Basically there are a few ways we are recording.
Simon sometimes records directly onto his PC in with a standard mic you might use for skype etc. He uses a free open-source program called “Audacity”. He then exports to mp3 and uploads!!!!!!
Tanya sometimes records directly onto Garage band (on a macbook). We then either “share” with itunes and upload, or else pop the song into Logic Studio. There we may put some of the guitars through amp simulators or add some other effects – especially to the vocals, perhaps even some over all “mastering” type compression, EQ etc. Mostly we have just left it unmastered.
Some other recordings of Simon’s have been done directly into the macbook (no mixing desk – just directly into the line in with the mic going through something to turn it into a line level) playing along with a loop with headphones. So, he is essentially playing live with himself.
Our “Rumours of Worship” sessions and “Embers” (these recordings have not been uploaded….. yet) have been recorded mostly through a second hand 16 track Alesis firewire (400) desk into either the Macbook (which we just gave to our daughter) or else a Macbook Pro (4 Gig RAM) and onto a firewire hard drive – daisy chained from the desk. It records directly into Logic Studio (Garage Band will only let you record 8 tracks simultaneously so we had to spend the $’s). From there I listen to it, label each section of the 2-3 hour “song” so I can find my way around, get the levels about right (I have to draw volume curves on them), add some nice effects, even a little pitch correction at times, perhaps some of those basic “mastering” effects and then publish – before we get too fussy.
Tanya plays a Korg O1/W keyboard – sometimes playing a sound via MIDI through the recording mac. Cheryl plays a Casio (I can’t remember the model). Carl plays a Cort 4-string bass. Bob plays a 5 string bass (can’t remember the make) – through a Fender bass amp. Simon plays a Fender strat and his blue semi-acoustic guitar (Samik – Guy Bennet) – through a vamp 2 and/or Fender Hotrod, with various other pedals as well as a rather modified Applause round back acoustic. Ian plays a Godin (Electric with LR Baggs acoustic guitar pickup and a sadly unused Roland guitar synth pickup-thing build in) – through a trusty Boss GT-5, later a Vox Tonelab SE and then through the recording mac as an amp simulator and finally out through some studio speakers for monitors (Simon wonders if he will ever buy a decent, and by that he means Fender Hodrod, amp so he can stop messing around with all this other stuff). He also plays a Guild F-30 bld acoustic with an LR Baggs pickup. Simon and Ian both use E-bow and slides.
For the last few years we have been using a Tascam US-16×08 which is fabulous. We record mostly with a MacBook Pro – late 2013. I am pleased to say that over all these years, apart from a few (very frustrating) times, our equipment has worked superbly. We even play live while the signal is processed through the MacBook – amazingly table, but nerve-wracking. If anything goes wrong the whole PA goes off. So far, so good.