I'm new, well going to be .

[katsumura78]

I want to start making a recording set up. I know I want to buy a mac book pro but what do I do after that. What software do I need or is easy and good to use. Studio monitors ? Do I need them . heck I have no idea to tell you the truth. Just kinda want some advice on where to start and what to get to start. Thanks.

Dave

 

[Animeka]

N00b here too... From the research I've done, first figure out what you want to record That'll tell you which kind of interface/device you need to do your recording. I bought an Apogee Duet and a Shure SM57 microphone to record the guitar amp. We record drums with a Roland V-Drum and I also have an m-audio keyboard controller for the rest.

That's good enough for me. Not planning on doing anything professional, but I wanted something more than decent to do some home stuff for fun.

Marc

 

[mr_fender]

If you're on a tight budget, stay away from Macs. PC's are cheaper, and there's a lot more software available for PC (which is also often cheaper too). Don't believe anyone that tells you that Macs are "better" for audio (or graphics). Both have their pros and cons, and neither is more capable than the other. That said, dollar for dollar, PC's will usually outperform macs. Some just prefer one over the other, and that's cool.

What equipment you will need depends largely on what you want to record. How many instruments will you need to record at once? Acoustic instruments? Vocals? The desired quality of the finished product will determine how much you can expect to spend. If your just laying down some quick demos or projects for fun, you can probably get by pretty cheap. If you want to cut flawless, pro studio quality albums, get ready to lay down some serious cash.

There are A LOT of options out there, so first narrow down what you want to be able to do.

 

[katsumura78]

Alright sounds good. Well I know it might sound strange but I'm planning to get a pc a fairly good one for games and then a mac so I at least have the option to use whichever I feel is better for me when it comes to the software part of it all. As far as what I want to record I guess I would be micing my guitar up and maybe doing some vocals . Drums I would rather use a halfway decent drum software thing if they got em. I hear everyone and their mom has pro tools well at least all the big bands seem to. Is it a lot of money and does it have different versions like maybe a cheaper one and then a super expensive one. This will be a hobby in the end but I do want whatever I record to come out sounding better than a crap demo you would get from like a battle of the bands in a small town if you know what I mean. Hope this helps in helping me and others in the same boat.

Dave

 

[dmt]

I was in the same boat a while back, and I <i>did</i> go out and buy a mac because my main PC died a horrible death. I got sick of reformatting ever 3 months, and dealing with all the regular BS that comes with PC's. So i went and I got a mac. All of the new macs are based on a Unix Kernel, as opposed to the NT Kernel, meaning superior stability. Plus I like the design... they are however highly overpriced.

As for recording software, I started using Logic Pro 8, and its pretty intuitive. Garage Band sucks, so don't even bother with it. There are other alternatives to high priced recording software such as Audacity. I used to use Cooledit Pro 2.1 on he pc, which was quite flexible, however basic and a bit outdated. It has since been bought up by adobe and renamed Adobe Audition. Its basically the same thing. For PC I like Cooledit Pro since its very lightweight.

I haven't gotten a interface yet, but I plan on getting the Presonus Firestudio. 8 nutrik inputs (xlr and 1/4) and 8 1/4 outs. You can string them together and get up to 24 channels inpunt. Not too bad.

.02$

 

[mr_fender]

I... cough, cough... "acquired" a copy of Sonar 7 Producer edition, and it's great. Protools is really nice too, but I don't like the hardware specific nature of it. I like the fact that Sonar will work just fine with even a crappy windows PC soundcard, but can also take full advantage of huge digital consoles and the like. As long as you have good drivers, Sonar doesn't care what hardware you have. With my M-Audio Fast Track Pro, I get great sound quality and practically zero latency.

Cough, Cough, Bittorrent, Cough, Cough... :wink:

 

[burnstudios]

I would stay away from a mac for recording... When you get a mac you really limit yourself to what hardware and software you can run... There are alot more interfaces / sequencers now a days made for pc's....

New macs are all Intel based systems... Guess what? Im running an Intel Core 2 Duo Q6600 and bumped it up to 3.2ghz ( which is very easy to do ) even at stock it will do everything you need to do.. I also use this box for recording and gaming .. Yeah it pulls double duty... ( 2x 8800GT in sli )

Building a pc to record with will be much cheaper and give you more money to spend on mics/preamps and interfaces.


Macs do not sound any better for recording
Whatever a mac can do a pc can do, and do it faster.
if you patch your machine all up with the latest drivers and updates you will have no problems.. I never get blue screens or crashes.


Mr Fender... using pirated software is not cool.. all this does is jack up the prices for people who have to legit copies of said softwares.

 

[mr_fender]

Agreed on the Macs. PC is the way to go.

As for the software, a purchase is in the works. I always buy the stuff I really like and use a lot. I recently dropped almost $200 for a Photoshop CS3 upgrade - ouch! Most of the pirated stuff out there is incomplete and buggy anyway.

 

[burnstudios]