Best simple PC recording rig.

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Poolhouse

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I have a guitar, a keyboard, and a mic.

My question to you all is what you think the best complete rig is for recording music. Not the best as in, pro grade equipment that costs a million, but a reasonable quality rig for amatuer home recording.

Im looking for hardware, software, and any equipment in between. Try not to leave anything out, because I may well take some of this advice and use it to make a purchase. Im kind of PC stupid so I'm hoping for the simplest, yet most effective setup I can find....

Thanks all very much in advance....


-PH
 
First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...ce&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm
 
Tim,

this has been very helpful. Thankyou.

I ordered the book you suggested right away, as Amazon has used copies for $4!

Also, the tutorial you posted has me convinced I need to go out and get that M-Audio souncard right away. That seems like the answer to alot of my issues, as I already have a mixer....

Thanks again!
 
Now here's some free software you can start on:
(I highly recommend Reaper...)

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com

A great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/
(It's $40 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)
Unlimited audio and midi tracks - easily a match for Cubase or SonarHome
Great review on it in the current issue of "Sound-On-Sound" magazine.

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($20) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (Last November, they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150 - pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)
 
Thanks again! more great stuff....

So, I'm going to buy the M-Audio soundcard. I already have a Behringer mixer. I have a condensor mic and a Shure mic. It sounds like that's all I need for the basic recording of guitar, keys and vox...
 
I use N-track as my multitrack recorder. I suspect that REAPER may be supplanting N-track slowly, but you might want to check both out. They are roughly the same price (ie. a marginally functional demo version, ,$50 or so to get the full version). Definitely get the demo version running first before paying your money. For example... although I'm sure that REAPER is great for most people, it crashed my system several times and I gave up on it. Probably some .dll conflict somewhere, but it wasn't worth my time trying to track it down. http://www.ntrack.com

I also depend on a good waveform editor. N-track will capture the digital audio, but frequently you need to remove clicks, or change the volume on a waveform after recording. For this I use a shareware package - GoldWave.

A mixer/soundcard setup is also useful. I just record one track at a time, and have a cheap Berhenger mixer fed into my soundcard. If you want more than one track at once you may need an audio interface device in front of the soundcard. Others can give you advice on that.

If you have an amp and a mic your are probably set, but I love my POD for guitar and bass. Plus it doesn't keep the neighbors awake :) http://www.line6.com

Hope that helps...

Jeff
 
yep, sorry to to say, but Reaper beats the crap out of n-track (I am a former n-track user)... so I will second Reaper as an awesome piece of software. It is the best option for home recording right now. Its easy to learn the basics, but has a ton of advanced capabilities that you can grow into, and it should run rock solid on any system.

Not sure which M-Audio card you are referring to, but anything that will do 24-bit should suffice. Although I would recommend a Firewire interface over a PCI card, Firewire seems like it may be a better long term investment since PCI is sort of on the way out.

sounds like you got most bases covered. Maybe consider the purchase of a good pair of headphones?
 
Hi_Flyer said:
sounds like you got most bases covered. Maybe consider the purchase of a good pair of headphones?
Click to expand...

a pair of monitors and a pair of headphones would be much better if you can swing it.

reaper is the best bang for buck out of all the recording apps. no two ways about it. :p

i don't know which sound card you're looking at but i'd suggest that you get something with balanced connections and midi in/out (even if you don't use midi yet).

i don't know what your pc specs are but with a fast cpu, a couple gb's of ram, and a fast dedicated hard drive for your audio, you can handle about anything.

don't forget mic stands, cables, and a pop filter or two.
 
If you are buying an M-Audio sound card, you will find that it included software, probably Ableton Lite. Familiarize yourself with the included software before you spend your money on other software. Ableton is somewhat specialized, but is highly regarded.
 
jmasek said:
They are roughly the same price (ie. a marginally functional demo version, ,$50 or so to get the full version). Definitely get the demo version running first before paying your money.
Click to expand...

That is actually pretty inaccurate. N-track's pricing scheme involves limited functionality and the demo is limited. To buy N-track, you pay $54.00 for the 16bit version and $79.00 for the 24bit version. You can upgrade from 16 to 24 bits by paying the difference.

Reaper provides a free, unlimited demo that never expires. You can use Reaper forever and the only thing reminding you you haven't registered it will be the line at the top of the window that says "Unregistered" and the register dialog which will pop up when you start the app (only when you start the app) for five seconds after the demo period is up. But as it is "uncrippled, unexpiring, shareware," you never have to stop using it and you never lose functionality at all.

The pricing of Reaper is also very different. You can pay $40.00 for a personal license, or $200.00 for a commercial license. Again, the only accountability here is your own conscience. Personal means doing things like recording demos, songwriting, recording your band's local CD that even with Reaper's cost you will probably take a loss on. Commercial is for people who are using Reaper to make money pretty much.

So, like I said the earlier statement was pretty much off the mark. But everything else was good. N-track is a great program, don't get me wrong. It was the first DAW app I ever used and it is both easy and powerful. So is Reaper. You pays yer money and you takes yer choice.
 
Thanks everyone....

The card I was referring to was the M-Audio 2496. I have a set of monitors, but I need a good set of headphones. Mics, cable, mic stand, I have all that already. My biggest challenge was getting the audio in the box, and I think the soundcard is the answer here....

Thanks again all!
 
Last edited:
Poolhouse said:
Thanks everyone....

The card I was referring to was the M-Audio 2496. I have a set of monitors, but I need a good set of headphones. Mics, cable, mic stand, I have all that already. My biggest challenge was getting the audio in the box, and I think the soundcard is the answer here....

Thanks again all!
Click to expand...

the 2496 will most likely be excellent. that card is mentioned with favorable reviews. Your rolling now....now to get a software in your pc up and running.

Maybe this will help?
I have a basic system that works great for a songwriter hobbyist, maybe small band in the house recording, and also adding parts to my brothers tracks say add a key or bass track etc...then send it back.

POS pc
Audio-Card Dock
FREE Recording software
FREE Converter software
FREE Mastering Software

My taste in the recording software is barren, simple, uncluttered. Kristal Audio Engine works great for me. I tried Ntracks was ok but cost money, Cubase was free but too cluttered imo.

Converter software to mp3, waves etc.. software is SWITCH. Free, works...move on.

Mastering is WAVELAB Lite, free with my audio card/dock...I'd like something better, but this was free with my card...weakest link of the three. TWEAKSZ talks about Waves as some really good stuff...but pricey.


I last tried a few FREE Plug-Ins, some Guitar Amp simulators etc.. but this is where my pc started bogging down with the plug-ins. So I stopped here. Maybe one or two plugins...
SOS, the more you add the slower your pc gets. Its a 700mhz, 40gig, 128M..and it works flawlessly!! hahahaha for real...and a $40 21" CRT monitor thats super-sized and weighs 900 lbs:rolleyes:

Good Luck!! Report back on the status, Post some tunes on MP3 thread, beware the plug-ins.. they eat CPU's for lunch...haha
 
Ok, I stand corrected on Reaper pricing. My point was that N-track and Reaper are of the same class (ie. inexpensive options) as opposed to other software packages.

And I'm certainly willing to believe that Reaper is a better option than N-track - I wish I could use it.
 
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