Quick tutorial for ya...i guess:
I'm not sure how familiar you are with the software,so forgive me if I oversimplify.
You can creat tracks to record in by clicking on the empty grey area to the left of the main grid. This with give you options of different types of tracks to make.
Create an audio track, it will ask you wether you want mono or stereo. For now we will go with mono.
Ok so you have your new track. To record, all you simply need to do is arm the track (press the record button that is actually on the track). Then when you press the main record button on the transport bar (that thing with the play, record, rewind etc buttons, and with the timer and stuff). This will start recording.
So say if you want to record a guitar. All you have to do is plug what you want to record in to theinput on your computer. I'm not sure what hardware you are using. So assmuing you are using a bog standard sound card, that will ne to go into the 'line-in' socket. Don't plug it into the microphone socket.
Also I'm not sure on your plans for how you are going to record, say, your guitars. You can record them with a microphone in front of the amp, but you will need a preamp betwen the microphone and you computer to boost the signal. Or you could run it direct from the amps line out in to the line in on your soundcard. Or maybe you have something like POD. Again this can plug straight into your soundcard.
Ok so lets say you've recorded your first guitar track. You want to put a bassline over it. So you make sure the guitar track isn't armed (ie unhighlight the record button on the track). Make a new audio track, mono again. Arm it with its record button.
Set the tune to where your guitar starts or thereabouts, hit the main record button and hit play. The guitar track you just recorded will play while you are recording your bass.
Rinse and repeat.
Of course it aint as simple as that. That is only how you would go about recording a tune by doing the instruments one after the other.
However, I see you want to record some drums. You have some options. You can get a mixer. And you will need a load of mics. You mixer will need to have enough inputs for each mic to go into. And you stick a mic on each peice of the drums. You run your mixer into your soundcard as before. Use the mixer to mix and pan the the drums, the you can record all the drums on one stereo audion track.
However, you may (as I do) want the flexibility of have each drum piece on a separate track so you can have a bit more control as mix time. For this you will need some kind of audio interface with a bunch of inputs on it. In laymens terms, a funky new sound card.
Or maybe you can get a mixer that will plug in through USB or firewire or something that you can give a track on cubase to an specific track on a mixer. I dunno. I programme all my drums in battery and mix them down to separate tracks, so I only need one input to record my guitars and bass separately.
Anyway, if you have a soundcard with a whole bunch of inputs in Cubase you would create new tracks for each drum, and assign which of the many inputs on your sound card is going to feed to twhat track. I won't go into the details of this unless you really want me to because its long winded and you might not be doing it this way..I don't know.
If you want to record a whole band at once this would be the same kind of thing.
Ok so thats how you record.
Now...If you highlight one of your new tracks, and press the little round button with an "e" on it, a window will open. This window has the volume fader, and EQ, and some inserts and auxes. The inserts are your effects, if you click on any of the black rectangles (for want of a better word), a menu with effects will appear. This is kind of self explanitory.
Ok so I think I've covered the very very basics. This is by no means anywhere near the be all and end all of using Cubase, its a complex application with lots of funky features. And tis little tutorial may have a few innacuracies, but I am pretty confident that someone will correct me in an instant (whilst calling me a dumbass to boot....hey, calling me dumbass is fair comment sometimes
), I mean, maybe my spellings out of whack somewhere, and for that I apologise humbly
But hopefully this should help you on your way a bit...
...or on the other hand it could have been totally useless to you and no more than the ramblings of an extrmely bored person (much like my other posts today)...
Well have fun anyway. Any questions, feel free to ask. Today I am probably bored enough to answer every one of them.
