recording to a laptop

[Bitter_Blue]

so, i'm poor. and i'm trying to get decent gear to bring audio into my lap top.

i'd only really be needing to record one instrument at a time.
a friend recommended a
Quattro.

...i'd be recording vocals, bass guitar, and guitar. so i need a good vocal mic...when i can afford it, i'm thinking of the BLUE baby bottle. (i know it's their cheapest mic but like i said, i'm poor.)

my other big concern, is that i'd like to assign my yamaha psr-510 as a midi controller for Reaktor... i am totally new at this.
i know that the quattro has midi in and out...but i dont know if i'd need anything else to do what i'm trying to do.
i guess i'd need midi from reaktor, IN to the psr-510, then OUT from the psr-510 IN to the quattro, so that i can record...
i just want to know what gear i'll need. the most affordable -but high quality- set up for what i'm doing.
i don't need extra features i'm not going to use...i have a lot of software, but no hardware. and i'm fairly ignorant about midi and sunth things.

i'm just a poet, fer chrissake. i never thought i'd need to be my own
band/web designer/producer/engineer/manager/promoter.

i've never been good with manuals. and my tech-oriented friends - just like my former bandmates - make empty promises.

any help is greatly appreciated.

-twig

[knightfly]

I have several non-technical friends who rely on me for this sort of thing, and several hundred BBS posters on several BBS's that I've helped - frustration is common on both sides. Some people feel that they had to work for it, why shouldn't others?
Anyway the Quattro should work fine for what you want. The only other thing would be a couple of MIDI cables, and whatever audio sources you intend to record. Your needs don't sound like they would tax the abilities of a laptop, although you didn't mention what it was. Generally, laptop hard drives only run at 4500 RPM instead of 5400 or 7200 or higher, so the track count will be limited. Probably 12-16 tracks at 24 bit 44.1k should be doable, unless the machine is ready for doorstop duty. Did you look at the requirements?

Windows 98SE, 2000 or ME
UDMA EIDE or SCSI HDD
96kHz Operation Pentium II 500Mhz 128 MB of PC100 RAM
48kHz Operation Pentium 200 MMX 64 MB of SDRAM

If your machine is better than this, go for it... Steve