Re: PC Recording: What Do I *Really* Need?

cineman74@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi all,
So, I'm looking to get into really at last recording my songs and
musical ideas onto my PC. I just have to get the music out of me. I
thought I might give a rundown of what I currently have, software-wise
and equipment-wise and perhaps some of you would be kind enough to
offer up some specifics on equipment or software that will really be
pretty definitive for awhile If I can help it, I'd love to keep costs
down as much as possible..

At the moment I have only a few items, but I suspect I'll need some
other things to beef up my recordings. What I have is at the moment
is:

*Acoustic guitar (Taylor Big Baby)
*Electric guitar (Fender Showmaster)
*Shure M-57 mic
*Boss DR-5 drum machine
*PC (Pentium 4, 100GB HD), with a pretty good Santa Cruz soundcard
*Software is Adobe Audition and Acid Pro

It ain't much, I know, but any really great software or equipment
(especially preamps/input devices, which I suspect I'll need) I could
buy would be most helpful. Thanks so much, everybody.

~B

Afaik you can easily have a go with what you have. Plug in the guitar in your sound card or use tour mike. Audition lets you use as many tracks as you want to make a multi track recording.

I don't know about your sound card. For recording purposes a Asio driver is needed to prevent too much latency (that is the time gap between playing a note and hearing it out of your speakers)
Also if you want te record using the standard audio cd bit rates and stuff like that, make sure your sound card is capable of handling these.

Of course if you want to record more than one track at the same time, your card must have more inputs
For even more fun you can buy a simple midi keyboard and plug it into the sound card. Using something like Reason (software) gives you more sounds than you can dream off.
But of course: your sound card needs a midi input.

I decided to buy a TASCAM US122 USB sound card that provides me with 2 guitar/mike inputs, midi in/out separate headphone output. Use it for something like 3 years now and works fine. Gives me something like a mixer as well. Doesn't mind falling on the floor or even getting some coffee spilt over it. Haven't tried beer yet.
But there are several alternatives
.

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