brand new to comp. recording

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zook250

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hi. this is my first post. i play bass, guitar and keyboards. i have a boss b-r8 for recording , but i want to get into computer recording. this is my question.

which program would be better suited for me , sonar or cubase sx? i plan on recording vocal and live instruments , not much midi but some.

my computor is a pentium 3, 800 mhz with 512 meg of ram, 60 gig , 7200 rpm hard drive. i dont have a sound card yet, but i was thinking of the delta 44 because of the 4 inputs.

any help would be greatly appreciated as computer recording sounds pretty complicated .

thanks
 
zook250 said:
hi. this is my first post. i play bass, guitar and keyboards. i have a boss b-r8 for recording , but i want to get into computer recording. this is my question.

which program would be better suited for me , sonar or cubase sx? i plan on recording vocal and live instruments , not much midi but some.

my computor is a pentium 3, 800 mhz with 512 meg of ram, 60 gig , 7200 rpm hard drive. i dont have a sound card yet, but i was thinking of the delta 44 because of the 4 inputs.

any help would be greatly appreciated as computer recording sounds pretty complicated .

thanks
Click to expand...

both programs are fairly similar in features, etc. - so you might be best off trying to get a hold of tryouts of each program and see which one you are more comfortable with...your 'puters plenty powerful to record with

delta 44 is a good choice...you will need some preamps/di in order to get your mic/bass signal to line level for input into the 44
 
thanks for the reply. could i use my br-8 as my preamp/d.i? it has an input level and a graphic e.q , plus it has specific inputs for bass, guitar and vocals.

if i want to record live drums using the delta 44, do i have to have preamps for each mic? im thinking that i do. if so are there cheap preamps that i can buy,what models? will cheap preamps degrade the recording . in the future i would ugrade to a better preamp. is there a 4 channel preamp available, that is fairly inexpensive.

sorry for all the questions.
 
I'll second what Pratt told you. Personally I use Sonar, but I think it's more a matter of which you prefer than which is better.

To answer your additional questions:
Yes you need a pre-amp for each mic. And yes, cheap pre-amps will be a major detriment to getting good recording quality.

Most people who need multiple pre's end up going with a mixer. Mackie mixers have decent pre-amps (XDR models) for the price. You might want to take a look at their 1202 model (or any of the VLZ series). A mixer will also provide you with other benefits as well, besides giving you pre-amps.

Later on you could consider getting a good, single pre-amp specifically for recording vocals. But you will not be disappointed with the quality of the Mackie in the interim.
 
thanks for the reply. could i use my br-8 as my preamp/d.i? it has an input level and a graphic e.q ,
 
zook250 said:
thanks for the reply. could i use my br-8 as my preamp/d.i? it has an input level and a graphic e.q ,
Click to expand...

probably not, unless each channel has either an insert or a direct out...if each channel does have an out - then you're in luck

you would need to be able to take each 'preamped' signal out of the br8 individually and then route that into a channel in your delta44 (or whatever interface you are using)....
 
Probably, so long as it outputs a line level signal. Can't speak to the quality, as I'm not familiar with it.

Also, if it only has a single, stereo output, you will not be able to record all instuments/vocals to a separate track (except by overdubs). Most you could do is 2-mono tracks or 1-stereo track simultaneously.
 
Whoops, simultaneous replies, Pratt.

I think we both said the same thing - just came at it from different directions.
 
i think the br-8 would work fine , but like you said , for only one input,i also have a bbe bass preamp,roland rack mounted delay sde-1000, digitech tsr-12, and a ross 24 band eq. i use this stuff for live performances, maybe i can spagheti this stuff all together to get 4 preamps, they each have a level adjustment and if i run them in the by pass mode i should be sending a dry preamped signal. right? by the way the br-8 is a portable digital 8 track mini studio.
 
zook250 said:
i think the br-8 would work fine , but like you said , for only one input,i also have a bbe bass preamp,roland rack mounted delay sde-1000, digitech tsr-12, and a ross 24 band eq. i use this stuff for live performances, maybe i can spagheti this stuff all together to get 4 preamps, they each have a level adjustment and if i run them in the by pass mode i should be sending a dry preamped signal. right? by the way the br-8 is a portable digital 8 track mini studio.
Click to expand...

I'll probably get mugged for this...but you'd probably be better off buying a small behringer mixer and use its preamps that using signal processor levels as preamps....

anyway, dont' most of those signal processors take a line level signal??? in which case the point is moot, 'cause it wouldn't work as a mic preamp
 
i have xlr to 1/4 adaptors. so i think they would be usable, as far as noise goes it might be to much. i think the berringer mixer would be the best idea as well.
 
BR8 is kinda like a small standalone "studio" with quite a lot of virtual tracks. You can plug a guitar directly into it because it has builtin preamp. Therefore you should be able to plug a microphone as well.
As far as I know on Roland website you can download wave converter software, which will allow you to convert BR8 audio files to wav files.
I don't know how exactly BR8 communicates with computer, and whether it will dump the whole mix into one stereo wave file or it will create a separate file for each track (hopefully it is the latter). Another important unknown is whether or not it will allow you to create 24/96 files, or you will be limited, say, to 16/44.
If I was building a system from scratch I would not buy BR8 as a computer interface/preamp, but since you already have it, it may well work for you. You will record all your tracks on BR8 and transfer resulting wave files into computer for further processing.
The benefit of this setup is that you will not need an expensive souncard with high grade converters because you will use it only for computer playback.
 
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