Heres what I want to do...How do I do it?

[SteveP]

Hello, and thank you in advance for your input, this site is great. I'm just getting into home recording and I just bought a AMDK6-2 475mhz, 96MbRAM, 20 Gb hard drive computer.
The system comes with a ESS M2 PCI Sound Card. I want to be able to record two tracks simultaneously (ie. two guitars)and then layer those tracks with anything I want...voice, drums via durm machine, bass and eventually keys. I want to also burn my own Cd's, eventually, but for now I'll be happy with a good quality recordings stored on my hard drive. I will be using Cakewalk 7 recording software. From everything I've read I need a mixer and quality sound card... I don't know anything about sound cards, Where does the sound card that comes with this system above rank in the world of sound cards? Does a drum machine use midi cables? Should I definately get a sound card with midi capabilities? And can you recommend a sound card mixer combination that wont break my bank? The world of sound cards is overwhelming... I don't know where to start, even after reading for two weeks. I want the Honda of sound cards, middle of the road, high quality, sounds good when running and will start every morning. For my needs, what should I look for in my sound card? Do I have all the components that are necessary for a decent studio...Mic, Mixer, Sound Card, Rec software? How does my "planned" system look on paper? I know there are a lot of questions here I would apprecaiate any input. Thank you.

 

[Grizzly]

Howdy,
Well your system sounds like it is pretty well set. Although the onboard sound card may not like playing with Cake Walk. I just bought a new computer and expierenced that problem. Had to go inside change a jumper to turn it off and install a S.B. aw64. I'm using C.W. pro7, AMDk6/2@400mhz, 128meg ram, 30gig HD. plugged into a Behringer, and RW5000 CDRW. It all works verry well together. And for live work I use an AArdvark 20/20 that way I can get 8 in and out.

 

[Lorddiagram]

"Where does the sound card that comes with this system above rank in the world of sound cards? Does a drum machine use midi cables? Should I definately get a sound card with midi capabilities?"

The soundcard you have already has midi capabilities, you just need to buy a $20 adapter that converts your joystick port to a midi in/out. The soundcard you have probably is not the best, but if it is "full duplex", which means that it can simultaneously playback and record, you are equipped to do what you want.
If it is "half-duplex" you will at least need to buy a full-duplex soundcard. You can probably find one for $50.
Your soundcard should have a 1/8 stereo "line-in". Go to Radio shack or any store which sells odd audio cables and get a cable which has 2 female 1/4 recaptacles on one end and 1 1/8 stereo male plug on the other. Using this cable you can record two tracks simultaneously.
Midi is a good thing, and you may want to mess with it, but your system should be able to handle audio well enough that you may not even want to learn, yet, midi. A midi capable drum machine uses midi cables. If you are looking for really nice drum sounds you may want to look at a external drum machine or module. I own an Alesis D4 and think it is very nice. A great freeware program you can run for nice drum beats is called "Hammerhead" created by Bram Bros - try it - you will probably like it.

Your planned system is very nice. Your computer can handle quite a lot. You state that you only want to be able to record 2 tracks simultaneously, if that is true, you are set, if you think you will want to be able to record 4 or more, you may need to either get 2 soundcards or, if you have a little more mula to blow, look in to a nice audio interface for you computer such as "Darla. Layla or Gina".

My concise advice: If your soundcard is full-duplex, use it and save-up for either and external sound module or an audio interface. If not full-duplex get a full-duplex one.