Newbie question: What all will I need?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Smoobg
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Smoobg

New member
Hi folks,
I'm going to buy Cakewalk Pro v9.0 soon, and I wanted to know if I need a different sound card, if I need some kind of interface in which to plug my instruments in, etc. I don't want to buy Cakewalk, and then find out that I'll have to drop another $500 or so to get going. What esle will I need?

Thanks
 
:) Post us back with some more info. :)

What equipment do you own?

What equipment will you be connecting to the computer?

What are the specifications of your computer (exactly)?

What level of completion (hobby, demo, semi-pro, etc.) are you trying to accomplish?

What kind of music are you trying to produce?

How much money do you want to spend?

We will share more than enough info and ideas with you, but we will need some more information from you. :D

spin
 
OK, here's what I've got:
Guitar - Carvin DC-135
Boss pedals (chorus, delay, compression sustainer, etc.)
Yamaha keyboard
TubeWorks 750 amp
My computer consists of the following:
- Compaq Presario 350
- 60 mb RAM (I plan to upgrade to 256 mb)
- 4 gig hardrive
- 32x CDROM

I'm looking to do demo quality work. Styles range from pop to metal (it's going to be praise & worship, and some instrumentals).

I was thinking about getting the Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96, which comes with Cakewalk 9.0. I was planning on using the sampled drum tracks in Cakewalk for the drum tracks. I will probably borrow a bass.
This seems like the most inexpensive way to get into desktop recording. I guess I'm looking to spend $500 or so to get my feet wet.

Thanks.
 
Direct Pro......Good choice

I just got the Direct Pro not too long ago, and you will not regret the purchase, this card rocks!! :) The card comes with a demo version of Cakewalk which will be pretty limited in what you can do, but I haven't used the demo to know exactly what. But the full version is only around $180 or so, which is an EXCELLENT deal at that price (when I got it, it was around $360 (I think) and it was still a good deal even at that price IMO).

There are a few coplaints that I have about the card, that maybe you should keep in mind (but it maybe just that I haven't figured these out yet, so if anyone knows a way to do these please let me know)...
1. There is no connector for the CD-ROM on the card, so if you want to listen to CDs through the CD-ROM you have to have another soundcard that will play it.
2. It won't play the MIDI drums or the metronome in Cake (maybe because it doesn't have soundfonts?)
3. The digital (S/PDIF) input takes up 2 of the audio inputs (for right an left) in the mixer so you can only record with 2 analog when you use the digital input, (I thought that you would have the 4 analog inputs PLUS the digital input....but this is not the case).
4. It doesn't stream MP3s, (I haven't tried real audio) iiittttt sssskkkiiipppss llliiikkkeeee ttthhhiiisss, so you have to save the file to your hard drive to get it to play. (A minor one but still a pain)

But if you plan to use the card "strickly for recording" then 2 of those shouldn't be a problem (unless you want to compare your songs to commercial CDs in which case the 1st one IS still a problem).

But other than those (minor) things, the card is awesome for recording (extremely quiet) and if you have another card (Sound Blaster Live, ect...) that will play CDs and the MIDI drums/metronome in Cakewalk (but having to switch cards is still kinda annoying) then you should be fine.

Good luck :)

-tkr
 
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