Getting started on home recording

K

kenneho

New member
Hi.


Some years ago I used Propellerhead Reason to create some music on my computer. This worked like a charm, but I never got around to actually adding real instruments (like for example guitar) to the mix.

Now I'd like to pick thing up, and get started creating music again. I'm sure I'll be quite happy creating most of the music on software like Reason, but I need a way to record other intstruments as well (first and foremost guitar, voice and electric piano). This is where i need some advice...I'm gonna need a microphone to record the instruments/voice, but can I just plug it directly into my computer (into the mic input mini jack)? For the time being I can do with recording one instrument at the time, so I guess I won't need any physical mixing device.

And what kind of software do I need to mix the music created in for example Reason with the audio recorded with the microphone?

I'm not dedicated to using Reason specifically, so I'm open for using other software. I've heard good things about ProTools, but since they don't offer any trial downloads, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on software I'm not sure if I'll like, I'm not sure if I'll go for that one.



Best regards,
kenneho
 
If your only going to record one thing at a time, your easiest would be a USB microphone. However, I would spend a little extra money for a 2-4 channel interface like the Lexicon Alpha, Tascam US-144, or the Presonus Audiobox just to name a few.

Are you recording acoustic guitar or electric guitar?

Pretty much any DAW software would suit your needs.
 
dastrick said:
If your only going to record one thing at a time, your easiest would be a USB microphone. However, I would spend a little extra money for a 2-4 channel interface like the Lexicon Alpha, Tascam US-144, or the Presonus Audiobox just to name a few.

Are you recording acoustic guitar or electric guitar?

Pretty much any DAW software would suit your needs.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your quick reply.

I installed Audacity just to test audio recording, and plugged my old Digitech RP2000 effects board into the mic entry of the computer (gonna try a microphone later on). Recording audio in Audacity worked fine, but I found that there is quite a delay (maybe 0.5 seconds) from I hit the tones on the guitar until it's output to my headphones. After doing some googleing I've seen other people having the same kind of problem, but a wide range of causes have been proposed (the recording application or sound card driver has some incorrect setting somewhere, multitasking on the operating system can't handle audio recording that well, the sound card is not suitable for this kind of thing, and so on). Do you know how to figure out exactly what's casuing the problem I described, so that I can find a way to solve it?

Are there maybe other free DAW software out there I should check out?

Regards,
kenneho
 
My guess about the latency (delay) would be your soundcard, but I'm no expert. Just think, the sound has to be converted from analog to digital, get recorded, then from digital back to analog and out your speakers. Most built-in soundcards do not handle this task very well. You could pick up a used audio interface for pretty cheap. And most any new interface comes with recording software.

Check out this link, it should answer a lot of your questions. http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
 
If you already have Reason have you looked at Propellerheads Record....its a very similar interface but is for audio recording and integrates the former program as well...not free but worth a look
 
You can try Asio4all with your existing computer soundcard, or maybe spend $100-150 for a brand new audio/midi interface and it will make a world of difference with the delay (i.e. latency) your are experiencing.
Rich
 
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