Newbie Needs some Product Advice

[kramer76_98]

Hello, I'm a newbie and I'm not sure where to start. Let me give you my background so that you know where I'm comming from. I used to be in a band. We did 3 in studio self releases. So I've go a little experience with the pro-recording processs, but now I want to get into home recording for fun and to keep myself into music. I am a guitarist, so I would probably want to record Accoustic guitar using a mic, but I'm up for digital everything else if the quality is good. I have electic guitars, amps, a bass guitar, and a Kurzviel SP-88 Keyboard which they tell me is a good Midi Controller. I've got a computer I can use, but I'm sure like most of you, I like buttons and sliders. I think I'm leaning towards a computer program with some external board, but the computer for Storage and CD Burning. Using a rack mount POD for Electric Guitars, Using the Keyboard for Drums, but my keyboard has no drum sounds on it, so I have no idea how. I would probably Run the Bass in direct. And Vocals and Accoustic Guitar would be mic'd. I'm willing to spend about 1500-2000 to get me to the point that I can do pretty good quality stuff. Have I lost my mind? I'm I headed in the right direction? Any advice would be great. I'm trying not to spend 1500-2000 and ending up sounding like I recorded it with my handheld tape recorder.

[sixways]

I'm not a big, big fan...but a Digi 002 may suit your needs well.

Cubase and Cakewalk are compatable with a wide variety of DAW controllers as well.

Option 2 is cheaper. Have you ever mixed with software? Honestly, I like it much better.

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[TimOBrien]

My obligatory standard reply that I keep in Wordpad:

Immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076...books&v=glance

Good Newbie guide:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm

Other recording books:
http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html


Plenty of software around to record for free to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com

[kramer76_98]

I never really have mixed with software a lot. If it is significantly cheaper and potentially better I'm willing to give it a shot. Especially if I can buy Cakewalk or something and add a hardware peice later if I find that I really want buttons. Of software programs, is cakewalk the way to go? I've been reading some other posts, and it sounds like the soundcard is really important. If I have something like Cakewalk, and a good sound card, what to I plug the inputs into? The back of the soundcard? or do good soundcards come with some interface? Also most of my recording will be just me playing all of the instruments, but in case I wind up in another band or something I would like to have the flexibility to record multiple instruments at once. Sorry for all of the questions, there just aren't a lot of places you can go where they don't just try to sell you whatever they are selling. Thanks for any help or advice.

[sixways]

My suggestion is something like this:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FireBox/

or

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Firepod/

or

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Firewire410/

These are all "soundcards". It really depends on how many tracks you want to record at once. These are all affordable models in my opinion. The Presonus models come with Cubase LE (records 4 tracks simultaneous). The M-audio, doesn't come with any software. All of them are compatable with just about any software or OS though.

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