PC Recording 101

A

atomicthaprodigy

New member
I been studying sound cards and A/D converters for way to damn long. I been through Seasound Solo, Midiman pieces of garbage, and echo soundcards. I have wasted soo much money on stupid PC equipment that all sounds like 2 dimensional garbage. And then after I spend all my money on shit, Roland hits the street with a studio package for $700 (musicians friend) . Did you hear me, $700 will get you a VM-3100 Pro digi mixer with a card that connects it to your computer and a specialized version of Logic. And the tightest part is the effects, you can use the mixer's effects instead of crappy ass computer effects that should never be used on ANY recordings, they just sound like complete garbage. so stop looking at these dumb ass garbage sounding A/D soundcards and get a digi mixer and a digi soundcard that's compatible. As for midi, just grab yourself a crappy soundblaster card ($10) with a joystick port. Get your hands on some hacked synth programs and any crappy keyboard with a Midi out port and POOF......you have a tight ass studio. PEACE
 
123

I dunno what effects you;ve been trying to use, but the ones I have are very nice. They sound as good or better than most outboard gear.
 
tubedude , this guy is obviously sexually frustrated...at least i hope that's all it is.....fx on a digital mixer are a specialized kind of 'computer' effect...they have hardware support...yet they still have sample rate and bit depth.....if you hate computers you hate anything digital...
 
I have been using CakeP9, and I have also been using my RP5 Digitech Processor and I find that the tracks that I record with the processor are "fatter" or sound a lot cleaner than with the Cake reverb/chorus/etc.

I just started in this endevour of digital recording so I have been attacking this in a trial and error sort of way. I record tracks and then copy them, and manipulate them with different effects/mics/volumes to see what happens. I am still learning Cake/Recording aspects, and the fact that it seems to sound better using the RP5 may be user error on my part in Cake, but thought that I would throw in a couple o' coppers!! Later
 
hey bear, have you tried using other plug ins besides those from cakewalk?

atomicthaprodigy,

i don't think my knee jerk response to your post was really appropriate. so let me add this:

i guess i was kind of put off by the fact that you called it 'pc recording 101' and then proceeded to trash pc based recording. but let's forget that.

i'm curious about what plug ins you were using. i've used some that i think sound great. maybe you are put off by the fact that in most situations you can't record in real time with effects. one nice thing about a digital mixer with effects, or a mixer with outboard effects, is that you can monitor and track with effects. however, once you've recorded with those effects you can't go back and change them, or at least i'm not aware of a way to do this. with plug ins you can always change the parameters and even the plug in...i'm sure you know this. computer based recording has come a long way in a short time, and i think that soon it will become more and more possible to use plug ins like outboard gear, i.e., record and monitor with them in real time...until that time comes, i'm thankful that we can do what we can do now with plug ins....so if your main concern is that plug ins are somewhat tedious to use, perhaps you just need to wait a little longer.

however, if you just think plug ins sound like crap, period, i have to disagree.

i haven't used a seasound or an event card, but all i've heard is good things about these cards. i've used a midiman (m-audio) delta 66 and an aardvark direct pro and i think the sound quality is fine. i'm actually surprised to hear that someone thinks that midiman makes 'garbage'. and for the price of the roland vm-3100 mixer, i'd be surprised if it's a/d converters were way superior to those on the soundcards mentioned. the roland is 24 bit...but so are most of the nicer sound cards....though you do need a pretty powerful pc to multitrack with 24 bit. this makes me think that you may have been comparing the sound of a 24 bit mixer to 16 bit pc audio.

anyone getting into digital recording has a choice to go with either a hardware based setup, with digital mixers, adats ,hd recorders, or whatever, or to go with a native setup, i.e., a pc and software. i think it is now that the pc is finally coming into its own as a machine for digital recording. for a while now we've had dedicated hardware devices that can pretty much beat a pc. but processor speeds are getting faster and faster, and with this increase in speed, the limitations of the pc , when compared to dedicated hardware, are falling away.

but i don't know...i'm just trying to make some sense of your post.
peace out
 
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yo......j

nope....just got Cake, and I LOVE PC recording. Just starting out. I still haven't even really learned how to USE Cake yet. Still going through all the tutorials, that's why I mentioned that it is probably user error. I like what I have learned so far, just basically laying down guitar tracks and learning how to use the software.

Very similar to how it took a long time to learn how to "use" my RP5, I am sure that I will get the hang of Cake. Not trying to bash PC recording ( I think you were aiming that at the orginator not me:)) just adding what I have found.

I am not EVEN ready to start trying NEW stuff till I can actually mix at least one song with what I have. My poor mind is already spinning playing with all my new toys!!!! It is difficult to "jump" into digi-recording, I have been playing for years, and never recorded anything on my own, except just practice stuff on a regular old tape recorder. Nothing like this. Spent a small (very small:)) fortune on the "studio" I have now and I am loving every minute of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have grown in leaps and bounds hanging out here "listening"!! Later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
j - I think your first response was probably about right.

I doubt that the quality on the Roland setup is any better than any of the other converters, etc. in that price range. I would be willing to bet that my Mackie or Joe Meek running into my Direct Pro and then adding the Waves fx or Sonic Foundry Acoustic Mirror reverbs will yield better results than the Roland all-in-one setup.

Like you said, the digital mixer has digital effects, which may or may not be great. It probably also has crappy preamps, and the converters are probably on par with the others he said "suck."

Oh - Bear... just for reference - I haven't used them in a while, but from what I remember, the Cakewalk fx weren't all that great compared to others that are out there.

Just my response to PC Recording 101. :p

Peace.
 
hey KB,

if you are recording a band or some ensemble , i could see how a mixer type based setup would be attractive. however, if i were recording a band, i'd opt for a studiomaster over the roland any day. i wouldn't be too worried about effects, just decent mics and dynamic processors..... but , i'm on a budget.

i think the aardvark stuff and the joe meek stuff are really nice.

Bear,

the directXfiles link on the cakewalk site has some freeware plugs..the stuff from digalog isn't bad and if you want to pay fxpansion has some cool stuff....revalver is another bad ass plug, if ya knows how to use it....a version of revalver is free with cakewalk's sonar....hammerhead is a freeware drum machine...

yes, once you get into pc recording there are enough options to make a head spin.....but isn't it fun?
 
it's more like:

hey man, do you want to elaborate on what you were saying?

yes ? no?
ok, either way...

:)
 
Re: 123

tubedude said:
I dunno what effects you;ve been trying to use, but the ones I have are very nice. They sound as good or better than most outboard gear.
Click to expand...

Which ones are you using?
 
Yo man, I'm just sayin that if anybody is lookin' at droppin money on a home studio, this is a really good option. The VM-3100 Pro was priced at about $1,200 a couple weeks ago. Now they're sellin it for $700 with a card for the PC. I don't know if Musicians friend is just stupid or what but that mixer has the same quality onboard effects as a VS-1880. As for the effects I've used; well I've used all of them because we get them free at school. The only ones worth mentioning are the Pro Tools RTAS plug-ins.
 
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