General Set Up Question.

[The Pianoman]

Hi all, I will start recording some origonal songs on my PC hopefully.

I thought about using my Roland RA 800 arranger for the drums, bass, piano
strings etc etc parts, perhaps record the full song as a midi file leaving
me to add in the guitars, lead solos and vocals.

My PC has a Crystal Fusion card at the moment with serial out/in plus line in and line out.

Is the above desirable or am I off the planet here?

Is getting a high end sound card installed on the PC the way to go here and
forget the RA 800?

I have been using the RA 800 for many years for live piano bar work, solo guitar
gigs etc and I am very comfortable with its functions.
The sound quality is still very good and I am a bit hesitant to drop it all
together and begin another steep learning curve.

Your thoughts gentlemen and women.

Regards Alan

www.alanzmuzik.com

PS My gear consists of RA 800, Midiverb II, Peavey XR 600 mixer amp, Roland
FP-8 digital piano, Gibson ES 335, Ovation 1996 Collectors Edition, Full PA
system, Roland PC 180 controller, RP 2000 guitar modeller, Antoria 12 string
acoustic, G&L ASAT telecaster, Sennheiser Radio mics for Guitar and Vocals,
plus other gear.... The point here is that I have a great set up for doing
gigs and have worked in this industry for 15 years doing covers.
I now am changing direction and want to get into recording but find myself
with loads of live experiance but almost no recording experiance.

Cheers Alan

My PC has a CD burner, 500MH proccessor, 8GB memory, Sound Fusion Cound
Card.

 

[Michael Jones]

Hi all, I will start recording some origonal songs on my PC hopefully.

I thought about using my Roland RA 800 arranger for the drums, bass, piano
strings etc etc parts, perhaps record the full song as a midi file leaving
me to add in the guitars, lead solos and vocals.

My PC has a Crystal Fusion card at the moment with serial out/in plus line in and line out.

Is the above desirable or am I off the planet here?
Card.

I guess it depends on the quality you want to achieve.
The HEART of ANY computer based recording system is going to be the sound card.
I would try it first, and see if you're happy with the results.
If you're not, come back and we'll help you pick out a better one!

 

[The Pianoman]

Here goes then.

Hi Michael, Thanks for getting back to me.

Having not done any PC recording I find myself a bit lost here but at least I have lots of pro music gear and am blessed with playing ability and a good voice.

My first stumbling block is this.

If I want my songs to sound as professional as possible ie ........sellable to punters,
.......... listenable to by a record company,
............. good enough to sell the song,

Should I use the sounds built into a top line sound card (drums, bass, pianos, strings etc etc OR create a good arrangment in my Roland RA 800 arranger (Module version of a Roland G-800) then record that into the PC?...... Leaving the acoustic instruments and vocals added later.

Will my admittedly crap Sound Fusion card "contaminate" even that signal as it comes in through line in?

The RA- 800 is cabable of full arrangements, has EQ, effects etcand I kinda know it backwards after years of working live with it.
www.harmony-central.com/Newp/SNAMM96/Roland/RA-800.html

The point here is that I am somewhat out of step with modern PC based recording and am clutching to the tried and trusted methods that have served me well.

Maybe the sound samples in a top line sound card would blow my RA -800 away?

So maybe I should get this point cleared up before I do anything else.

Lastly, in general terms, is there a preffered OS used by everyone...... I run win 2000 pro and its a stable OS that does everything I need up to now BUT the PC will now become a music production tool also, and might not function so well in that role.

Thanks again

Regards Alan Davidson