I want to record!!!!!

smokeynichol · #1 04-29-2010, 09:21 AM

i play country gospel music using my guitar plugged in to a Marshall amp-would like to know what equipment i would need to have to record a cd --btw i want to mix in my mandolin, accordion, and possibly a fiddle as well-thanks guys for any input. can i use a software program on my laptop to help out???

Herb Hunter · #2 04-29-2010, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smokeynichol

i play country gospel music using my guitar plugged in to a Marshall amp-would like to know what equipment i would need to have to record a cd --btw i want to mix in my mandolin, accordion, and possibly a fiddle as well-thanks guys for any input. can i use a software program on my laptop to help out???

We could be more helpful if we knew your budget. Since you ask about software, I'm assuming you have a PC as the Mac laptops come with software for recording. Audacity is a good, free, DAW (digital audio workstation) program downloadable here:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

In addition to the software you would need an audio interface (analog to digital converter) and a good microphone. Do you need the capability of recording several sources at once or would you record one instrument at a time, adding additional instruments one by one?

makikogi · #3 04-29-2010, 10:25 PM

Yes a budget will determine a lot of things. A couple other things would be good to know also; do you want to mix, edit and master your sessions yourself? or would you rather just send it to the studio?

If you want to learn how to do everything yourself I'd recommend going with an interface that comes with software, as that can get expensive depending on which one you choose. I think all presonus interfaces come with cubase. Can someone confirm this?

If you're planning on just sending it out to a professional studio for all that stuff, Pro Tools is the industry standard so you could get something like an mbox or digi003 (budget depending). Not that you HAVE to get a pro tools interface, as many studio's have other DAW software that they work with also, but I just suggested it cause I'm bias toward pro tools and if you get the interface, it comes with the software.

Fran Guidry · #4 04-30-2010, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makikogi

...
If you're planning on just sending it out to a professional studio for all that stuff, Pro Tools is the industry standard so you could get something like an mbox or digi003 (budget depending). Not that you HAVE to get a pro tools interface, as many studio's have other DAW software that they work with also, but I just suggested it cause I'm bias toward pro tools and if you get the interface, it comes with the software.

It sounds to me like you're saying that one must record in ProTools in order to edit in ProTools.

On the cost of recording software, with the progress Reaper http://www.cockos.com/reaper/index.php has made in the last year, high end recording software with powerful features, great community support http://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20 , and no hardware limitations is now available at a very reasonable price.

Fran

makikogi · #5 04-30-2010, 11:32 AM

ah allow me to clarify...technically you don't have to record with pro tools to edit with pro tools, you can always export your tracks to wav files from any recording DAW software, and insert them in your pro tools session, however you can't run pro tools without their hardware. So if you wanted to run another interface software program, might as well not even bother with pro tools. Technically you could show up with a bunch of wav files and have the studio insert them in whatever software they have (pro tools, dp, logic etc...) It would be nice if they're using the same software you have so they can just open up that session and not bother with importing every single wav file to tracks. Not that it takes THAT much time, but I'm sure the studio would consider it a huge time saver.