Help me get recording - Please?

[coffee1234]

New to the game of Pc-based recording/multi-tracing.

I have a PIII 500, sblive value s-card and 128 RAM.

I just want to have fun and lay down some tracs to share with friends. Not planning on calling Warner Bros. anytime soon.

What do I need to get started? Do I just get multi-trac software and just plug my guitar into the 1/8" input in back of my soundcard? What about drum tracks/strings/piano sounds? help please.

[drstawl]

You just need a way to get your instrument signals boosted to line level and then fed to the stereo input connector on the SB Live. Then you record over what you have by monitoring the sounds recorded on HD through headphones while playing the next pair of tracks. Rinse and Repeat. You then mix all the tracks you've recorded down to a pair of tracks in .wav format and burn it to CD. I usually do a little bit of basic mastering before the CD burn. This typically includes compression, EQ and normalization of the files involved. I usually record MIDI sounds to a .wav file separately and mix them in the same way I would any other digital audio file. With a PIII 500, and the HD that probably came with such a system, you'll probably run out of ideas long before you run out of tracks.

[Even]

You have plenty of computer to work with. Yes you will want a multi track recording program. Popular vote gives N-tracks the nod around here for beginners. WWW.FaSoft.com will get you to the sight where you can nab the demo. As far as all those different instuments and tracks go, well thats your world to explore. A cheap (or expensive) keyboard will offer basic drums and assorted sounds. As far as getting the instument to the PC.. you can use the 1/8 input if you have a pre- amp or mixer. So life is good

[dobro]

coffee - to get your instrument signals boosted to line level, you'll need a mixer or a couple of preamps. Mixers have preamps built-in, and can handle more than one channel at a time, if you soundcard can as well.