Bare Bones Comp. Recording Studio???

  • Thread starter Thread starter MFO
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MFO

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I want to start off by saying thankyou for any help you can provide.
My band plays mainly bluegrass music and I am wanting to set up a bare bones recording studio for feedback and demos and stuff of that nature, nothing super fancy but I want to be able to produce CDs and it not sound like it was recorded on a pocket tape recorder. I don't need the ability to add sound effects or any kind of techno sort of sound stuff. Just record the acoustic music that is in the air.

My question is what is the minimum I'm going to need from a computer as far as power and memory are conserned.

How good of a sound card do I need?

What kind of software?

Basically what do I need to set this up. I am basically ignorant when it comes to recording but I know I wouldn't have any trouble figuring it out. I just don't know what I need,

Thanks.
 
Depends on the hardware.

Lowest yoiu'd wanna go?

700mhz
20gb
128MB

Cool Edit 2.0

M-Audio Delta 44

Shure sm57/58
 
I agree with the above, but would argue that you might want to get a decent condenser mic for recording acoustic guitars... that brings up the necessity of phantom power, though...

A large diaphragm condenser will bring out some great qualities in an acoustic guitar or banjo--some lows...A small diaphragm condenser, though, will bring some highs to the table...
 
A good budget would be about $1200
If your gonna get a PC, why not get one with performance (for other projects in addition to recording)
You can pick up a descent audiocard for about $150
And I mic for $75 to $150
Try using a free download of PTLE or other to get you started.
 
MFO,

How many mics/tracks do you want record at one time? I'm guessing you wan't to record the band live. Standard soundcards just record two tracks (one stereo) at a time so for more than two mics you need to either: use a mixer to mix down to two tracks, get a multi-track soundcard (can be pretty pricey in and of itself), or overdub, which the high councel of the Grand Ol' Opry has decried as sacrilegious in bluegrass.

Ptron
 
Stealthtech- I asked about minimum computer requirements because I know where there are several that are about 4 years old and can be bought for $100 or less. I just wondered if they had enough in them for recording.

Ptron- I don't know how many tracks I need. I wnated to be able to set up 2 "elvis style" big condensor mics ( one about 3 1/2 to 4 feet high for instruments and the other higher for vocals) and record. the mics I'm looking at are "SE 3500 studio mics". Other than that I don't know for sure what I need.
 
MFO said:
Stealthtech- I asked about minimum computer requirements because I know where there are several that are about 4 years old and can be bought for $100 or less. I just wondered if they had enough in them for recording.
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Minimum***700MHz system with 256MB Ram. This should be sufficient. Anything less may give you a headache.
 
MFO said:
Ptron- I don't know how many tracks I need. I wnated to be able to set up 2 "elvis style" big condensor mics ( one about 3 1/2 to 4 feet high for instruments and the other higher for vocals) and record. the mics I'm looking at are "SE 3500 studio mics". Other than that I don't know for sure what I need.
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If you're only recording two mikes @ a time, you only need two inputs on the soundcard and any ol' card has a stereo in however those mics are phantom powered and you would need a phantom power supply or a mixer w/ phantom power. Then you would need some combonation of adapters/cords that would get you from 2 XLR connections thru a Y cable to a stereo 1/8" plug. N-track is excellent recording software and only costs fifty bucks. I got by for several years on a celeron 333 mHz processor and 64 megs of ram.

Ptron
 
Ptron said:
If you're only recording two mikes @ a time, you only need two inputs on the soundcard and any ol' card has a stereo in
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What about mic pre's then????
If you want to record mics, you need preamps, it's as simple as that. You can't just plug your mics into a soundcard input.
 
christiaan said:
What about mic pre's then????
If you want to record mics, you need preamps, it's as simple as that. You can't just plug your mics into a soundcard input.
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Uh...oh yeah:o already got so used to the Aardvark Q10 with the built in pre's I plum forgot about that part!

Ptron
 
Ptron said:
N-track is excellent recording software and only costs fifty bucks.
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No it's not. It's buggy as hell, at least on my computer.

N-track made my life hell for six months. It may work for you, but you need to know that lots of folks have had major problems with it. I attribute this to the fact that it's developed by only one guy, but has almost as many features as Sonar, which is developed by a team of programmers. That equation does not make sense.
 
cominginsecond said:
No it's not. It's buggy as hell, at least on my computer.

N-track made my life hell for six months. It may work for you, but you need to know that lots of folks have had major problems with it. I attribute this to the fact that it's developed by only one guy, but has almost as many features as Sonar, which is developed by a team of programmers. That equation does not make sense.
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Wow. I've used it for 3-4 years and never had even the slightest problem with it (with the exception of just recently but everything on my computer had problems). Same goes for my bandmate. I wonder why such drastic difference in our experiences.

Ptron
 
Ptron said:
Wow. I've used it for 3-4 years and never had even the slightest problem with it (with the exception of just recently but everything on my computer had problems). Same goes for my bandmate. I wonder why such drastic difference in our experiences.

Ptron
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I don't know. Maybe he doesn't have the resources to test on lots of different configurations of PC.
 
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