Recording Equipment

[jimijames]

I've been playing guitar since 8th grade, and I've gotten tired of writing down my ideas in tablature, only to come back to it months later, having forgotten the rhythm. So, I'd like to start recording on my computer, and I was wondering if you guys had any setups you'd reccommend. I'm not in a band right now, so I don't need 16 or (even 8) channel mixers, advanced pre-amps or expensive processing software. I would like to get a setup that I can add on to later on, but for right now, i'm looking for a sub-$300 setup that I can plug into the USB port of my lap top. Thanks for all of the help, and sorry to put this here - I just couldn't think of any subject to put this under. Thanks again, all advice is appreciated.

edit: Admins, please move this to the correct area if i'm mistaken in posting it here. Thanks again.

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Toneports rock. You get Ableton Live a lite version with it to record into.

[Bludave]

If you get a decent peramp and interface you can use Audacity. Its a share ware type of program and its pretty good. Another good choice would be a Digidesign MBox mini. $295 and this includes Pro tools LE. Everything the home recordist would typically need to get started. If you have a Mac...... Garage band.

[jimijames]

Thanks for the advice, I've got a PC that I'm getting sorted out now, hopefully I'll have it upgraded to vista within a few weeks. How does the digidesign Mbox mini compare to the toneport? Thanks again for the help, I don't know what i'd do without this place.

[dystrust]

If you get a decent peramp and interface you can use Audacity.

I record my demos on a Korg Pandora PXR4 and import them via USB into Audacity to mix. Audacity is great for me as I run Linux on my laptop which is my primary PC. In the studio I'm running Sonar on a 3.2Ghz Athlon which I hope to soon replace with a Mac Pro running Logic Studio.

In terms of capability Audacity is a few years behind a professional package like Logic, Sonar, Ableton, or Pro Tools, but it's more than adequate for demos and much easier to use. The interface of Audacity reminds me of Cool Edit Pro in the late 90s.

[RW James]

Thanks for the advice, I've got a PC that I'm getting sorted out now, hopefully I'll have it upgraded to vista within a few weeks.

I wouldn't do that if I were you. First, there are still a lot of outstanding problems with Vista, especially with upgrades. Second, a lot of third party products are still not compatible with Vista (I know some M-Audio are still not)

[andrizzle]

I wouldn't do that if I were you. First, there are still a lot of outstanding problems with Vista, especially with upgrades. Second, a lot of third party products are still not compatible with Vista (I know some M-Audio are still not)

+1 ...

I'm almost postive the Mbox(es) won't work with Vista, you'd need XP or a Mac

[jimijames]

Well, the reason I was upgrading to vista was to pretty much wipe my hard drive (with the exception of a few word and excel documents that I need for school), because I seem to have come across either spyware or a virus, and norton anti-virus just isn't cutting it right now. So, at any rate, I need to clean the hard drive, and I figured the easiest way would be to upgrade to vista, but if its not so hot right now... I can probably live with xp for a while longer (but vista is free from the university I go to, and it is **** sexy if I say so myself...)

[dystrust]

Vista may be pretty, but it's buggy as hell in addition to being quite the resource hog. Unless your machine has at least 1GB of RAM (2GB is better) I wouldn't install Vista.

[That90'sGuy]

I have a Tascam US-122 I'll be selling shortly, I've used that for demos before and it is a good beginner setup on the cheap.

[CGord]

Line 6 RiffTracker. Check out the links in my sig, all the songs were done with it. $189 + whatever extras you buy in the future (additional amp models, drum patterns, etc).