.

I use a small 10-watt Marshall amp, cause its about all I could afford, and it works nice for my set-up, and its also got some nice effects built into it as well.

I use Audacity to record with regularly. I just mic my amp, and make sure everything is at the perfect level to where there will be no clipping.
Stick the mic as close as you can to the amps speaker so that way you're getting the full sound, but make sure the volume isnt too loud, cause all you'll hear is noise.
I sometimes use an adapter to plug directly into my PC to record using a pedal and it sounds nice. All I do is plug my guitar into my pedal, and rather than plugging the cable into the amp output, I plug it into the mixer output instead, it gives it sort of a muffled sound.

For drums, I have no kit at the moment, had to sell it since Im broke, but for the time being, Im using Hydrogen. If you tweak it around a bit and use some different sounds included with it, it will sound real nice and almost like a real kit. Beatcraft is okay, but the sounds are kinda shitty, plus you can only use it for a week then you have to pay I think $40, which is a big rip-off. Im not too keen on using drum programs though.

if you are looking to get a distortion pedal, I would suggest trying to find a used Black Metal Pedal, it should help you achieve the sound you are looking for.

Don't bother with a distortion pedal, put your microphone 1" off-center and 0-1" back aimed straight at the front of the amp, EQ the MicroCube to 5/4/7 and double track the guitars. Distortion pedals are generally a waste of money, and you are going to want less distortion while recording. Emperor's debut was recorded with a Peavey Bandit 112, and Varg used a Peavey combo amp for the first three Burzum albums (one of the tracks on the s/t was recorded with a Marshall amp, thus the less distinctive tone). Learning about recording and mixing goes a long way - one great example is Rocka Rollas, the guy posts here, and he gets a great sound with inexpensive gear.

The heart of your recording setup is your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
You are going to want a recording interface, this is basically a little box that you connect to your computer via USB, you plug your microphones/instruments into it and it handles everything in the middle. The big decision to make with these is what software you are going to use to record. If you want to use ProTools, your hardware is going to made to work only with ProTools - the hardware and software are packaged and sold together and don't work with anything else. If you want to use Reaper or another program, you can go with most of the other brands of hardware (PreSonus, Focusrite, etc.). I use an MBOX+ProTools, most other people here use Reaper. ProTools is more expensive but the benefit is that the same software is very common for professional recording, so it's good if you are looking at getting into that. Reaper is probably a better choice.

I'm with zody here, don't waste your money on pedals; buy a usb audiocard instead (fast track, alpha, there are several for under a hundred bucks) and if you happen to need extra distortion later, there are dozens of free programs you can use to modify the sound of the guitars or simulate the effects of pedals. You will also be getting a much thicker sound that you would get if you simply recorded with the standard audiocard your computer has.

I recommend Reaper too.

Regarding the recording process, there's been several threads in this subforum discussing that already, use the search function and start browsing and reading all you can find.

a bit of a thread rez but its on topic.

Whats wrong with pedals?
I have actually connected my Boss Hm2 to someone else's interface and it sounded a lot better than the digital distortion he could achieve. It might not fit black metal but there are definitely some pedals which do sound great.

Pretty much everything other than the HM-2 sucks for metal.

I agree with what Zodijackyl says. The only other pedal I use is a Big Muff Pi and I only use it on bass.

only pedal I've ever used for guitar is HM-2

Just to put the further nail in the coffin, Zodijackyl is usually spot on when it comes to recording, same with a couple other people who've posted in here.

makes me even more glad that i bought an HM2

Get a ghetto blaster and a computer microphone

And use Reaper. It is free (arguably), very easy on the system and very intuitive. It supports VSTi's, so if you want to program some keyboards or drums, it is a fuckin sinch.

Not really, no. I understand kids just starting out or people dabbling, but a serious musician should pay for his gear whether it's digital or not.

I play mostly black metal and for my home studio, I go line out from my line 6 Spyder II. Sounds like some noob shit but with some tweaking, it could sound really good