Going into the world of DAW's

dwarf

New member
Ok, I've done the multitrack recording studio thing, and to be honest I hated it. The screen was small, the preamps sucked and I just hated using the danm thing.

I've got my friend to quote me on a computer,

Duo Core (something or other)
4 gig of ram
500 GB Hard Drive
Nice video card (not that i'll need it)
Stock as sound card (AC97 I think :eek:)
I'll also eventully be purchasing another moniter so I'll have the luxury of dual monitors :D

Ok, now down to the good stuff, I guess I'll be running pro tools (Academic because im a student)

What else would I need
I've got a budget of around $700 including pro tools, I can use more if need be. I've allready got monitors, microphones, headphones and a headphone amp, so all I'm really asking is what am I going to need mixer and soundcard wise?

If I got something like the M-box which has ?? preamps (not that many) can I use a mixer to submix :confused:

Now I'm lost, if you could use that would be a great help.
 
My obligatory standard reply that I keep in Wordpad:

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...ce&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info:
http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.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

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/
(It's $40 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($20) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they're giving away SamplitudeV9SE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)
 
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