analog dinosaur

bass331964

New member
I've never done any computer recording although I've done plenty of analog and have some basic questions:
I've picked up a Hewlett Packard pc and have been thinking about recording with it (633mhz 64mb 15.0gb) it appears to have the capacity from what I've read what sound card and software do you guys suggest and I suppose it will make my tascam eight track obsolete. Limited budget but any suggestions will be appreciated
 
Scan this web site and read everything you can. Then check out other web sites and relevant magazines. That should give you a good overview of what hardware solutions are out there. You didn't say what your budget was, or what you want to be able to do, but you need to decide these things before you go out and start buying pieces. Since you already have a Tascam deck I'll assume you are looking to record audio tracks rather than MIDI. The only absolute I can say is you will need more RAM - at least 128, 256 is better.

I was in a similar situation to you, I was using an old Fostex 8 channel reel-to-reel and a grungy board. Because I record my band and other live music I decided I needed to continue to use a mixer (if you are only recording one source at a time you could do all your mixing inside the computer)and I wanted a hard-disk solution that used the computer I already had. I wound up buying a Gadget Labs 824 box (records and/or plays back 8 24bit tracks at once) and an Alesis Studio 32 mixer. About $1300 for the pair. Been happy with the setup so far.
 
Thanks for the info yes I'm looking to record audio tracks more ram sounds like a good idea easy enough too, I will do so more reading,how many tracks do you guys usually work with (recording one at a time)
 
The original idea behind the 824 was that I could record two drum tracks (stereo out from a Roland electronic drum kit) a bass guitar, lead gutar, keyboard, and three vocal mics all at the same time. In practice it will usually be two drum tracks, bass, and guitar with a scratch vocal track that is not kept, then we can overdub the rest. I am using Cakewalk 9 software. The software can actually record up to 256 tracks (although you would run out of RAM long before you could do that) but the Gadget Labs hardware is limited to playing back any 8 at one time. So you could for example have a bunch of tracks, then record 6 additional vocal tracks, then mix them down internally (just using software) to 2 or even one track. In the end you are going to want to either mix down to a stereo master internaly (which keeps things all digital) or play back up to 8 tracks through your mixer again to an external mastering device, like a DAT or CDR recorder. The later is the noisier (some would just say wrong!) way to do it, but it is how I prefer to do it because I am more comfortable with using a mixer and I already have some external effects units that I like.
 
Goo info! interesting too I learn something everytime I log on to this page thanks again, would a cd rom burner be the way to go for mixing down?
 
Seems like a lot of people are now mixing to external CDR units. The media is so cheap it doesn't matter if you slag some CDs. I would prefer a DAT (just call me old fashioned) although I have not bought one yet. Still getting used to my new DAW and mixer, I may eventually do all the mixing down internally after I get more comfortable with Plug-In effects.
 
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