Help with PC recording setup

[thorny]

I want to start recording with my pc now. I want to use cakewalk home studio xl or possibly Sonar 5 pro version. My pc is a pentium 4 with a gig of ram. Can someone tell me everything I will need please. I am recording with a condenser mic and basically acoustic guitar and vocals. Thanks for any info in advance

[harlon]

This is a good day and age to set up a home studio. Lots of options out there. You'll need an audio interface. Something either USB 2 or firewire. Other options are soundcards like the Echo Mia which has stereo ins and outs, or a combonation soundcard with a breakout box. You'll get a lot of suggestions, but I would suggest perhaps one of the M-Audio interfaces. Make sure it has phantom power for your mic. Then - to really get a sweet recording you may want to eventually buy a good mic preamp. They range in price and quality, all the way from the preamps on the audio interface you'll purchase, up to way more than I can afford!

Also - if you're going to pay the money for Sonar, I'd get something with a MIDI input/ output as well. If you don't plan to use MIDI then I'd suggest a straight audio program like Adobe Audition.

There's a lot of ways to go about it. Once you get your interface, I'd suggest getting online and downloading every free demo you can find of the big audio programs. Try them all before you buy anything.

You'll have fun, and you'll get frustrated. Just stick with it.

[charlemagne52]

Heres a good website that will cover pretty much everything about home recording:

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/

If you're thinking about just guitar and vocal you might consider Cakewalk's Guitar Tracks Pro, it's what I use, pretty solid and currently on special at Musician's Friend, like half what I paid for it! here:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...are?sku=704988

Whatever you do, consider spending a fair amount on powered monitors so you can really hear what you're recording. My setup is M-Audio BX8's with a M-Audio SBX subwoofer, very decent for the money.

[Jedd]

Or just plug the phone jack from the amp into the mic or input jack on your pc and use Audacity. Free, quick and easy. (but I'm sure you probably want something a little more advanced than that)

[TBman]

I have Tascam US-122 which is a USB device. It has left and right inputs for 1/4 guitar input and left and right XLR input for a mic or guitar with XLR output. It has phantom power and works very well. I also have Presonus Bluetube preamp which warms the tone of my Markley pickup. The mics I use are the MXL 990/991 pair which are inexpensive. The whole setup without the pickup goes for about $500.

[kottkenut]

I've done about the same thing that TBMan has done, except I bought a PreSonus Firebox, which came with Cubase LE as bundled software. For the Firebox, MXL 990 & 991 condenser mics, 2 mic stands, a couple of mic cables, and a firewire external hard drive enclosure, I paid around $500 for the whole shmear. I bought the external firewire enclosure so I could put an existing 200GB IDE drive in it and connect it to the Firebox, strictly for recording storage.

[thorny]

Ok everyone thanks for the suggestions and insight. So if someone can be very specific. If I buy Sonar 5 producer what else will I need. I know I will need an interface, but what else. Will I need to remove my existing soundcard? Which interface would you recommend? Im confused. USB, firewire????? Help