new to site, several questions...

L

luckicharm

New member
hi everyone! im brand new to this site, so just wanted to say hello!
so heres the deal with me...i want to build a very simple beginner studio for myself, but have NO idea what to start with. i do have my keyboard, and i have a computer. i want the small studio to be computer based, i dont want anything too advanced until i learn more about that equiptment. im looking for something just for me to practice songwriting. what do you guys suggest for me to get?
also, im trieng to go to full sail in florida and i was wondering who of you have attended that school for recording arts, what was your experience like there, and was it worth the time and money?
and my last question: for those of you who are already in the music business, what was your first step towards getting in and what do you suggest for someone like me who is kinda starting out? i have a good open door...my dad is a pro guitar player and records in atlanta.
 
There are really too many computer applications to recommend one over another. If you are mostly interested in songwriting you may be well served by something as basic as Band-In-A-Box, which allows you to select numerous styles and input whatever chord progressions you want. This is a MIDI driven program you you would need some basic understanding of MIDI and a MIDI keyboard to recieve the MIDI performance data.

Many people choice loop based audio programs (the various ACID type programs) which also lend themselves well to a writer (vs. someone who wants a studio to record bands and develop engineer chops.).

However, if you want to learn engineering chops, than Pro Tools may make the most sense, given that it appears to the the most used software application at a pro level (I myself have always used the Cakewalk/Sonar line of products).

In part your post is confusing, you want a basic studio mainy to help with songwriting (which a 4 track cassteet could possibly achieve) yet, you are thinking about Full Sail (a school dedicated in part to training audio engineers at a high level of technical knowledged) - these two extremes on the surface appear to conflict.

While I have not attended Full Sail I know a few people who have and I did investigate the curriculum in detail a few years ago. My understanding is that is it likely as good as most of "those types" of schools and as a general rule, you do gain a good understanding or audio basics and you do get a reasonable amount of hands on with some por level gear. However, I personnally don't know anyone who actually got a job as a direct result of attending Full Sail.

If you simply want to learn about engineering (or any of the other courses) - without a specific career in mind, Full Sail can provide a good education for a cost (although so can many other "schools").

Regarding how to get started in the music industry. If your dad is a pro, then he can perhaps answer you questions better than most - given that he knows you better than most. A carrer in music involves more than chops, it takes a lot of commitment, the ability to take rejection, over and over, the ability to sacrifice almost everything else and a willingness to live at or below poverty levels most of the time. Your dad will likely know if you have the mental fortitude more than people on this site.

Almost anyone who has a music related carreer would tell you it involves, working a lot (take every gig you can, regardless of pay or preference), working with as many different people as possible (networking, developing a reputation), develop chops in numerous musical styles (you never know what gig may come along), be professional in your attitude and in your presentation, be dependable and be a decent person.

I can attest after 7 years of being a full time musician and about 30 years of being "semi-pro" I've gotten more work because I'm prefessional, dependable and easy to work with than simply because I have chops (although chops do count).
 
what is your budget? There are a ton of options at the beginner level when choosing a computer interface for recording. Here are hte thing you want to consider:
1. How many tracks at once do you need? Sounds lik eyou won;t need more than 2 at first, and probabaly a midi inout for the lkeyboard. This will make it much cheaper.

2. How much can your comp handle? You want lots of hard disk space (at least 30-100 free gigs IMO) lots of ram (i would say 1GB), and a decent processor. you can make do with less, but you will probabaly get really frustrated fighting the comp rather than making music. Many people who realy take comp recording seriously have a dedicated system for it, with one seperate hard drive for the OS and recording software and another for the audio files being recorded. They will avoid installing non-audio software on the machine so it iwll not suck up memory. You don;t need to sweat htis yet, but be aware of what the high standard is and expect your results to be proprtional. A system you use to surf the net (potential spyware to suck up your RAM) and have MS office on along with tons of other stuff (each with its own little agent software monitoring your system etc) can slow your syste down.

3. What kind of gear do you ahve now? For the cheapest option you will want built in micrphone preamps in the interface, which is convinent but the built in pres on most systems are not the highest quality. You could probabaly make do with a 2 input sytem with a midi in and with both inputs with preamps and phantom power to run condensor mics.

4 what specs do you want to record at? I highly reccomend you get a 24 bit system vs 16 bits. this relates to headroom, the 24 bit systems have more, whcih means you have more room to record various loudnesses in signals. 16 bit means you need to try to record as "hot" (loud) as you can without overloading your inputs. This is a fairly narrow range. The 24 bit will allow you to record at a lower overall volume and then boost the signal in mixing, which gives you lots of wiggle room combining tracks together amoung other things. i would not worry tomuch about the sampling rate, there is not a lot of reason to go beyond the basic 44.1 (CD standard) rate and that will be avialable on pretty much any 24 bit system.

Hope this helps.
Daav
 
wow guys...thanx so much for the feedback!
mikeh...sorry if i sounded a little confusing in my post! although i do want my own studio to practice song writing, i do want to go to school for the more technical part of studio work as well.
i went on the cakewalk website, and i really liked what they had, i think the sonar products look nice.
again...thank you for the responses, yall are great!
 
There are several free recording software programs available (either as shareware or limited/trial versions) which you can download and try them out before you sink your money into software which may not be right for you. I would suggest that you try several and see which is most suited to you. These free programs are also good to learn the basics of digital recording. Some to consider might be, Audacity, Kristal (multi track recording/mixing software, not great but good to learn on) or the limited/trial versions of N-Trax and a lot of others. Some are pretty simple to use while others are more complex, try several and decide which is best suited to your needs. I wish someone would have told me about all the trial stuff available before I started buying software, it would have saved me both some money and a lot of frustration.
 
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