How Do I Make A Home Recording?

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HI Gang, time to enlist the collective brain power of the group. The hospital I work for wants to make a video about infection control. They have picked a song and one of the guys in the group has rewritten the lyrics to what we need and he played it on a
his ukulele so we could see what it looks like. I need to lay down a bass track under his ukulele so the group will know what a bass line would sound like based on this tempo and key.

Here’s my issue. I don’t have a recording studio and haven’t done this before. I can get the MP3 onto my phone so I can play it through my bass amp, but how do I record the bass line while playing to the MP3 back into another MP3 file so I can upload it back to the group. All I have are two smart phones to work with. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Ronnie Lyons
Meridian, Idaho

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You will need some kind of recording device, such as a Digital Audio Interface (DAI) and recording software. There’s more to it. You might want to get started here:

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I am a novice but I am having fun recording at home

I had to purchase
A $100 audio interface from Focusrite -
Scarlett Solo | Focusrite

Then I got a copy of Reaper (You can use the demo its full featured)
REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits

Then I also picked up a cheap pair of monitor speakers since my computer speakers sounded like trash.
Mackie CR3-XBT 3" Active 50W Bluetooth Multimedia Studio Monitors, Pair | Guitar Center

Plug this all together - Get over the small learning curve of how to use Reaper and its been super fun.

You can plug your bass directly into the audio interface. I plug my Boss GB-1 directly into it.

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I have an Ibanez PCBE12MH acoustic bass which has in inbuilt Ibanez AEQ-2T preamp w/Onboard tuner. The 9v battery is new. I am plugging directly into a Behringer UM2 DAI. I have installed the USB software, selected the USB microphone in Audacity and I am failing to receive a signal in Audacity. I followed the instructions in How to Record Guitar in Audacity: Full Step-by-Step Tutorial - Guitar Gear Finder.

What do I need to investigate to potentially identify the cause ?

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the UM2 has a sig(signal) light…does this light up green when you play while plugged in

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Don’t forget to turn up the gain knob for the correct input. Also, in my DAW (Cakewalk), I have to select the actual DAI input (1 or 2, or both).

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Oh hey, you’re using Cakewalk? That’s cool. Neat that Bandlab made it free.

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LED stays dark. I will take my cable to my music shop and have it tested. I will also confirm I have the hardware setup correct.
Thanks for the question. I should have an update in a few days.

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Woohoo, successfully created a recording in Reaper :notes:

Thanks to g13dip for alerting me to the green signal light. The music shop guru informed me I was using a stereo cable with 3.5 mm plugs inserted into 6.3 mm adaptors, and one 6.3 mm adaptor was mono. I pretended I understood :crazy_face:.

IMG_20230902_160131
IMG_20230902_1601311296×2592 184 KB

I bought a 6 metre mono cable, because it was cheaper than the 3 metre cable.

RightAngle
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The mono cable gave me a green light on the Behringer UM2 next to the instrument socket.
behringer-um2-1

I wasn’t receiving a signal in reaper. I looked online and this video
Behringer UM2 Setup Driver on Windows 10 [UPDATED]

showed me the setup for Options - Preferences :
Reaper-02

A Reddit thread informed me that the track control interface showed the input socket it was monitoring. I changed this from the default of USB Audio CODEC 1 to USB Audio CODEC 2.
Reaper-03

When I plucked a string I finally had a sound input indicator on the track. I have successfully recorded the notes EADG and will move on to the video recording.

Thanks for your input. :clap:

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I had similar challenges when I was setting mine up. Yay for winning!

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:+1: great to hear it is up and running @EverC

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Finally attempted a video recording . . . and failed :disappointed:. I am using Traktion Waveform. My video recording works when Waveform is shut. Video recording fails when Waveform is open, connected to my Behringer M2 which is connected to my bass and everything is on.
When I press record the camera image becomes a black square and, a few seconds later,
automatically cancels the attempt to record video.

My computer
Dell Latitude E5470, manufactured 2016.
Dual Core i5-6300U 2.4Ghz
RAM 8 GB
SSD 250GB, available 45GB
Win10 Pro

This is my system response to three attempts to record.
Do I need a dedicated video card ?
What are your computer specs ?

I am near a business that sells used/refurbished computers so I can upgrade easily.

image
image824×622 28 KB

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Are you trying to record video with your computer? When I make my videos I record video with my phone and I record audio separately on my computer then I edit them together with iMovie.

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Yeah same here @EverC I use a cheap $20 tripod and use my phone to record the video. No need involve upgrading your computer for that :man_shrugging:

https://www.amazon.ca/UBeesize-Tripod-Phone-Flexible-Compatible/dp/B07837W5NX/ref=mp_s_a_1_18?crid=2JVPJIXHJ2Q2A&keywords=iphone+tripod+stand&qid=1703568460&sprefix=iphone+tripod%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-18

Lots of good options out there.

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Thanks to @Paul_9207 and @Barney. I used my Nokia C02 and I have successfully created my first video. White Stripes : Seven Nation Army.
I used video editor Shotcut to combine the Bass Buzz lesson track with my bass recording created using Waveform.
The video is 720p. I will create another in 1080p for picture quality comparison.
I have also purchased a tripod :slightly_smiling_face:.

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