CakeWalk Sonar Tutorials

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guitarpro_1st

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Hello if any onbe has any CakeWalk Sonar tutorials it would be great appriciated I am a guitarist for several years and have a band and cant really afford studio recording So we want to try Home recording but dont know really how to use the stuff and also i would like to know I few things
what does DI stand for?
What is a pre amp used for?
thanks if you could could any one just email the information to guitarpro_1st@hotmail.com
thanks you very much for any help
 
Click on this link to download the Sonar demo version. It should include a help file that explains the program.

ftp://ftp.cakewalk.com/pub/TrialVersions/S401a_English_Demo.exe

A "DI" means Direct Input. Usually used for recording something without an amp. Sansamp (means "no amp") makes a great bass DI called the Bass driver. Here.
http://www.tech21nyc.com/bassdriver.html

They make great sounding boxes.

A pre amp is normally used on microphones to sort of act like an amplifier. It usually fattens up your mic sound and makes it sound nice.
 
Stop now. Turn around. Go back.

If you want to be a guitarist, be a guitarist. There isn't enough time to learn how to be a sound engineer as well.

Save up. By the time you can afford it, you will probably be tight enough to be recording something.

Sounds cruel but someone said it to me years ago and I didn't have the ears to hear what they were saying. Now I can understand it, life has moved on...

Q.
 
Qwerty said:
Stop now. Turn around. Go back.

If you want to be a guitarist, be a guitarist. There isn't enough time to learn how to be a sound engineer as well.

Save up. By the time you can afford it, you will probably be tight enough to be recording something.

Sounds cruel but someone said it to me years ago and I didn't have the ears to hear what they were saying. Now I can understand it, life has moved on...

Q.
Click to expand...

Listen to him! Learning about recording will suck the life out of your guitar playing! Just buy a four track and forget that you ever came across this website.
 
GuitarPro,

You have been given some very good advice by the previous two posters. I was, also, forewarned about same. But I, also, felt very strongly about the capabilities for laying out my song ideas in their fullness. Unlike yourself, I had no one to help round out the rhythm section of a band. It was me, myself and I :) . So I sprung for a Fostex X15 4-track Cassette Multitracker, some years ago, which enabled me to do just as I had desired to. Studio quality? No way. But it was nice to be able to lay down multiple tracks and hear what the song would sound like if it had been played by a band. I now have a software sequencer (Sonar 4PE), and a Yamaha Motif ES7 - which also has excellent sequencing capabilities. But there is a real serious learning curve to the both of them. I just recently acquired Sonar, and with my ES7 I am just beyond the tip of the iceberg with its operations (even after 1.5 years of ownership). I also have the Yamaha AW16g which (if you don't know) is a 16 track digital multitracker. I love this machine, and would only part with it for getting the upgraded model which, very recently, came out. I don't think that I would go the 'software' route if I were you. Instead, I would consider a machine such as the AW16g, which could be gotten for a really good price being that it's been discontinued due to the newer model. I found it to be a lot easier to conquer, than its computer-based counterparts, and this baby will give you professional sounding results.

Give it a look-see. It just may be the ticket for you & your band.
 
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I find that having a recording program helps me improve my songwriting skills significantly. I can write a few riffs, string them together, then start writing melodies and things over the top of it much more easily.

With my previous band, having some sort of recording device fueled our creative process. When we wrote songs during practice, they ended up sounding like "jam" songs (simple structure, formula-based, etc). When I or one of my band mates would take the drum machine and pound-out a song on his own in total seclusion, we would end up with a lot more variety in feel and song structure.

Of course we would always improve on the "jam" songs we wrote during practice... by recording them and experimenting with different ideas after the fact. I'd say the best songs we ever had were mostly written by a single person. You get down the general idea of the song and write-in the dynamics you want, then you have everyone else fill-in what needs to be filled in.

When recording on my own, I feel more free to experiment with chords and techniques that I wouldn't DARE use when practicing with a live band for fear of breaking the flow or just wasting time.

Writing songs on my own and recording them by myself pushes me to do new things and think in different ways. The only way it can become a negative is if you don't push yourself, or if you end up farting around with the program more than you do writing music.
 
my original intentions were to use my pc as a song writing aid.......funny how the whole thing blew up into something completely different.
 
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