I NEED HELP!!!!

[codylz28]

Hey, Im very brand new to this recording stuff, I recently bought me a new guitar and im about to buy a halfstack, well anyways, Im turning my room into like a mini recording studio (it's gonna piss off my parents) and I need advice. Im gonna do all the recording, mixing, equalizer settings, and all that good stuff on my computer. And I just need advice on what kind of audio card to get for my pc, what software to get to where I can edit my music, and all that good stuff, Im new and need help, anything anyone says would be greatly appreciated, thanx!!

[Lavdate]

How's it going?

First off I would like to welcome you to the recording world.

To start exploring what I recommend in a soundcard, is a soundblaster(SB Live! for example.) It's not the best card obviously but the price is low and the sound isn't that bad. Get used to card as much as you can and if you get serious then start thinking of buying a high end soundcard.

For a software you can get "Cakewalk Home Studio" for 100.00$ or 2, I forget. The software includes a sequencer, mixing console, plug-ins like parametric and graphic equalizers, reverb, delays and so on... It's a pretty good program to start, I find. And it's got editing capabilities.

Most important of all find yourself a decent mic. Without a good mic it will be literally impossible to get a good sound.
What I recommend for you is a dynamic mic. The reason is you will probably mic your amp, and if you crank your half-stack you will need a mic that takes that king of abuse. SM-57 would be a good choice for that loud guitar signal.

My advice is to learn the basics with basic equipment. If you get interrested enough or get G.A.S.(Gear Aquisition Syndrom) then by all means "Go nuts!"

[GZsound]

I would suggest buying a better sound card than a Blaster. They are good for games, but you will soon outgrow it and they are noisy. You can pick up a good sound card at a reasonable price.

check out musiciansfriend.com, americanmusical.com, zzounds.com, and start reading.

I would suggest buying Cool Edit 2000 with the studio plug in for software. It is $69 at Syntrillium.com. I am not a big fan of Cakewalk stuff mostly because I haven't been able to make it work since the Pro 7 days.

I agree with the SM57 suggestion. A great mic for just about anything you want to throw at it. Be aware it is a low impedence mic and your sound card needs lo z inputs.

[mrmoviescore]

Actually the SB Live is a good card, much better than the Audigy and will suite you fine for what you want to do.

as you delve into the home DAW world a little further you will need to buy a better Souncard or "Audio Card" as there called now...I recommend the M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 its a fantastic card for a DAW and costs £129 to buy in the UK now so I expect it to be around the same over in america. But you have to know how many in's and Out's your gonna need because Audio Cards have different amounts of them.

[This message has been edited by mrmoviescore (edited 02-25-2003).]

[Michael Quayle]

The SB Live! is better than the Audigy? In what way?

[+Erik.+]

I started out with an SBLive and it was adequate to begin with but i soon got tired of it. If you can afford a low latency 24 bit card it will last you a long time and you will get far superior results from it. They are not that expensive anymore.

[mbbda]

Another vote for the SBlive for a complete novice.
The midi functionality with sounfonts is good & the sound is ok.
When you feel the need to upgrade to a more proffesional soudcard it will prabably take a few months to decide which card to buy in any case and you will have learn't lots & can make a better decision.
I bought mine for £50 online from creative (platinum version with breakout box) & you can nearly sell it for that on ebay.
You carn't loose, have fun http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[mrmoviescore]

Originally posted by Michael Quayle:
The SB Live! is better than the Audigy? In what way?

From what I have read and experienced, the Sb Live! worked better under ASIO even tho both cards dont have a dedicated asio driver.

I have previously owned both and I prefered the Live!, I dunno, it just sounded better when recording Audio, but not good enough to use for proper recording.

I'm interested to know why you think the Audigy is better tho, forget stats and stuff, I expect you have used both to ask the main question anyways.

