Help a newb day...

[gratefool1]

Hello all,
I am new to the forum and new to recording in general, but ready to learn. I have been playing guitar for years and just picked up the base. I have a band that I play with (two guitarists, one bassist, and a drummer). Three of us sing and I am mostly the rhythm guitar.
I have written several songs, some for the band, some for myself and I want to be able to record them. I also have several acoustic songs.
I have used cakewalk some and recorded directly to my soundblaster live card though the mic input on the comp for some acoustic stuff, but without a preamp the vocals blow and it sounds crappy. I basically just used this to practice riffs and set up song progressions, but I am ready to expand.
My equiptment is as follows... I play though a crate dx212 digital amp with tons of onboard effects, all controlled through a midi footswitch. We have a crate CPM8FX mixer / PA system with 8 inputs that the band plays through. I bought an STaudio DSP 2000 c-port 10 input sound card from a freind a while back but never got it working on my comp (I think because i didn't have dedicated monitors from this and it doesn't like rerouting back through your computer). I also recently bought a Dell 8600 laptop for my wife that I thought I could use.
My delimma is many fold. First, what computer to use? I can't use my Staudio input device with my laptop as it comes off it's own sound card. and my desktop is not an option due to location. Do I but another desktop on the cheap and dedicate it to my recording, or buy a new input device with firewire or usb? I was leaning towards the laptop but now maybe a dedicated desktop, I think I could get an acceptable comp for a few hundred bucks and I have an extra monitor already.
Next, I have to look at monitor speakers, and I have been looking at a LOT of posts about this. These have been quite helpful and I at least nknow what i need to go listen to and try out now.
Lastly, what else do I need? I just konw I am going to be ther guy who starts stupidly and spends a lot of dough on stuff that I can't end up using so I thought I would beg for a littel advice here.
Thanks so much for thaking the time to read this rather long winded post =) and thanks for any helpful insights!!
Gratefool1

 

[notbradsohner]

if you dont want to mess with all that computer crap, a fostex mr-8 may be the way to go. It is a standalone digitar recorder, and it has a usb port to transfer music to you computer

 

[gratefool1]

Anyone else?

Thanks for the info . Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

[Rock Star 87]

we were all newbs once

first off, no cheap computer to dedicate to recording. a recording is only as good as the equipment the WAV. is kept on. maybe i'm thinking REALLY cheap, but a nice normal audio equipped desktop could work. With this in mind, you could run everything through that computer. transferring files via various computers is unnecessary and pretty much a pain in the ass. But i likel the thought of a stand-alone recorder i.e. the fostex suggested earlier. MIDI through firewire is good if you are too short on cash for the stand-alone. Plus a dedicated set of monitors is much cheaper than two for the various computers that record the vocals and the instruments. if you do want to go to 1 computer, a nice desktop would work.

 

[Ibrow]

Gratefool,

Jeez, I don't know where to begin. I am assuming the soundcard you have is a PCI-based card and you have drivers for it that work in XP. That said, BUILD your own computer for a dedicated DAW. It will be the most important item in your setup, so don't skimp. But, what do I know.

It's tough to recommend anything without a budget. But, since you already have an extra monitor for a computer, and I imagine you can scrounge up a keyboard and mouse, all you need to worry about is the DAW for cost. Since you already have a soundcard we will assume is usable, you could easily build a kick-ass AMD based comp for less than $600. Then you'll need software to do your tracking. I always suggest Sonar3, but that's just because I assume everyone will need MIDI, which isn't always the case. But Sonar3 is flat-out the best dollar for dollar tracking/sequencing software on the market. But, then again, you could always go with N-track, and save a bunch of bucks. For monitors, I just got the M-Audio BX-8's off of Ebay for $400 delivered, new, and love them.

So, if you had a budget of about $1100, you could build a DAW, get the BX-8's, and mix with N-Track. This assumes your soundcard works correctly, as it should. But, without a budget, it's a little tough to get into specifics of what would be appropriate for you and your monetary constraints and what, specifically, components to put in your DAW. Newegg.com is where to buy everything for your comp, IMO, but after that it's up to you.

You are definitely in the right place if you want answers to your questions though. This BBS is an absolute wealth of info.

 

[gratefool1]

Thanks all!

