Help With Pre & Soundcard?

[Escalatorvibes]

Me birthday's coming up and my pappy offered to pitch in for some recording equipment. (I've recorded in studios etc. before, but thought it would be convenient to own my own @ home stuff).

With replaced tubes, I'm really diggin the warm sound of the ART MPA Gold for it's price- but thats just preference.

I need something to convert the signal to digital to feed it into my computer AND I need a program to record with.

We're short on money, so maybe asking for the gold is just to much at the moment- but maybe theres a cheaper alternative to a $300 interface like the mbox, which i would bypass the pre's anyway.

My buddy has an old M-Audio Fast-track USB he'll sell me fro $25, but not only does that not come with software, but can you even bypass the crappy pre's that it comes with?

Is protools the best windows program to use? Does it only work with m-powered interfaces?

SO MANY QUESTIONS and only a week to figure this all out. any help would be appreciated X99999999999.

Would knowing the type of recordings i'm looking to do help? would anyone like to hear other stuff I've worked on in the past?

This would mainly be guitar vocals bass and light percussion. Cheap condenser, SM57's & 8's.

 

[tdukex]

M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 or EMU 0404 PCI sound card would be a better choice than a cheap USB interface IMO. Both are only $100 each.

There are some inexpensive recording programs that seem to be very popular, N-Tracks $64 (even has it's own forum here) and Reaper $50.

So you can be up and running for around $150.

 

[TimOBrien]

Here's a good guide and tested suggestions: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

(You'll want to bookmark and read all of Tweak's Guide...)

Download and try out REAPER (www.reaper.fm)



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My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies that I keep in Wordpad so this is just a paste (I don't want to re-type this all the time):

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...mp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470385421
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)
You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Gui...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1
(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!)

And you can get a FREE subscription to TapeOp magazine at www.tapeop.com

Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!!

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics and have good tips:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs
http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig: http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books: http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) and NOT quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Here's a good guide and tested suggestions: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm


Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)
Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\
Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com/smm

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)
I use Reaper and highly reccomend it...

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($25) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full FREE studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they gave away SamplitudeV9SE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)