Need some help getting started

[NFGPaul]

Hey, I'm looking into picking up a digidesign m-box with pro tools to start a very small "recording studio" in my room. What I'm planning on doing is some hip hop related stuff, mostly hooking either tables or a keyboard, both of which I have access to, into the m-box and using those for samples. Also I'm told some beat making programs are included with the m-box as well so I plan on using them as well. I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice for me. Am I going in the right direction? All that I'm really looking to do is to lay down a few tracks with some beats, some samples, and whatnot. I may pick up a mic to do some vocals as well, but I'm not looking into that right now. I'm also wondering what the difficulty level of picking up pro tools is? My friend has it and he says its pretty easy, I'm sure he can show me some stuff, but I don't want to drop 450 bones on some stuff I'll never get the hang of. So basically I'd just like to know if anyone has used this setup to record anything along the lines that I'm looking into, how they enjoyed it, and if there is anything else I should look into buying that could help me out.

 

[Jeyan]

MBox has very limited inputs and for the price of Mbox you can go for a better competitor, but if you plan on sticking with ProTools, consider 001, worth the investment.

 

[manning1]

if you want to save money and still do all you want to do with good sound check out a audiophile 24/96 sound card (150 bucks?) then try powertracks sometime (29 bucks). dont let the low price fool you. the editing in it will let you slice and dice samples any which way to sunday. plus it has beat styles built in and a very capable drum machine. you can do 48 digital audio and midi tracks in it and so many other features like built in effects....
and this is just scratching the surface. powertracks in conjunction with the free hotstepper (you can do some interesting stuff in it using wave samples)
will probably do all you ever want to do in a song.
total cost about 180 bucks including sound card. just remember a KEY point.
contact the manufacturer of the sound card that you get like say audiophile and make sure the chipset/motherboard of your pc is compatible.
if you want even more hitsquad.com have a slew of demoes you can try.
if you have on board sound on your pc and you want to hunt around for the best sound card deal just download demoes of like powertracks and other pkges and see which you like best. but ive tried them all and value for money for such a cheap price it cant be beat.