New to recording

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chickenoodles

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Hey guys,

My name is Josh. I am new to the forum. I am a drummer and i have played in my school band since i was in 6th grade. I love music. I joined a band at the beginning of this year. We have since decided we are no position to start a band because we are all going off to college soon. In the time we were practicing, we went to a recording studio and i saw for the first time what it was like. I have since been amazed with everything recording. I have decided i want to learn how to record some stuff. I am going to college and i can not bring my drums:eek:. I do enjoy making beats though and i like techno music.

With that intro:

i have done some research and found i need a synth and a drum machine to make beats and techno music. I as a student am on a fairly small budget but i want to try to get some equipment so i can get started in college. I do have a mac and i have garage band as a software that i guess is good enough for just getting started.

Any basic info for recording or any advice on equitment to get would be awesome.

sorry for the long read.

Josh
 
Plug the synth and/or drum machine into a mixer or audio interface of some sort via RCA (red and white, like into your TV) and then plug the interface via USB (or even better, firewire).

If you want a microphone then get that to. There's lots around so do your own research, read reviews etc. Don't use the default one on your computer.

You need as many 'channels' in your mixer or audio interface, as the amount of different instruments as you want. E.G. A synth, drum machine and microphone would be 3 channels.
 
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 - $16
http://www.amazon.com/Home-Recordin...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273169612&sr=1-1
PC Recording Studios for Dummies - $16
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Stu...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273169612&sr=1-2
(Wish I'd had those 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!!)

Home Recording for Beginners by Geoffrey Francis
http://www.amazon.com/Home-Recording-Beginners-Geoffrey-Francis/dp/1598638815

When you get a bit into it, I highly recomend The Art of Mixing by David Gibson
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Mixing-Recording-Engineering-Production/dp/1931140456

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/
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig: http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.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 that WORK: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm
(you'll want to bookmark and read through all of Tweak's Guide while you're there...)

A great sequencer option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/
Runs on both Mac AND Windows
(It's $60 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 and July 2009 issue they put out Samplitude10SE. FREE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)
 
i don't know if this is a stupid question but can you replace a soundcard on a laptop? i have a macbook pro.
 
Not really, it's probably possible but it would be too hard. You are better getting an external soundcard (USB/FireWire interface). Google it ^_^.
 
There's no point in asking - you'll get no reply !!

chickenoodles said:
i don't know if this is a stupid question
Click to expand...

Despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary, young sir, when you don't know the answers, no question is a stupid question. Unless you are a master at reading minds or other peoples' newspapers upside down on the bus or train, asking questions is how many of us get answers. So ask away ! Just don't ask me.


























That was a joke, by the way ! :D
 
is there a certain number of bits or hertz i should look for in an external sound card?

and since my laptop has 2 GB of memory, should i get a external hardrive too?. i saw some 1 TB ones for 130 at staples. is 1 TB too much?
 
I assume the 2G 'memory' is RAM - this is different than the hard drive memory - unless you have an ancient laptop! Please do some reading on computers as well, before buying things you don't need.
 
I don't recall ever having a single song's worth of data that I couldn't back up to a single CD - so 700MB...

250 gig should keep you going for a whole career, but you might want to consider what you'd do if your annoying little brother downloaded a virus whilst surfing for porn and formatted your hard drive...

So yes, an external hard drive is a useful back up tool, but get a small one, not a biggie, and only keep music on it.
 
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