questions about home studio setup

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goatboi

New member
I'm a singer/songwriter in the process of setting up a way to record some demos and possibly create a "band in a box" that i can use for live performances. I plan to use an Acer TM2441 Notebook comp for this purpose. I've heard that for recording you need a good sound card and I'm wondering if the one installed by the manufacturer will do the job? If not I'm looking for cheap alternative suggestions. I am looking at a Presonus Firebox and a Behringer Ucontrol keyboard. The Firebox comes with the Cubase LE program included. Besides a good mic and cords, is there anything else I will need to start recording decent sounding demos? Are there alternative (read cheaper) setups that I could go with that will give the same result? Any feedback you can give will be mucho appreciated!!
 
goatboi said:
I'm a singer/songwriter in the process of setting up a way to record some demos and possibly create a "band in a box" that i can use for live performances. I plan to use an Acer TM2441 Notebook comp for this purpose. I've heard that for recording you need a good sound card and I'm wondering if the one installed by the manufacturer will do the job? If not I'm looking for cheap alternative suggestions. I am looking at a Presonus Firebox and a Behringer Ucontrol keyboard. The Firebox comes with the Cubase LE program included. Besides a good mic and cords, is there anything else I will need to start recording decent sounding demos? Are there alternative (read cheaper) setups that I could go with that will give the same result? Any feedback you can give will be mucho appreciated!!
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You are on the right track. The Firebox will work for you, there are many others that are similiar, but that one has a decent rep and will help. The bundled soundcard from your laptop will be useless for recording, so you need that. There are cheaper options, but probabaly not much that will be worth the money saved. Cubase LE will be a great place to start, you can upgrade to SX or what have you later if you need more functionality and Cubase is pretty easy to use and very high functioning (in my experience).

The mic question can be a whole different topic, but how many tracks do you need to record at once? I would reccomend getting th firebox or whatever interface you decide on, doing some recording with that and whatever mic(s) you have, and then looking at additional equipment when you have some more experience.

What you can look for next is to possibly get a dedicated mic preamp (which can add to your tone, or at least not hurt it) and possible some outboard compression. Some people never compress when tracking, I have found that some light compression can really help with gain staging when you don't have a lot of experience. This can wait though.

The one thing you NEED to consider is your tracking space- what kind of room will you be using? If it is the standard home reocording sitaution (basement or bedroom) you may want to look into a small investment to treat your space acoustically. You want to put some good bass trapping int he corners, and something to absorb/diffuse reflections, and if possible isolate the trackign space a bit from other noise sources. Bad room, air conditioners, computer fans (probabaly not an issue with a laptop) etc can really alter your recorded tone for the worse and all the expensive equipment int he world won't help it.

Daav
 
thanks guys

thanks guys for the quick responses; i'm on a fast learning curve here as an older guy who spent many years in the trenches slugging out songs with bar bands...ready to leap forward now though...nothing like sunshine and good Canadian beer to inspire fresh ideas ...and for those among you requesting pics of "goatgurl"...shes kinda shy..but some uncooked popcorn gets her in the mood I find...just dont mention curry or open pit bbq ok
 
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