...ive been experimenting with a very cheap cakewalk music creator program. so far the results have been good enough to make me want to buy some decent software. ...
In what way do you think your current software is limiting you?
...does the software dictate the quality of the recording? ...
At a certain point it may. At this point I don't think it should be dictating the quality of your recording as long as you stay at least at 16 bit (44.1kHz) recording level.
...that being said, what software would be a good next step ? ...
All software tend to be pretty much the same. If it can multi-track, it will pretty much boil down to the same thing: how well you capture the saound to the computer and how well you mix it. Even if software will limit you to a certain amount of tracks - hopefully no less than 12, you should be fine.
...so far i only have 1 mxl condenser mic and msb moble pre interface. do i even need a mixer? ...
It looks like you are pretty much ahead of most beginners. Do you really need a mixer? Maybe. Do you have to unplug something in order to plug something else in? If so, it could get a bit annoying to have do that all the time. It sure would be nice to have everything plugged in all at once. So you could either get a mixer or you could upgrade your usb interface to something that would take multiple inputs at once. Either choice may cost you a few benjamin's...
Other than that, if you like the sound you are getting now, keep on doing what you are doing now. It is very easy to get caught into this "need this, need that" loop and end up spending more time looking at stuff you don't need and drooling over stuff you can't get than making music. I'll briedly describe to you what may happen if you get caught in that loop...
Once you are in that loop, everything just spirals downward. Since you may at that point think that whatever you have is inferior and that you can't get anything worthwhile out of it, your enthusiasm may decrease to record any of your music. You may then find yourself (in horror) spending perhaps thousands of $$$ on equipment. With your credit cards maxed out and you working extra overtime to pay it off, you then wont have the time to record anything on all that expensive equipment. You may be satisfied that, yes, finally you have it and when you get the time, you'll get whatever you are after that supposedly you could not achieve over your initial equipment. Ok, so finally you get some time to record, you sit down, and... oh, no! It seems like it sounds just like your initial system! Yep! And down the spiral you go once again all discouraged and wondering where you've gone wrong...
Keep up the positive attitude, and upgrade once you get to the point where you realize that you definitely need a specific piece of equipment and can easily justify to yourself the purchase. Because then you might at least understand
why you are getting what you are getting and get a chance to play around with it to see if you get out of it what you were after. Perhaps you may be at that point now - what should you get? Mixer or upgrade your usb interface? Choice is yours. No single answer can be absolutely correct. Feel free to experiment.
Sorry to make it long... Whew, I feel like I got something off my chest...
....see, you're already getting some!
......
But if I didn't do it I'd be dead or in jail. I have no reason to go out and raise hell anymore.