Thanks for the insights. My budget on this is around $600-700 on the comp and about $500 for the monitors (although I am hearing I should be looking at spending more for these perhaps). My soundcard is the STAudio c-port 2000 with 10 audio inputs and outputs and it connects through a pci card. For the comp, I was looking at a Dell 2.4GHz comp with an 80 Gig HD and 1 Gig SDDRAM with a cache of 512 and using windows XP. And the CD burner of course.
Anything else I need?
I was wondering initially if it would be better to try to use the new laptop and get a new firewire or USB based input device but I don't know.
Many seem to suggest that I would be better to get a stand alone recording device and just DL it to the comp for mixing and stuff after recording.
I am still confused as to which is the best way to go.
Thanks again all for your insights in this
Gratefool1

 

[manning1]

my recommendation for bang for buck.
amd barton system, 512 ram, two 7200 rpm hard drives. one for windows and one for your audio files. (less head contention). ask the makers of your cport on recommended motherboard this is KEY !!. then put the sound card in it.load n track and away you go.
for monitors - a lot of folks like yorkvilles.
if you want a free midi only sequencer - someone told me about LOCATOR .
google for the url. hope this helps.

 

[gratefool1]

Feelin' the love

Definitely helps!!! Ty, I wouldn't have considered asking STAudio abut motherboards... Definitely 2 separate harddrives though huh? Sounds good and hopefully not too expensive. 512 is enough RAM?
I am really leaning on a PC based system and I can't tell you how much I appreciate the comments on specific components
Thanks again

 

[Ibrow]

I looked at STAudio's site. I'm sold on your card now. LOL! Looks sweet. The site said to stay away from EPOX boards and 3Com NIC's. Other than that, they didn't know of any other incompatibilities besides the older VIA chipsets that should be fixed. But that point is moot. Here is a GOOD sample DAW that fits right in your price range. You can always get more or less, or upgrade. When you build it yourself, you KNOW you can mix/match and upgrade at will. Not so when using proprietary MB's such as Dell, Gateway, HP, etc. Everything is priced as of now at Newegg.com and Crucial.com.

Sample DAW:

AMD XP Barton 2500+ $ 80 (OC it to a 3200+ with no problem at all)
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe $99 (nforce2 chipset)
80 GB WD 7200 HD w/8MB cache $68
Aspire X-Dreamer II case with 350W $52+$10 shipping
AOpen GeForce 4 FX 5200 Vid card $54 (very basic)
2 Crucial 256 MB PC3200 DDRam $106
Lite-on SOHW-812S DVD/CD burner $80
XP Home $90

Total will be around $640 shipped. You may also need the IDE cables. Should come with the MOBO though I would guess. This is a very basic "good" setup. Should run rock-solid stable. You may end up wanting to get a better HSF than the one that comes with the Barton, you may not. If it works, don't fix it. You can probably get XP on Ebay for less than $90. If you were thinking of using dual monitors, then you'd need to get a different vid card. If you find you are eating up all the HD space of the 80GB, it's easy to later buy a new 200GB IDE or whatever. If you feel you NEED the extra performance of 2 drives, that's always an option.

But, I think this setup would work pretty well, just starting out. As said before, just add N-Track and your soundcard, and recording you shall go. Throw an order for some Arctic Silver in there too, in order to get the contact from the processor to the HSF the best it can be.

Hope that helps you. For your price range of $600-$700 you can build a MUCH better computer than you can get from any retail outfit. The Nforce2 chipset integrates a LOT of stuff onto the mobo, so the computer is VERY versatile. As I wrote in the beginning, if your sound card actually works as good, and is as cool, as the folks at STAudio make it out to be, I may have to look into it.

All that said, I will throw this out there. You were contemplating a laptop, yes? Presumably, you want your recording device to be mobile? If that is the case, you can still get all the "good" hardware, AND use your soundcard, AND be moblie if you look into SHUTTLE barebones computers. Newegg has them. They are SMALL, like the size of a toaster for the entire computer. They come with only 1 PCI slot, and that would fit your soundcard. Then add the processor, the HD, the DVD/CDRW, and the RAM and you are all set. I'll just throw that out in case you are interested, but the above DAW I layed out should work quite well.

 

[jeffrydada]

I just Built a shuttle system with an Amd 64 at www.mwave.com for less than six bills. 64 bit processing rocks and the whole thing is portable. Quiet too, a real bonus for recording many pc's are LOUD and this is not good for mic recording. Mine has firewire and usb so the single pci slot is not a limitation to expansion.
J