Home recording advice needed!

[Ripper]

I have a head full of ideas and was thinking about a Tascam or some other home device for recording my guitar. Do I need to be a brain child to run these gizmos or are they pretty " idiotproof!"

[Runewalker]

Use your computer.

Cakewalk Guitar Tracks III. 32 tracks, studio modulators. Little of a learning curve, but you can build demos pretty quick. Direct into your sound card, or the line out of your amp or modeler, or even mic it.

Lots of fun. How many riffs or even songs have you developed, then went back to 'find' again and it was gone?

[Ripper]

Thanks Runewalker... Its true, I have lost many good riffs and ideas over the years.
Ill check out cakewalk.

[jdl]

Hey deep;

I'm assuming you have a windows machine right? Well, depending on your budget, I would recommend looking into Macs. I have one of the first Imac G5 computers and i use Garage Band to record my stuff. I like it alot. Its very simple, and it comes pre-installed on the macs. The new mac computers are using Intel processors, so this means, with a piece of software called Boot Camp, you can install Windows XP on your mac. The good thing about the new mac computers is that you have the stability, and security of a mac, which is the industry favourite computer platform for any sort of multimedia work, and you now have the option of installing windows if their is certain windows software you like that is not made for a mac.

Just my .02;

James

[Ripper]

Thanks jdl...Yes, I am using windows XP Pro on my MDG computer. I was told through the grapevine that next year when the new windows program comes out, that itll be very user friendly in the area of home recording and such. Who knows??? I used to just record myself with an old tape recorder that belonged to my Dad. Life was simple huh? hehe!

[night0wl]

I use Cakewalk Sonar 5 for PC recording. Pretty easy to use but you need soundcard and drivers with ASIO support to get a low latency so you can record live. I use a cheap Sounblaster Live! 16bit card and free drivers from kxproject.

I play through my usual rig (guitar to pedalboard to amp) then mic the amp into a small mixer which runs to the soundcard. I can crank the amp up, control the miked signal volume with the mixer to stop clipping before the signal enters the soundcard.

I record live into an armed track in Sonar, then add high pass and other EQ'ing later. Depending on the power of your PC, it should handle plenty of tracks with efffects fairly easily. I have an AMD Athlon 3400+ w/ 1GB ram and it handles way more tracks than I could possibly think of putting into a song!

You could also use a program called Guitar Rig for playing into, instead of miking everything. You can plug you guitar directly into the PC, run Sonar 5, open VST plugin Guitar Rig in the effects window of the selected channel and choose a sound. Then record directly into Sonar and apply the Guitar Rig effect to the channel and you're done!

Shane

[dunkelfalke]

deepblue said:

I have a head full of ideas and was thinking about a Tascam or some other home device for recording my guitar. Do I need to be a brain child to run these gizmos or are they pretty " idiotproof!"

as far as i know digitech gnx3000 is perfect for recording

[pollyshero]

I used Cakewalk's GT2 for years and graduated to SonarXL which is now a little behind the times, but suits my purposes. BEFORE that, I used a little Fostex X-15 4 track that I always knew would be replaced someday, but got the job done remarkably well.

If you're just now getting into the idea of recording, keep your ultimate goal in mind. If you're thinking about producing a CD, then a good software suite would be in order 'cause it'll save you headaches down the road. Unfortunately, you'll wind up with headaches up front initially if you don't choose software/hardware that is 100% compatible. If you're into getting it all together and willing to work through the heartache, go for it now.

On the other hand - if you just want to get down some basic tracks for your own enjoyment and get started doing it TODAY - a 4/8 track cassette machine is ready to use right out of the box and even a simpleton can operate it (I'm proof!).

Good luck!

[night0wl]

I forgot to mention, the Zoom MRS8 is a great portable recorder. I have one for recording at gigs and you can run it on batteries if need be. Also, you can export your recording from the SD card onto your PC for mixing with other software (Sonar, Cubase, etc). They aren't very expensive either.

Cheers
Shane

[inducedblues]

Hey...

I do some home recording on my mac powerbook. Haven't used Cakewalk or Sonar but reviews seem prety good.

I have to say that if you can get a mac, do it. You won't be disappointed. Garageband is a great application for recording and it comes bundled with any new apple you buy. I think the Mac Mini is a great place to start. Garageband keeps getting better and better, there are TONS of drum loops you can use that come with it and another ton you can download for free from mac related sites. All you have to do is get an a 1/4" to 1/8' adapter to plug into the audio port on the mac.

The guitar effects are pretty good and using and learning the program is simple as pie. You can literally put together a song with your riff, drums and bassline in a matter of minutes. If you don't like it..just mess around with all the loops until you find your groove.

Plus you can export you song into your Itunes as an AIFF and then convert it to mp3..then burn it onto a cd. Hell you can even record a whole album.

Use a preamp though, plugging your guitar directly into your computer doesn't really produce a good signal, so a cheap tube preamp like the ART tube MP is a good one to use.

For better SOUNDING recording I use an M-box with Pro Tools LE 6.9 but you can't beat Garageband for ease of use and accesibility.

[jdl]

Hurray!!!!

Another mac user!!!! Ditto to everything Inducedblues said!!!!

James

[mlrpa]

Guitar Tracks Pro 2, which I prefer over 3, Adobe Audition 1.5, and a freebie freeware, Audacity. great little program, that I use to transfer my waves to mp3.