Total beginner at this.

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CDav

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I have been a player and made a living at it for the better part of 37 yrs. I never really aspired to record until recently when I was hired to play on a few folks' recording projects and some people that I knew started their own recording projects.
So...I turned an older computer I had into a work station: Beefed up the Ram (1.5 gig), Wiped out all old programs, and set about getting started.
I bought : An E-MU 1212m soundcard w/daughter card
A Tascam US 1414 Interface
A set of Behringer monitors (not too bad)
A 4 pack of Senheiser headphones
An Art 4 channel headphone amp
An MXL studio mic ( I have several mics)
and a 320 gig external hard drive
The E-MU sound card came with Cubase, Sonar LE (cakewalk), Wavelab. The Tascam came With Cubase 4. I also purchased Mixcraft online, looking for another down-and-dirty-quickie method.

There.......Now what. I feel like a monkey getting ready to make love to a football. Do I have what I need? It's what I could afford. Is this stuff compatible or did I go off half-cocked. I'm kind of groping around in the dark here.. Help.
 
I'm new to this myself, but a good starting point for me was the book "Home recording for Dummies" I would check it out. It's a good place to get to grisps with everything, it's tauhgt me a lot. Hope this helps :)
 
your interface really is a sound card itself. you only need one ore the (if its usb).

plug into the interface. plug the interface into your usb/fire wire. open your software. from there its really a lot of opinions on how to do it but that how to get ure sound into the comp lol.

recording and mixing is another convo. and its longer haha
 
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 - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...mp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470385421
(Wish I'd had that 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!!)

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

Also Good Info: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.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


Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)
Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\
Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com/smm

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 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...)
 
yea thats what i meant "Home recording for musicians for dummies" - Jeff Strong. It's a good book.
 
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