[knowdoubt]

Good grief, get a decent sound card if you can at all afford it. Everything you do & every other instrument & piece of equipment in your recording & monitoring chain is effected by the card. They don't cost an arm & a leg. M-audio Audiophile about $150 going price retail & you may even be able to pick one up on ebay under $100. Kinda silly to pinch pennies at that price range to sacrifice such a big leap in quality. A decent sound card like that can give you recording quality acceptable as pro. You would be satisfied with it's recording quality for life & some day in the future when you dig out those old CD's you made when you 1st got started, though you may have a laugh about where you were musically at the time & snicker at your mixing skill level you'll be thankful your youth was recorded & preserved in all it's pristine quality, uhh... or maybe not. http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

You'll also need a decent mixer with lo Z & line inputs to interface between your mic's/instruments & soundcard. One of the small Behringer mixers would do. I'd make sure the mixer also had phantom power for mic's in case you eventually get a condenser mic. I think all the Behringer mixers do.

[donsaudio]

I started out with an sblive as well. It did get the job done, and it was dirt cheap.
If you are just in the process of exploring, the sblive is cheap enough, and if you are on a really ( I mean really) tight budget, this may help.
However if comes to something more expensive, like the audigy version--- don't waste your money! Go with something a little higher end. Like Knowdoubt pointed out, there are some great entry level soundcards that have a wealth of modern technology that the sblive isn't capable of (even though creative advertises as much).
Good Luck to you, and welcome to the habit!
Don

[Bops2000]

Originally posted by mrmoviescore:
From what I have read and experienced, the Sb Live! worked better under ASIO even tho both cards dont have a dedicated asio driver.

I never ran audiology, but I have t agree sblive is not so bad

[codylz28]

Thank you all for everythin and i got one more question, what are monitors? is it the actual computer screen are is that like another device for the sound? like i said im really new to all this stuff, so like how can i find out about like the actuall terms? lo z's and that behringer mixer, in's and out's on the card and stuff. The behringer mixer, is it like seperate from the computer kind of like a keyboard but with just a bunch of knobs or is it a software program, and also, to get like the stereo sound, will i need 2 mics? im gonna check out that sm57 pretty soon

[This message has been edited by codylz28 (edited 02-25-2003).]

[Bops2000]

Cody,
It's scary but fun!
Heres a site that may help http://www.studiocovers.com/articles1.htm

PS I would invest (if ya got a 100 bucks extra) in a cheap cassette four track recorder just to get yer feet wet (and in my opinion) goes very handy for 'doubleing guitar tracks' re: Boston/tom sholz

[Kwcbv]

I started out with a SBLive and although the sound quality was acceptable, it is not a good card for a home recording system. I also throw out a vote for the Audiophile 2496 as it is a great "do everything" card. It is well worth the investment.

I also agree with Home Studio 2002 from Cakewalk. While I use Sonar, I probably do not use the extra capabilities it has and probably would be just fine with Home Studio. Most useful is the ability to use Acid loops which will allow you to quickly sketch out the other tracks, such as drums. You will also appreciate the midi as the virtual instruments are getting very impressive, and you may want to later include a synth or sampler in your studio.

For home recording with a guitar, try to get an amp that has a stereo out so that you can choose whether to mic or go directly into the soundcard. In fact, while I prefer to just play with two big Peavey Heritage amps in stereo, when it comes time to record it is easy to just go direct from an amp modeller like the Behringer V-Amp 2 or the Line6 POD. Once the recording is in the sequencer then you have great capabilities to process the sound and the original recording is much clearer.

And, lastly, welcome to home recording! I also am a guitarist that uses the computer to generate everything else and am having a blast. When I think back over 10 years ago with my little Fostex 4 track and Roland drum machine I realize now just how powerful the digital audio world really is.

[codylz28]

Lets see if i got this all down now. Once I get SBLive, an SM-57, Cakewalk, and some monitors, just put the mic up to the half stack, jam it out, throw in different rhythms on the guitar, go to cakewalk, mix it and loop it, and play it back through the monitors? How is the quality with SBLive and Sm57? Does anyone have any mp3's of themselves with their equipment? and once again, thank you guys so much, im catching on to all this stuff thanks to you guys.

[+Erik.+]

Originally posted by codylz28:
Lets see if i got this all down now. Once I get SBLive, an SM-57, Cakewalk, and some monitors, just put the mic up to the half stack, jam it out, throw in different rhythms on the guitar, go to cakewalk, mix it and loop it, and play it back through the monitors? How is the quality with SBLive and Sm57? Does anyone have any mp3's of themselves with their equipment? and once again, thank you guys so much, im catching on to all this stuff thanks to you guys.


if you are going for all that **** then surely you can afford a 24 bit budget card? forget the sblive nonsense and go for a better sound card. you won't regret it.

