Well I basically want to record my own songs and wondered If anyone has achieved really good results from recording their own stuff at home?

I will be using vocals, piano and guitar and wondered what the best way of doing in terms of hardware and any software needed.

Thanks

Good quality kit is the main thing you need.I have one of these

We recorded our ep on location and at home using a digital home studio and a SM57. You can listen to it at www.susiejones.net We're open and honest enough to say we rushed it, and would probably, had we not been bound by time, taken more care. The key is to be hyper critical with yourself. It isn't enough to be "ok." Listen, tweak, retry. Give it a day and try again. A producer friend of ours recorded a great album on a porch in America. Catherine Craig "Porch Songs." In my eyes one of the best produced albums ever. The right gear helps, your desire to record the best you can will make it great.

We recorded our ep on location and at home using a digital home studio and a SM57. You can listen to it at www.susiejones.net We're open and honest enough to say we rushed it, and would probably, had we not been bound by time, taken more care. The key is to be hyper critical with yourself. It isn't enough to be "ok." Listen, tweak, retry. Give it a day and try again. A producer friend of ours recorded a great album on a porch in America. Catherine Craig "Porch Songs." In my eyes one of the best produced albums ever. The right gear helps, your desire to record the best you can will make it great.

I'll add my 2 penneth..
Quite a lot of audio cards come bundled with DAW software
albeit a lite/cutdown version.
Ableton Lite would be a good option I recon.
Personally I would recomend Ableton as software anyway
flexible, easy to use, not endless menu's etc as many others use.
I wouldnt touch Pro tools with a barge pole tbh, I suspect it
will probably be a thing of the past soon and I dont know anyone that uses it
any more.
U could get away with one mic, probably not an sm58 as its frequency response is too limited for serious vocal or delicate work, that said, it would come in handy for its ability to work with loud sound sources.
Feel free to PM me if you want a more in depth chat about what might or might not work for u. What kind of material are you looking to record?

Cheers guys,

Im planning on simply using guitar, piano and vocals.

I have plenty of time to carry out more research though but your advice is a great starting point.

If you're recording acoustic guitar, be sure to use a microphone over the "sweet spot." If you're doing electric, mic up the amp. Don't be tempted to DI. You won't get the same quality. Good luck, be sure to post it when you're done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww5ZL3QQinI here is my new collab with dutch DJ Armin van Buuren

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww5ZL3QQinI here is my new collab with dutch DJ Armin van Buuren

The singing bit and the writing bit mostly

So you done the singing? I noticed another of the video with singing by the same person had like 6 million hits was that you too?

Sadfish,check out "Sun & Moon" or "Alone Tonight" by Above & Beyond both these contains vocals by Beax, both leave shivers down my spine even though heard many many times

Yep, very good vocals.

yeh that was an earlier track mate.. I am guessing you mean Sun & Moon which was 2011.

My favourite DAW is Cubase. It's the one I started using and the one I find easiest to navigate.

If you're recording voice and acoustic guitar I'd definitely go for a condenser mic rather than a dynamic one like the SM58. Something like the Rode NT1A is a decent entry level condenser.

The most important thing is the room you use and its acoustic properties. Get this wrong and even the best gear will sound crap.

Don't forget Rock God that if they are using a condenser mic they will need an audio card capable of phantom power! To help sort out room acoustics you can buy fairly inexpensive "reflection" filters. The original ones from SE Electronics were a bit pricey but you can get a few different ones now and they are quite useful.