just starting out

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob C. Drew
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Bob C. Drew

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Hello my nale is Bob this is my first posting to this forum. my question is simple...i am looking at getting into homerecording although i do not play an instrument, i thought it would be fun and i plan on going to some training classes on recording....i thought maybe if i started with a small keyboard or synth/workstation and a small mixer and spekers that would be a start is there anything else to consider or is there a diferent approach i should take?
Bob
 
i also would like to ad i plan on building over time because i have a tight budget right now i need money for school i thought maybe a grand or two would atleast get me started i also have a pentium pc 8.4 hrddrve 64 megs ram.
 
Hey Bob, you need to let us know what kind of music you're going to be recording and how you think you'd like to do your recording.

It sounds like you might be into mostly keyboard/synthesizer music. Are you planning on recording any "natural" sources like vocals, guitars, etc? If yes, how many instruments at a time are you thinking, and what kinds? Would you rather work on the computer or with standalone devices?

Once you tell us a little about your initial goals, it'll be easy for someone to help you out. (e.g. your computer might be fine, or it might be completely inadequate, but we can't say for sure until you let us know what you're going to be doing, etc, etc)

Slackmaster 2000
 
some extra info

Good thought Slackmaster it might to shed some light on
what i plan to record.well some of it will be keyboards and such..but other parts will be vocals a drum machine
and maybe some guitar. i pretty much just want to start out
small and see how it goes although i have a computer i myself would rather use other equipment. i want something ni can sit at for hours and create something. when i sit at a computer for too long i start to get sleepy.
thanks for the help!
Bob
 
Hi!

If you don't want to record with a computer,both the Korg D8 and the Boss BR-8 have internal rythm patterns that you can use to record guitar tracks with,and they both sync up with MIDI to any keyboard.There are substantial differemces between the two machines.The Korg records to HD whereas the Boss uses ZIP discs.The Korg is an older machine and is now available for around the same price as the newer Boss,and it can record 16 bit linear data while the Boss uses data compression that is lossy.Cheers!
 
If you already have a computer, use it. Buy some sequencing software, a decent sound card, a keyboard MIDI controller and sound module, a budget condensor mic, a small mixer, and go to town.
 
Bob,
If you haven't already spent money, you gotta realize that it gets pricey. I'm a singer/songwriter and I just started doing this two years ago when I was in a functioning band. I've spent almost two thousand dollars in incremental payments and even some I still owe(hey, I was 17 when I started). I had a buddy who was really into it and he helped me learn a lot about the craft. He was and is less of a player than I am. You'll be fine if it's a lot of electronic music, but what I'm getting at is if it gets addictive, as it has for me, you'll find that there's always something else to buy. I'm telling you that my setup is far from professional. I'm honest when I say that it's fit only for demos and scripting out my ideas. That's what around two thousand dollars has gotten me.
 
regarding the BR-8...

Someone on this thread wrote:

"The Korg is an older machine and is now available for around the same price as the newer Boss,and it can record 16 bit linear data while the Boss uses data compression that is lossy."

I'm told the BR-8 uses 20 bit linear data...is that information incorrect? It came from the owner of my local music store.

Also, just for the record, I've read consistently that the BR-8 actually produces an amazingly decent sound. This is the first post I've read which calls the sound lossy...er...lousy. :)

Thanks...

Julia
 
Julia,

You read right... "lossy," not "lousy." The sound is probably pretty darn great. But it uses a data compression algorithm to minimize file size, and so some of the "real" 20-bit data is thrown away (hence the term "lossy" compression). Same deal as with MiniDisks, MP3 files...

-AlChuck
 
re: "lossy" sound...

Oh, wow...you continue to teach me a lot, Al.

I didn't realize that about the BR-8 at all. So...I would suspect that means that I could get "better" sound...cleaner sound...via PC recording. It's such a dilemma. Not sure where to put my money, really. I'm going to try uninstalling and then reinstalling Cakewalk one more time, but if that doesn't work, I'm really at a loss...and my fear is that if I put my money toward creating a better PC recording set-up...and it STILL doesn't work well...I'll be sorry I didn't put the money toward the stand-alone digital recording device and I won't have anymore money to remedy the situation.

Sigh. Who invented the rule which mandates that nothing can be easy? ;)

Al, thanks for the "lossy" lesson. :)

Have a great night.

Julia
 
Julia,

I think you should listen to a BR-8 and see what you think. I bet I would be hard-pressed to tell the difference. I think my MP3s sound practically identical to the originals. But I don't have highly sensitive ears. If you just want to record very good quality demos, the BR-8 is probably good enough. If you want to record at the highest possible resolution and "quality," well, I guess you'll have to save up for that ProTools system... until next month when something better comes along...

Think about some of the great recordings you have heard. Some of those were probably recorded on old, noisy analog gear. I've heard some things recorded with a 4-track cassette machine that sound wonderful. Sure, they're not as clean as they might have otherwise been. But when you listen to it, it's the vibe of the song that grabs and makes little stuff like that just details. It's the music that really counts.

-AlChuck
 
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