recording sounds for beats

Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
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recording sounds for beats

By PaddingtonBurr Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:50 pm
i really wanna be able to record my own sounds such as drum hits,hitting tables, beatbox etc for my beats, what would be the best 'thing' to do this with? a microphone and what type? or is there some sort of equipment good for recording this kinda stuff??
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Re: recording sounds for beats

By scobbs Wed Apr 25, 2012 5:01 pm
My wife got me the H4N for my birthday for this exact purpose. I rather love it. The quality is simply amazing. It's annoyingly spendy...but there are other models that are cheaper if you didn't want to shell out a couple hundred for one.

http://www.americanmusical.com/Portable ... -Recorders

Otherwise, a usb mic with a laptop would work, especially for sounds you can bring to it. Although it would be annoying for sounds out in the world that you wanted to catch on the fly.

If you have an iPad or iPhone there is a cool stereo condenser mic attachment (I think made by Tascam) that is supposed to be decent. Yeah...here it is - http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-TAS-IM2-LIST

But yeah, I can personally vouch for Zoom's handheld recorders. Well built, easy to use and great sound quality.
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Re: recording sounds for beats

By scobbs Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:12 pm
I record literally anything that I hear that sounds interesting. Yesterday I was recording a thing of tic tacs being moved around. The day before that I put my seatbelt on in my car and noticed a nice clean 'whoosh' noise when I pulled the seatbelt from it's retracted state. So I recorded that. That's why I like the portable recorders over just using your laptop. I can just have it in my bag and record things on the fly as I am out and about.

As far as beats...I am super new at the MPC. I have just been learning for the last couple of months. I have one official track finished and it is a spoken word track. I have been making music for years now but more in the indie rock/folk rock world.
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Re: recording sounds for beats

By OweMoney Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:15 pm
Actually upon further review check the whole "Live From the Streets" series from Mr. Green...
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Re: recording sounds for beats

By mr_debauch Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:16 pm
scobbs wrote:But yeah, I can personally vouch for Zoom's handheld recorders. Well built, easy to use and great sound quality.


I agree, I have the h4, the h1, the q3, and I have a few friends who also have h1's, and h4's... the funny thing about those is... even when you have something like the h4 or h4n... there is still a point to get stuff like the new h2n (it has 5 mics and can do surround) or the h1 (it has no 4 track built in but it's super small and cheap.. so crawling around storm drains wont have you worrying about breaking a 400 dollar piece of kit)

I use field recordings taken with field recorders in 90% of my music.

Re: recording sounds for beats

By Villa101 Sun Apr 29, 2012 12:24 am
OweMoney wrote:Actually upon further review check the whole "Live From the Streets" series from Mr. Green...

Re: recording sounds for beats

By PaddingtonBurr Sat Aug 25, 2012 2:36 pm
scobbs wrote:I record literally anything that I hear that sounds interesting. Yesterday I was recording a thing of tic tacs being moved around. The day before that I put my seatbelt on in my car and noticed a nice clean 'whoosh' noise when I pulled the seatbelt from it's retracted state. So I recorded that. That's why I like the portable recorders over just using your laptop. I can just have it in my bag and record things on the fly as I am out and about.

As far as beats...I am super new at the MPC. I have just been learning for the last couple of months. I have one official track finished and it is a spoken word track. I have been making music for years now but more in the indie rock/folk rock world.


thinking about getting the zoom h2n as it is more in my price range, or would you reccommend saving up for a h4,

Re: recording sounds for beats

By terry towelling Tue Aug 28, 2012 11:43 pm
a have a tascam dr40 handheld recorder. works really well.
just about to head fly off to canada to spend some time in alqonquin park in northern ontario recording the great outdoors.
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Re: recording sounds for beats

By mr_debauch Wed Aug 29, 2012 8:23 am
PaddingtonBurr wrote:thinking about getting the zoom h2n as it is more in my price range, or would you reccommend saving up for a h4,


do you need the XLR inputs for external mics to be used as well? do you need a not so good 4 track that allows you to arrange recordings but it's on a tiny screen?.. if not.. dont save for the h4/h4n..

do you need the 5 mics thing that allows you to do some surround sound style recording that has a few odd tricks to make things sound sort of surround-ish? (chances are after a couple of times playing around you will revert back to normal stereo recording because before being able to alter the mic spread I believe you must stop the recording) if not.. dont save for the h2n

if you want a cheap recorder but it has the same mics as the h4n... but it doesn't have the xlr, or the almost useless 4 track.. or some of the other bells and whistles.. just grab an h1.. no joke, they are actually pretty good and they are a good amount smaller than the other ones... it's for sure the most portable model.

Re: recording sounds for beats

By PaddingtonBurr Wed Sep 05, 2012 2:31 pm
mr_debauch wrote:
PaddingtonBurr wrote:thinking about getting the zoom h2n as it is more in my price range, or would you reccommend saving up for a h4,


do you need the XLR inputs for external mics to be used as well? do you need a not so good 4 track that allows you to arrange recordings but it's on a tiny screen?.. if not.. dont save for the h4/h4n..

do you need the 5 mics thing that allows you to do some surround sound style recording that has a few odd tricks to make things sound sort of surround-ish? (chances are after a couple of times playing around you will revert back to normal stereo recording because before being able to alter the mic spread I believe you must stop the recording) if not.. dont save for the h2n

if you want a cheap recorder but it has the same mics as the h4n... but it doesn't have the xlr, or the almost useless 4 track.. or some of the other bells and whistles.. just grab an h1.. no joke, they are actually pretty good and they are a good amount smaller than the other ones... it's for sure the most portable model.


haha i dont even know what an xlr is, i just wanna be able to record high quality sounds to use in beats, have a bit of money so willing to spend on a good enough one and btw are you able to plug these mics into things e.g a tv and record straight from it, thanks for responding to me cuz i cant find any information at all about this on the internet :)

Re: recording sounds for beats

By m56p87 Wed Sep 05, 2012 3:30 pm
Xlr is a connection type, just like the red and white RCA connectors on the back of your MPC. The main advantage with Xlr is the ability to not only send an audio signal through it but also power, so you can use mics with no batteries and draw power from whatever it's plugged into (phantom power).

But it sounds like all you need is a nice digital recorder with built in mic, then go up from there. The big thing is for this type of sampling is removing reverb from what your recording, a dead give away for an amature recording IMHO.
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Re: recording sounds for beats

By sciguy Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:15 pm
Actually, the main advantage of XLR is that it is a balanced connection. This means that it actually sends the same signal along 2 separate wires in the cable, but one is inverted. That way, any noise picked up along the cable will be the SAME on both signals, while the audio is INVERTED on either wire, so recording equipment can remove the noise picked up even on a long cable.

It can also be used to give phantom power to condenser mikes, it's called phantom power because it does nothing, it's invisible, to dynamic mikes. Ribbon mikes can be damaged by it though.


Anyway, you don't need to worry about any of this for now, the portable recorder is the best choice for now.
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