Complete noob needs help.

[Mispunt]

First of all hi everyone
Ok please don't get too technical on me unless it's absolutely necessary

I play guitar and limited keyboards. Years ago I recorded some of my songs with a friend of mine. He was a fantastic keyboard player. He used Cubase to record the songs. He did all the work and I just played the guitar and did the vocals. He made the magic happen
What I want is to be able to do the same or something simillar.
I want to be able to record my acoustic guitar. I want to record may electric guitar with effects. I want to record vocals. The rest... Bass, Strings, brass, whatever, I want to record useing the sounds of a keyboard.
I saw that there are some guitar effects programs like Guitar FX.
Looking at what I want to do. Can anyone advise on what route to take regarding What kinda pc I should buy or build. What soundcard? Is Pro tools the best route?
What keyboard would be a good choice?
Sorry these are complete noob questions but I have no experience.
I'm not sure how much I'll have to spend but I'm not looking at the top end of everything
Just wanna be able to make some decent recordings using guitar and keyboard.
I tried to do it on my old computer a couple of years ago but I had so much latency that it was impossible.
Now I'm ready... or almost ready to invest in a new pc and other equiptment I'll need.
Thanks in advance.
Mispunt.

 

[Nick98338]

(snip) What I want is to be able to do the same or something simillar. I want to be able to record my acoustic guitar. I want to record may electric guitar with effects. I want to record vocals. The rest... Bass, Strings, brass, whatever, I want to record useing the sounds of a keyboard. I saw that there are some guitar effects programs like Guitar FX.
Looking at what I want to do. Can anyone advise on what route to take regarding What kinda pc I should buy or build. What soundcard? Is Pro tools the best route?
What keyboard would be a good choice?
Sorry these are complete noob questions but I have no experience.

I'm recording pretty much what you have written. Acoustic guitar through a microphone. Acoustic guitar through an effects program to make it sound like an electric guitar. Vocals through a mic. Drums, bass, piano, organ, etc.. all recorded through a synth/sampler which is triggered by a midi controller keyboard. So, everything you wrote is quite doable. I'm doing it! So are many others. Any decent modern computer will do what you want. The exact make and model does not matter, too much. Same with the soundcard, if it is REAL audio interface. Same with the software. Any of the modern stuff will do what you want. Protools is no better and no worse than the other programs out there.

Stick around this forum for a while. Read some of the stuff posted over the last month, or so. There have probably been a half dozen people, every week, who have asked the same questions that you are asking. Read how other people are doing what you want to do. Also, go and read at http://www.tweakheadz.com Click on GUIDE

 

[Dani Pace]

I suggest downloading some of the free (or trial version) software to experiment with. You can learn the basics this way without investing in software that dosen't suit your needs. Programs like Audacity, Reaper, N Tracks (and a lot of others) are great for learning and trying ideas without investing money into something that you aren't sure about yet. Read all you can find about recording then try the ideas, it wont take long until you will discover what you need to get the results you desire. A couple of decent mics, a mixer/pre amp, good soundcard or audio interface, and software that you are comfortable with will take you a long way into the world of home recording. You will have to supply your own determination and patience.

 

[Mace_Hacker]

Mispunt,
I record on my pc. My PC has a 1100MHZ Celeron, 512MB RAM, Windows 2000 PRO. Don't about latency to start with, as long as you start with one track at a time.
I didn't have a latency issue till I bought my M-Audio Quattro and tried to record two guitars and the drummer at the same time. I figured it later but at first it was a pain.
I started with just a mixer fed straight into my soundcard's line in. I used a y-splitter so I could get stereo. Then I was able to record the drums on a single stereo track. The next track was the guitar, the bass, ect.
Send me an email or an IM and I will send you some links that will be very helpful. mace_hacker@yahoo.com

Good Luck!

 

[D_Vincent]

Hey guys...this is my first post...just joined today...I agree with the other poster who said to try out free or free trial programs to start with...Ive been recording for a few months now (since june of 2007) and Im still strying to learn how to record properly and Ive wasted some money along the way buying stuff i didnt need so I would just take your time buying things and research them...I would buy an interface to be able to record first off though...I own an m audio product however there are lots of products to choose from.

As for recording software I use and bought mixcraft...they have a 7 day free trial ay no cost...its a pretty good program and beginner friendly which is important when starting out...Also comes with a loop library which is fun to mess around with.

Im not sure however when I did the trial I was able to use the program much longer than a week however after a week you will not be able to mix down to mp3 unless you buy...you should still be able to use the program and practice recording on it though after a week unless they changed it since I first tried it out.

I would post a link however Im new and need 5 posts to post a link to another site on these forums so just google mixcraft...The newest version ix Mixcraft 4.