This is a very cool message board. I just whiled away three hours going through random threads and posts - what a knowledge base there is in here! Being brand spankin' new to this forum and to digital recording, I'll just pose my question. It's pretty general:
What equipment do I want to start out in digital recording?
I'll elaborate. I've been involved in music - stage and studio - for 25 years. I am no sound engineer; just a player, sometimes composer, and collaborator. I was always very comfortable in the analog recording environment, although when it came to important projects, it was always a pro engineer behind the controls. My home setups consisted at various times of 4-track cassette, 8-track reel-to-reel, or 1/2" 16. I always managed to cobble something together to get decent demo tracks to tape in the comfort of my own home, and was able to construct functional full-arrangement demos of instrumentally complex material. Of course, the mix quality and perfection of the product weren't what mattered...only the ability to demo the material for other players.
A friend and I had been working to rough out structural tracks to a somewhat ambitious studio project before I was relocated with work three years ago. It was all going to 24-track 1" in a popular local studio. My work move temporarily pulled the plug on the project. We are now getting back into it, but the studio has since gone digital! The engineer told me not to worry, and that we would still be able to burn the original roughs to disc for audio reference and demo purposes. He also said he could digitize everything for preservation (the old reels have been sitting idle and magnetically degrading since I left town). OK, great! But now, I guess I need to think about putting something together so I can work with these old tracks in the digital domain, particularly since that studio is now 200 miles away instead of 30. I barely know where to begin.
I have gone through scores of material on the Internet, casually investigated what seems like endless pieces of equipment and software packages, and all it's done is confuse me. I finally wandered into a Guitar Center one day just to see what the guy behind the counter had to say about it all. He wanted to sell me a Firepod and some or another Cakewalk software - I don't have the computer built yet, although I have a tech junkie friend here at work who builds about 70 systems per year and reccomended a setup for my application. Actually, he sketched out three potential packages - sort of the Yugo, Lexus, and Rolls Royce scenario. I certainly trust his judgment in the matter, but it's tough to know how to proceed having so little working knowledge of the digital recording subject.
As far as tracking, my requirements call for 24 tracks minimum, although a lot of overdubs have been performed as we've pieced this current project together and we'll probably continue in this format through its completion. I can't see the need for any more than enough simultaneous inputs to handle a drum kit, or a five-piece horn section. Seems like 8 would be more than adequate. But Cubase versus Pro Tools versus Cakewalk...which interface to use, sound card choices, which other pieces of outboard gear to use...cripes! I could sit and juggle options for the rest of my life and never get anything done.
I'm a relic of analog technology and I'm always late to the show when times change. I'm running up as we speak with my clean plate, hoping to grab an appetizer before the main course, while you folks are already picking your teeth and burping up dessert. That's how far in the dust I am with digital recording technology.
I need to set up a functional home project studio to work with the material I currently have (up to 20 simultaneous tracks at the moment). I don't worry about mixing and mastering because I'd farm that out to somebody who knows what they're doing. Basically, I need the capacity to finish tracking this project and (ideally) the ability to send new tracks back to the original studio where my guitarist can access everything and add to it. May I impose on some of you folks for suggestions on a suitable setup that meets these "general" criteria? Or, alternatively, perhaps some of you could enlighten me on the hardware and software setups you're currently using in your own project studios.
I'm a blank slate, so feel free to write on it anything you feel is worth knowing. Thanks in advance for your help.
What equipment do I want to start out in digital recording?
I'll elaborate. I've been involved in music - stage and studio - for 25 years. I am no sound engineer; just a player, sometimes composer, and collaborator. I was always very comfortable in the analog recording environment, although when it came to important projects, it was always a pro engineer behind the controls. My home setups consisted at various times of 4-track cassette, 8-track reel-to-reel, or 1/2" 16. I always managed to cobble something together to get decent demo tracks to tape in the comfort of my own home, and was able to construct functional full-arrangement demos of instrumentally complex material. Of course, the mix quality and perfection of the product weren't what mattered...only the ability to demo the material for other players.
A friend and I had been working to rough out structural tracks to a somewhat ambitious studio project before I was relocated with work three years ago. It was all going to 24-track 1" in a popular local studio. My work move temporarily pulled the plug on the project. We are now getting back into it, but the studio has since gone digital! The engineer told me not to worry, and that we would still be able to burn the original roughs to disc for audio reference and demo purposes. He also said he could digitize everything for preservation (the old reels have been sitting idle and magnetically degrading since I left town). OK, great! But now, I guess I need to think about putting something together so I can work with these old tracks in the digital domain, particularly since that studio is now 200 miles away instead of 30. I barely know where to begin.
I have gone through scores of material on the Internet, casually investigated what seems like endless pieces of equipment and software packages, and all it's done is confuse me. I finally wandered into a Guitar Center one day just to see what the guy behind the counter had to say about it all. He wanted to sell me a Firepod and some or another Cakewalk software - I don't have the computer built yet, although I have a tech junkie friend here at work who builds about 70 systems per year and reccomended a setup for my application. Actually, he sketched out three potential packages - sort of the Yugo, Lexus, and Rolls Royce scenario. I certainly trust his judgment in the matter, but it's tough to know how to proceed having so little working knowledge of the digital recording subject.
As far as tracking, my requirements call for 24 tracks minimum, although a lot of overdubs have been performed as we've pieced this current project together and we'll probably continue in this format through its completion. I can't see the need for any more than enough simultaneous inputs to handle a drum kit, or a five-piece horn section. Seems like 8 would be more than adequate. But Cubase versus Pro Tools versus Cakewalk...which interface to use, sound card choices, which other pieces of outboard gear to use...cripes! I could sit and juggle options for the rest of my life and never get anything done.
I'm a relic of analog technology and I'm always late to the show when times change. I'm running up as we speak with my clean plate, hoping to grab an appetizer before the main course, while you folks are already picking your teeth and burping up dessert. That's how far in the dust I am with digital recording technology.
I need to set up a functional home project studio to work with the material I currently have (up to 20 simultaneous tracks at the moment). I don't worry about mixing and mastering because I'd farm that out to somebody who knows what they're doing. Basically, I need the capacity to finish tracking this project and (ideally) the ability to send new tracks back to the original studio where my guitarist can access everything and add to it. May I impose on some of you folks for suggestions on a suitable setup that meets these "general" criteria? Or, alternatively, perhaps some of you could enlighten me on the hardware and software setups you're currently using in your own project studios.
I'm a blank slate, so feel free to write on it anything you feel is worth knowing. Thanks in advance for your help.
