Recording equipment.

[GUITAR08]

Hi, sorry if this has all ready been posted. Could somebody please tell me what equipment I will need to record electric guitar, vocals, drum machine and eventually sunthesizers in my bedroom. Thanks.

 

[suprstar]

Hi, sorry if this has all ready been posted. Could somebody please tell me what equipment I will need to record electric guitar, vocals, drum machine and eventually sunthesizers in my bedroom. Thanks.

Youre a 1-man-band recording the instruments one at a time? Then a $100 USB mixer is all you need.. It'd proly come with Cubase LE or something, if not, check out Reaper or Audacity.

 

[JustAboutReal]

I concur

Yeah, you'll probably be able to get by with only 2 or 3 microphones too.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Hi, sorry if this has all ready been posted. Could somebody please tell me what equipment I will need to record electric guitar, vocals, drum machine and eventually sunthesizers in my bedroom. Thanks.

Are we to assume you have a computer for recording, or will you need a standalone recorder?

 

[TimOBrien]

My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies that I keep in Wordpad:

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)
You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Gui...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1
(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!)

Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!!

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

Also Good Info:
http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books:
http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) not quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Here's a good guide and suggestions:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm


Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)
Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\
Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com
Another 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...)

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 FREE studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they gave away SamplitudeV9SE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)

 

[GUITAR08]

Thanks, and yes I all ready have a computer built for recording.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Thanks, and yes I all ready have a computer built for recording.

Well then...what they said.

 

[danhughes]

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) not quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.

What about with a laptop? Are those cards that plug into the side of a laptop sufficient?

 

[TimOBrien]

What about with a laptop? Are those cards that plug into the side of a laptop sufficient?

That's the whole idea of an external soundcard. It completely replaces the internal one with quality components.

Go look at Tweak's soundcard guide I mentioned above. It has a number of 'you can't go wrong with any of these' suggestions.