Recording?

Equipment:
Preamp: Behringer Eurorack UB802
Condenser Microphone: MXL 770
Soundcard: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
Programs: Sonar 4 and Adobe Audition 1.5

Ok basically I'm trying to figure out the best way to record. I've been using Sonar 4 and when I record my guitar/vocals i do not get a crisp sound... compared to Adobe Audition.

My question is... what is the best way I can maximize the clarity of my recordings? I'm assuming preamp to line in of the sound card? Also what program is better? I really like the features of Adobe Audition (expecially Noise reduction)... As for sonar 4... its just one big confusing thing for me. Any help and link references would be much appreciated.

recording methods? As in would you play a riff and then loop it.. or play the whole song? also how do you guys do your drums? I use fruity loops, but i can't seem to figure out a way to change it up... like a regular beat into a drum roll and back to the beat... (i suck at drums).

-thanks

my advice would be if auditions doing what you want it to, and giving you a good sound, then stick with that.

if you find sonar confusing and are spending too much time
getting lost in it you will just end up killing your creativity
and by the time you get it to do what you want it to do,
you may have lost all inspiration.
or you could study the manual find some tutorials etc..
i personally like to work with something simple
that allows me to lay my ideas down quick without losing the flow.
and yeah you will be very hard pressed to find a better noise reduction utility than audition.

you are doing the right thing by going from pre amp to line in.
to get a little more heat from the signal make sure the volumes not too low on the pre amp
and forcing you compensate by pushing the volume of the audigy
that will help the signal flow a little.

on your question regarding recording methods; yeah i usually get a general groove down first, set the loop locators, then record myself messing around; playing a variety of 8 bar loops that i think sound good, once ive recorded one, i mute it and record the next, until i have several or lose inspiration. then I see if i can work it all into some kind of arrangement by spreading it out across the track.


drums i cant help you with, it will just take practice, maybe study some songs
or down load some drum midi files, then you can see how they were programmed and play about with them.

I would try to learn a bit more about Sonor if I were you, its quite a powerful program. You need to sit down with a note pad and go through a tutorial (on the website), just take basic notes on how to get what you want. Forget about mastering and the more technical stuff untill you have your wav files down and track arranged.

The biggest problem you have is probably the soundcard. I had an Audigy too, its a good soundcard but not designed with the sole intention of music production. The problem is the right soundcard is ridiculously expensive (eg Lynx). A cheaper solution, is a USB controller (they are basically outboard soundcards with faders and jog wheels etc - like a mini mixing desk). They're a bit pricey but worth the investment. I use a Tascam US428, you can get something similar from E-bay for a reasonable price. The PODxt works on the same principal, its works off USB so you can hear playback of drums and wavs aswell as what you play directly into your pc.

Re recording. Do as many takes as required to get a rhythm loop just right for say 4 bars. If you record the whole song for each track you will end up filling your hard drive within a few months. Loop the wav for whatever is needed, say 16 bars, then do one 16 bar wav of an accompanying rythm guitar. This makes it more organic and you can keep ultra tight timing by playing with the loop.

Drums are a pain in the ass to program but well worth the time. I usually play riffs to 3 or 4 standard stock beats in midi format so I can alter the bpms according to the song, then when the riffs are all recorded and I am arranging the track, I mess around with the drums to get them right and create new beats. Otherwise you will end up killing your creativity as draftzero said. Just try to have everything ready to record before you pick up your guitar, otherwise you will spend hours fiddling around with software which is no fun at all. The best drum sequencing I ever came up with were using "Drummer From Hell" through Halion as a plug in to Cubase SX. Check out http://mp3unsigned.com/showmp3.asp?mp3ID=9594&aid=4890 (track is called Flesheaters - mastering is terrible but the drums turned out great.)

To get the most out of the setup you have, guitar goes direct to the soundcard from the line out or the CD line out (if you have one). Make sure that the preamp is generating the full amp sound - try running the line out of the cab and direct from the preamp to see which sounds better. Vocals will never be that cealr direct into an Audigy. The best you can do is use some plug-in in Sonor to treat the tracks, they can really clear things up.

Best of luck anyway