What Would You Reccommend

[Steven]

In the past Ive been fortunate enough to have worked in a couple of professional studios with engineers and producers, but it was never on my dime, and I was always just "the singer..."

I have studio access now but its a bit complicated, and its time I grew up and started learning some of this techie related stuff myself so that I can get work done at home in between my wildly fluctuating schedule.

so my goals are twofold:

ease of use

ease of pocketbook pain.

yes I know you cant have it all but we can dream cant we?

Ive been looking at Digitech floor processors, cubase, alesis workstations, etc etc etc....all that shits greek to me. Bottom line is that I want to find an affordable way to create good quality recorded product, not demo product, but product product.

so what do y'all reccomend ????

[Der Nister]

I don't know what your money situation is or how much you're willing to spend but here's my 2 cents....

I recomend that you find an affordable system for your pc to get things recorded and then take it to a studio and have it produced by someone to bring the sound quality up to standards.

This process worked for me. I used sonicfoundry Acid pro 4 to get my songs together on my pc and then took all the songs to someone else and they ran the tracks through their system and the results are just too awesome imo.

The reason I used acid pro is because it's user friendly and super easy to become familar with but again, I was also working on a tight budget. Now that doesn't mean that the program is not any good. Actually it is comparable to pro tools. You can record straight in via your sound card and take it from there. It is a really good place to start.

[Steven]

thank you dood! I will look into that.

are you mic'ing your instruments or pluggin in directly somehow?

[Fierce Critter]

Hmm. Instrument plug-in is an important piece of information people need to know to make suggestions.

For instance, I was going to recommend Cubase right off the bat. It's the package I'm using now, and I love it. Once you dive into your first project, the learning should come quickly, and I'm willing to help you get to know the ropes a bit.

But I'm using it strictly with VST instruments - no live instruments at all. So that'll be up to someone more experienced to recommend.

I will add, however, that if you're going to use real instruments, you're going to need go-betweens to get from instrument to PC without sound loss. For instance, In order to add vocals, I got an M-Audio FastTrack, a gadget that allows you to go from Mic to USB port without sound loss. Still, without the right sound card and a good mic, I had a lot of noise that I had to work out with filters & compression & other manipulation.

It'll take more than just software. You'll need something like that FastTrack, and a decent sound card.

[Der Nister]

thank you dood! I will look into that.

are you mic'ing your instruments or pluggin in directly somehow?

Welcome.

Actually I run everything through an old guitar processor to have better control over the signal. Plus this offers me more effects to get the sounds I desire (i.e. more strange synth sounds ect.) and then I can edit things in digital. Using this set up also offers a great advantage of not having to repeat my performances, what I mean is I can cut and paste certain parts if I want/need to which saves time and eliminates the headache of old school recording (i.e. meesing up a take and having to redo it all over again).

If you can't afford to buy this program brand new just send me a p.m. and I'll see what I can do for you.

[Steven]

I've got a very good Sure condensor Mic thats good for recording or live performance if youve got phantom power.

and yeah you were answering my other question since I didint know - if the instruments on the software were virtual instruments or if you were playing them yourself. I'm a shitty player but im good enough to lay down basic chord structures if I watch my timing and I often work our riffs on my own that I could record, because I like to build songs off of riffs. so yes thats the approach I would go with, a more organic thing, drums however would have to be programmed.....

[Der Nister]

If you are a good at playing the basic part whether it be on guitar or keys or whatever the case is then as long as you get the tempo and the main riff correct then you can just copy/paste.

As far as drums go, what I do is I just find a drum loop to keep time so I can get the other parts together and then I go back, remove the drum loop and then construct the drums from scratch. By that I mean I use drum sounds like a seperate snare, kick, ect. and build a drum part that sounds like a real person and not some cheesy loop (sorry drum loop fans) because I like to throw in snare fills and kick fills.

So all you would have to do after getting the program is just learn the basic functions (it took me a few weeks) and then you'll be off and running. And like I mentioned before - acid pro is almost like Pro tool and PT is a very expensive program but acid pro is inexpensive and the quality you get is very similar.

[Steven]

Welcome.

Actually I run everything through an old guitar processor to have better control over the signal. Plus this offers me more effects to get the sounds I desire (i.e. more strange synth sounds ect.) and then I can edit things in digital. Using this set up also offers a great advantage of not having to repeat my performances, what I mean is I can cut and paste certain parts if I want/need to which saves time and eliminates the headache of old school recording (i.e. meesing up a take and having to redo it all over again).

If you can't afford to buy this program brand new just send me a p.m. and I'll see what I can do for you.

thank you everybody for all of the help, this has been great.

ok then from what yrou sayign Nister - this is why I was originally looking at a Digitech floor processor, because apparently I can utilyze the guitar and bass presets for sounds I like (Im pretty basic though on guitar sounds that I like) and I can record onto it - and then apparently dump it into my computer and then use the recording software on the computer to cut/paste/edit, whatever.

I think you can even record vocals right onto the gsx but I have no idea about the sound quality....as a singer, quality of vocals is uber important to me as that is always the focal point of the song - how satisfied have you guys been with sound quality on Vox? I dont like to wet my vocals too much....a bit of compression and barely any dely or reverb....I work hard to use my voice as my instrument and phrasing and articulation are really important to me.....

[Der Nister]

The vocals vary and with experimentation you'll be able to figure out what works best as far as recording them goes.

I like different effects for different songs so it depends.