Recording Music using PC

[gbbird]

Hi All,

Am new to this forum. Being a musician at heart, i would like to record some of my old songs i used to perform in bands in my younger days. The type of music is rock/metal, so i will need to record guitars (x2 or 3 tracks), bass, vocals and drums (using a drum machine).

Could anyone tell me what i need to get/upgrade for my PC in order to be able to do this and what the likely cost will be, and in particular recommend a good, versatile, easy to use drum machine?

Many many thanks

Greg

[The Dude]

First off; what's the rough spec of your PC and what's your budget for the upgrades/software?

For an idea of the kind of thing you're looking at, all these guys do pre-built machines at various budgets. Carillon and Red Sub are towards the high-end of the market, Millenium do a broad range.

www.millennium-music.co.uk/
www.sub.co.uk
www.carillondirect.com/clnweb/index.jsp?country=UK

I'm not advocating buying a pre-built system (though they are good) but you can look at the specs and compare to your own PC.

Digest some of that and pop back with questions later

[gbbird]

The Dude said:

First off; what's the rough spec of your PC and what's your budget for the upgrades/software? For an idea of the kind of thing you're looking at, all these guys do pre-built machines at various budgets. Carillon and Red Sub are towards the high-end of the market, Millenium do a broad range. www.millennium-music.co.uk/ www.sub.co.uk www.carillondirect.com/clnweb/index.jsp?country=UK I'm not advocating buying a pre-built system (though they are good) but you can look at the specs and compare to your own PC. Digest some of that and pop back with questions later

Cheers Dude ! My PC is quite old so will check the spec tonight when i get home

Will check out those links and pop back later

[alltorque]

Don't use a drum machine - get some sequencing software like Cakewalk or Cubase - you can then import drum loops played by real drummers (I can email you some) and even change tempos. I recommnd getting a good soundcard too with a front bay expansion slot, so you can plug all your cables etc in the front of your pc. Something like the Soundblaster Audigy 2 would be great for starters.

edited to say: www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000079MDX/qid=1141385836/sr=1-10/ref=sr_1_3_10/026-8207894-5434803

I've recorded fine (>20 tracks) on a 1GHz Athlon, but the more RAM the better obviously.

>> Edited by alltorque on Friday 3rd March 11:37

[lotusfan]

alltorque said:

I've recorded fine (>20 tracks) on a 1GHz Athlon, but the more RAM the better obviously. >> Edited by alltorque on Friday 3rd March 11:37

Me too, i did get some latency problems while recording, that took a combination of a faster hard disk ( the original was quite old anyhow) and RAM, lots and lots of RAM

edited to say: using steinberg

>> Edited by lotusfan on Friday 3rd March 11:50

[gbbird]

have been browsing and the Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio 4: No Compromise Music Tools, for
£79.00 looks good for me. Anyone know if this one is OK?

[The Dude]

gbbird said:

have been browsing and the Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio 4: No Compromise Music Tools, for £79.00 looks good for me. Anyone know if this one is OK?

I'd say go for Cubase every time.

Have a look around their site, get a feel for what they can offer.

www.steinberg.de/Steinberg/defaultb0e4.html

[gbbird]

The Dude said:

gbbird said: have been browsing and the Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio 4: No Compromise Music Tools, for £79.00 looks good for me. Anyone know if this one is OK? I'd say go for Cubase every time. Have a look around their site, get a feel for what they can offer. www.steinberg.de/Steinberg/defaultb0e4.html

Was also looking at the Cubase SE3 for £99.99. Why do you think this is a better bet than Cakewalk? Does it do more things, and can i create drum tracks on it? Cheers

[jimothy]

I use Cubase, started with Vst, then SL and I'm now on SX3. It's the dogs danglies. Shame I don't get enough time to play with all my nice kit anymore

[The Dude]

gbbird said:

The Dude said: gbbird said: have been browsing and the Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio 4: No Compromise Music Tools, for £79.00 looks good for me. Anyone know if this one is OK? I'd say go for Cubase every time. Have a look around their site, get a feel for what they can offer. www.steinberg.de/Steinberg/defaultb0e4.html Was also looking at the Cubase SE3 for £99.99. Why do you think this is a better bet than Cakewalk? Does it do more things, and can i create drum tracks on it? Cheers

Been using it for over 10 years, that's the main reason

Sonar is admitedly quite nice, but nothing else I've used feels quite as right as Cubase. Once you learn something, it's difficult not to always say "But Cubase does it much better...."

[alltorque]

I use cakewalk - it's great! You won't go wrong with either