[XenosoniK]

i skimmed through the responses and i don't think anybody answered your question about monitors.

what most audiophiles mean by monitors is basically a very accurate speaker. one that doesn't color (change) the sound. most commercial speakers are built to enhance the sound and often fool you into thinking that what you are hearing has extra "goodness". it might sound nice, but it's a lie.

-Xeno

[Michael Quayle]

If you are just starting out and have no idea about any of the gear, then this is a fairly good place to start :

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/basics/basics.asp

Hope this helps. I personally would add my voice to the crowd of people urging you to buy something like an Audiophile 2496 rather than a soundblaster. The balster is a gaming card dressed up with a couple of musical frills. It's pot luck whether or not you actually end up with a stable setup based around a blaster - for every person that says they had no soundbalster problems, there will be another to recount a recording story from hell featuring one.

[codylz28]

Awesome, you guys are great, yeah, i'm 19, livin with da folks, and the only bill i have is my car payment ($200 a month)and im working full time, so i'll go with the 24 bit one i guess, whats good monitors that are real good for a good reasonable price?

[Davros]

Totally agree with Michael here. Spend the few extra bucks and get a proper audio card. The Soundblaster Live is a card for gamers.

Buy a card that you will be happy with for a long time. I would strongly recommend the M-Audio Audiophile 2496. It's $150 bucks and it's a fantasic card. It's quiet, has very good quality DACs and dedicated ASIO drivers.

If you buy the Live card, be prepared to replace it a few months down the road. And remember how much windows likes it when you remove hardware and install new? Exactly. And it's even worse when you are depending on your audio card.

You don't want to be dealing with pop's and clicks and wasting hours trying to work out why. Do yourself a favor and don't skimp on the audio card. Audiophile 2496 all the way.

Cheers,

Ollie

[Kwcbv]

Michael gave a nice site to begin gathering info. As for monitors, they are fairly expensive and you really ought to spend a few hours at a bigger music store comparing sound quality to price.

Now that I have been through a lot getting my perfect studio setup, If I was in your shoes I would find a few people who have been doing what you want to do and examine their systems. In other words, there is no standard home studio and they are very configurable.

Last words of advice, you really don't need the latest and highest end of everything to produce quality recordings anymore.

[Bops2000]

Does anyone have any mp3's of themselves with their equipment?


my mp3 site just for tests/snippets
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/533/bops2000.html

when I wanna give you guys a song I will do so http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif
ps they were done on an audio 2496, and am looking for an sblive song (i gave all the cd's away), Thought I backed up sblive stuff -- Oh well wasn't al that important I guess

[This message has been edited by Bops2000 (edited 03-03-2003).]

[pubmgr]

For monitors, lots to choose from, active (with an amp built in) and passive (no amp). Yorkville (a little hard to find), Alesis, Behringer, Mackie, Tannoy, (what am I forgetting??). Not a ton of deep bass in the price range, but a good clarity, minimal coloration, etc. Watch out for too much sizzle toward the high end, which can be attractive, and then annoying.

Everybody loves and hates all the models in all these brands. I finally got the Alesis Monitor 1 MKII. At $199 for the pair, I'm happy. Try to audition, look for a 30-day return policy, and do some searching for reviews. http://www.sospubs.co.uk and http://www.prorec.com/ are two good sites.

Have fun!

[codylz28]

Man, thats sounded exactly like studio quality stuff!! but better!!!Im like in shock right now on how awesome you can get that sounding, Man, now im definately going to buy me lots of toys, just one problem: Money. But pretty soon oh yeah, thanx!!! and pubmgr, how is that pair that you got for $199.99? Cuz I've seen some monitors at musicians friends for freakin expensive as crap, but like, how are they hooked up? from the computer?

[This message has been edited by codylz28 (edited 03-03-2003).]

[Bops2000]

jbl 'patio' indoor outdoor speakers - I found 2 pairs for 36 bucks- that's 9 bucks a speaker. at circuit city sale. I love em