I'm A Total Noob!

[ifitwasaday]

Hey all,

Here's my setup: A recently purchased Presonus Inspire 1394 with the versions of Cubase and Acid that came with it. My vocal mic is an SM58. I'm going directly from a DOD preamp into the Inspire for guitars.

Here are my questions (in no real order):

1. If I wanted to add synthezized strings to a track, how would I go about doing that? Can I do it through either ACID or Cubase? Do I need a MIDI keyboard? If yes to the second question, should I have sprung for the Firebox instead, or could I just have a USB based MIDI instrument?

2. Are ACID and Cubase basically brothers (or sisters) from a different mother (or father)? Why does Presonus bundle them together?

3. I'm in the market for a guitar amplifier for gigging. I'm looking for a combo no more than 65 watts with a direct out for recording. Price Range: $0 - 600.
Any suggestions?

Thanks for the responses.

[jonnyc]

Well acid is good for creating beats and drum loops and stuff like that while cubase is a kind of all in one deal. Honestly just cubase would be fine for you but you should at least play around with both.

[Dani Pace]

Check out a Roland JC50, it's a versatile combo (2X12, 50 watts RMS) with a lot of punch, small enough to haul around yet big enough to be a real workhorse. And well under your $600 limit in most stores, in fact for a few dollars more you could get 2 and have a kicking set up.

[daav]

Your amp question would get a lot more response in the guitar forum and be easier to answer with an idea oh what kind of stuff you play. My 2 cents:

1. Avoid solid state unless you are looking for a nice clean sound (jazz or the like) if that is the case the JC and a very few other amps are nice. But for overall tone, go for a tube amp, your proce range will give you many options.

For tube amps, the next quetion is when do you wnat it to break up? For a mellow, clean or light breakup for blues or something, there are a number of fender combos that will sounds nice. I have a Blues Deluxe which is 40 watts i think and sounds awesome clean and has lots of power. To get it to break up a lot though, you need a pedal and/or to really crank the overdrive channel which is insanely loud (to me).

2. I would reccomend you do not try to get a n amp with a direct out for recording. Amps are almost always made to sound good throguh speakers, with power running through. If you want to go direct (apartment living for instance) either get a POD or one of the knockoffs or one of those deals that uses resitance to allow you to crank the amp for tone, but plays through a speaker at a lower overall volume. An amps direct out will usually not hold up well in a mix and will just about never sound anywhere near to as nice as when it plays through speaker(s).

Daav