newbie of sorts - Cakewalk

[fatlips]

Hey. Can anyone help me out. I am a decent musician just getting into recording and it seems I don't learn well on my own so any advice would be appreciated.
I have had Pro Audio 8 for a few years and have recorded a few successful things with it but not without frustration. However I have become pretty familiar with the program so the thought of upgrading freaks me out a little.
My situation: my mother board fried on me a while ago and I jumped into building a new system from scratch. In hind sight I wish I would have taken more time to research what I needed for home recording before I jumped the gun but my impulses are another story. Since Windows XP doesn't work with Pro Audio 8 I aquired Sonar 1.02. I am ready to put a little money into a better setup. This is what I have now:
Sonar 1.02
Soundblaster Live soundcard(from old PC)
Windows XP Pro w/ service pack 2
Machspeed V600DAP motherboard
AMD Athlon XP processor 1.46 gig
512 meg ram
40 gig HD
Midi keyboard
Mackie 1604 VLZ board.
Decent array of mics etc.
My PC speakers are caput so for now I am using a shelf stereo. sounds fine.

What I want to do:
I play acoustic instruments and keys. Saxophones, guitars and MIDI respectively. So I am wanting the ability to lay down some quality tracks on original music and arrangements.

What I think I am in the market for(correct me if I'm wrong):
new sound card - any suggestions on what to look for
some kind of stereo mic and instr. preamp
digital interface(probably 4ins and outs and midi minimum is all I need for now?) ex. Echo, Omni etc??
Another HD designated to recording purposes.

I know this is an ear full but any advice would be great.
All ears
fatlips

[dachay2tnr]

Originally Posted by fatlips

What I think I am in the market for(correct me if I'm wrong):
new sound card - any suggestions on what to look for

Most definitely. A lot depends on your price range and how many things you need to record simultaneoulsy.

Originally Posted by fatlips

some kind of stereo mic and instr. preamp

Stereo mic?? What for? As for preamp, you can use the Mackie and get pretty good results.,

Originally Posted by fatlips

digital interface(probably 4ins and outs and midi minimum is all I need for now?) ex. Echo, Omni etc??

This would be your sound card, already covered above.

Most good quality sound cards will not have a built in midi synth. Therefore you will either need to use your keyboard for sounds, or soft synths. You could also continue to use the SB Live, but the other options are probably better.

Originally Posted by fatlips

Another HD designated to recording purposes.

Usually a pretty good idea. Make sure to get one that is 7200 rpm and dedicate it to storing your audio.

[Qwerty]

Despite the dubious use of "I acquired Sonar" on a 1st post, I offer the following...

- Get a decent sound card. Money spent on decent A/D converters now will make you very happy in the longer term.
- Buy some decent powered monitors and don't use the stereo. I don't care if they sound good - are they accurate? If they're not, you are wasting every single minute you spend mixing.
- Get your room in control. Put some acoustic treatment up in your room to minimise the uneven response an untreated space provides. Nothing will improve the quality of your recordings and the quality of your mixing as being able to hear a properly recorded signal of a good instrument in a fine sounding space.
- Buy the damn software. You will learn so much from the manual and also feel the need to re-coup your investment by spending more time in front of your instrument or the PC, therefore becoming a better musician and better at capturing your craft.

If you already have a board you can use, then the limiting factor in your setup is -

a) the room - the most intangible but the most important
b) the sound card - you will shit yourself at the difference
c) the monitors/speakers - runny diarrhea awaits even moreso...

Once you get all that stuff nailed, then you will have all the makings of a decent home studio as you will be able to properly hear and capture individual tracks and build your sonic palette as you so desire. Where you will get fucked up is when you start to get a bit clever - want to hear too many tracks at the same time as you are recording and trying to listen to three or four different DXi's playing different MIDI tracks in real-time. Once that happens, and only then, spend the money to get a bigger and better PC.

Given things like this -

http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=146508

...and the advances being made in computer technology - the longer you wait to upgrade your PC, the better off you will be in the bang for buck equation.

On the flip side of that coin - the sooner you get your room fixed, the better your recordings will sound. The sooner you get that new sound card, the better you will be able to capture the shit-hot sound of your cool new room. And then when you add those sexy new monitors, you will finally be able to hear exactly what the hell it was that you just recorded with that crappy mic placement and mix the CD of your dreams...

But what the fuck do I know?

Q.

[fatlips]

Q.
So finally some advice I can use. I appreciate the input. And so I am off to see if I can pull this off. Before I go though, the sound room situation. I have heard of being able to access web sites etc. about what exactly I can do witht the room for sound. Have you heard of such a place that will take your room dimensions, what the wall-floor-ceiling is made of and proposing a formula for the best way to diffuse erratic frequencies etc. to get that room to sound the best. Know what I mean. That would help too.
Thanks again.

[Qwerty]

This subject is huge and varied and something I don't have a good enough handle on to advise you directly. So said, the internet is your friend, as is the SEARCH facility on this BBS and recording.org.

There is a commercial site called www.auralex.com who are commercial manufacturers of acoustic foam absorbers and diffusers. Last time I was on their site, they offered a service whereby you could input your room dimensions and someone would email back with their recommended solutions. Just remember, all that glitters is not gold and there is no magic bullet to fix every situation generically.

Work out what you want from your room - a good mixing environment, a good space to record acoustic instruments, drums or a vocal booth to close-mike everything... Whatever your key requirements are will dictate where you spend your bucks.

As a general rule, as long as your mixing space is larger in volume than 2500 cubic feet, you will be able to sustain enough low frequency content accurately to enable you to correctly mix sub and woofer shaped frequencies. If not, then you need to look at tuned resonators - 'Helmholz resonators' or bass traps to try and get this stuff under control. Google up 'room modes' for more information.

At the very least, get hold of a test tone CD and a decent A-weighted sound meter from Radio Shack or Tandy or whatever they are called in your neck of the woods. Play the test tones one at a time at about 80 - 90dB (not all day or you'll go deaf), use the sound meter to record how loud the tone was at the mixing position. Plonk each value into a spreadsheet and graph it. That squiggly little line shows you exactly how your room is lying to you and what you need to start fixing.

Even having this piece of information means that you will have a better idea as to what is actually happening to your mixes. Once you know where the peaks and dips are, even if you can't fix them totally, you can still work around them.

But please, take it from someone who has spent the last four years fucking around with this stuff in the stupid hope of recording something decent at home - DON'T!! Save your time and money and go to a studio. Concentrate on your own musicality and songwriting skills then hire the occassional studio and engineer to help you capture it. If you take that approach, you won't need to stress so much as to making sure your room is correctly set up as you wouldn't be looking for mix transportability, just the ability to capture your thoughts and road-test some ideas...

Just remember to have fun!

Ciao,

Q.