Absolute amature requiring help please!!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter grungebob
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grungebob

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Hi, I need direction please boys and girls.

I've dabbled for like a week with PC recording, I've tried Audacity with some drum programer and liked the buzz and idea of doing things a bit more. Currenty I've used my Line6 amp dI out into my soundcard (i know change that card i will i promise!) and the results where fine to my ears. My amp also has a mic preamp setting and has xlr outs and the aforementioned DI. Is this (providing i change the sound card) enough to get me started. All I want to do is record my songs with vocals and add drums and bass onto them.

I've looked at a few usb audio interfaces like the edirol UA2 and M-Audio fast track as they appear a cheaper option than a good internal sound card to get my guitar and voice onto the pc, any ideas thoughts on this?

secondly how on earth am i supposed to get drums onto songs? I've used audacity to click track for timeing and hydrogen drums i think it was to programe each beat but If i was to spend money on say Cubase or Sonar do these have the options of adding drums?

As i said im lost in a sea of confusion, throw me the life raft of knowledge please!!!!!
 
As for drums I will recommend you to spend some money on decent sound samples like "Drumkit from hell" or "BFD2" ( I'm currently using this one with good results) If you want the "all included" package try M-Audio MBox 2 Interface; it comes with ProTools LE and a lot of plugins (signal processors, Reason and BFD Lite).

I think you can do pretty decent music with what you have. And yes, avoid your soundcard for recording.
 
i'm in the same boat just starting with pc recording in audacity.i just bought some drum samples from beta monkey.cost me about 60 bucks for the double bass mania 1&2 discs.it'll take time to create the drum tracks & loop everything together so if you go this route just have patience.i used a yamaha drum machine in the past to build my songs with & although it was a little easier to write the drum parts it also was a little more mechanical sounding.a lot easier to be able to scroll through the drum patterns without having to click this & that.with samples you have a real person playing the drums so it'll sound at least a little more realistic.you may want to record your songs in audacity along with the click track and then create a scratch drum track of certain beats to play along with it.once you find the beats that work you can use audacity to change the tempo to fit.i think this may make it easier to compare all your favorite samples for the song in mind by keeping everything on the same screen and bypassing the media player.
 
thanks!

Hi guys, thanks for the info, i'll definately check your suggestions out. Can't wait till I can get going. I've had a quick look at ez drummer,it seems quite a nice tool and the sounds where pretty good, just didn't like the fact you couldn't make the beats your self and you had to use one of their grooves, or have i misunderstood this?

Anyhoo thanks a bunch.

Bob.
 
EZ Drummer is totally programmable just like any virtual instrument. You use midi to play patterns with Drum Triggers, Electronic Drums, Keyboards etc. You can also adjust your mics so for example if you want more from the bottom snare in the track turn up the bottom snare mic on the mixer or even add mic bleed. Now if you totally suck at midi you can use their built in grooves.
 
ah!

DJWheels said:
EZ Drummer is totally programmable just like any virtual instrument. You use midi to play patterns with Drum Triggers, Electronic Drums, Keyboards etc. You can also adjust your mics so for example if you want more from the bottom snare in the track turn up the bottom snare mic on the mixer or even add mic bleed. Now if you totally suck at midi you can use their built in grooves.
Click to expand...

yep i totaly suck at midi (never tried it yet!) . Do you mean i couldn't insert a kick drum snare etc exactly where i want each beat to be without using midi? ie can ezdrummer be used just like a drum machine?
 
Bob,

An alternative to using a MIDI device is some sort of visual sequencer. Fruity Loops is an excellent example of this. It's a bit more time consuming than banging something out on a MIDI based electronic drum kit. But it works. And you can get decent results with the right samples (or soft synth) and some time.

DAW software like Sonar also give you a visual means to crank out MIDI based tracks. Sonar has the piano roll tool which shows you a keyboard and gives you a paintbrush (more or less) to "draw" your tracks.

Just my 2 cents.

-Shane
(www.theweelollies.com)
 
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