Some Studio Help

[wilconut]

Hey all

 

I am trying to equip my laptop(a new Gateway notebook) with a home studio.

 

I was wondering what I would need to do that? I don't want anything to fancy. I just want to be able to record vocals, a couple of guitar tracks, maybe a harmonica or keyboard, and then be able to mix that and to burn it.

 

What would I need to do that?

 

Thanks for all your help.

[mfwahl]

I'm not an expert on this, but I set up my friends stuff to do our demos. He owns and operates it when the whole band records. He has a soundcard that has four inputs and four outputs. He uses Cubase as the program to record onto. Then he has another program Wavelab to mix everything down to burn onto a cd. As far as how much disk space you'll need to do any of this I have no clue because we push his computer way beyond its capacity and it still has a huge hard drive. I've done recording on better computer systems and the biggest difference I noticed was a really good mixer, but our setup works fine without one. On my band's pages in my signature are songs that were all recorded with this setup. Check em out. I think they sound alright. We've made a good amount of grift money off of the tracks so they must sound pretty good. They're free on these pages. I don't grift on the infernets, yet.

[Guest cc2003btw]

It's mostly software, after that you need a mic input which if the laptops new, it must have. Install something like Cubase, Adobe Auditions is very good too. Then you need to decide how you're going to record the guitar parts. You can either go into your amp, then use either a D.I. or microphone that (about 10cm away from the speaker).

 

With acoustic recording it's a bit harder. If you have an Electro Acoustic then theres no problem, same as before. If not, then learn to play and stay still and stick the mic on a table or something.

 

Harmonicas are similar to the acoustic guitars without an amp, play about 30cm from the mic, and that should be ok.

 

Vocals are self explanative, straight into the pc or into an amp, and mic that up. Keyboards have a D.I.

 

Hope that helps.

[delmarkurt]

Hey all

 

I am trying to equip my laptop(a new Gateway notebook) with a home studio.

 

I was wondering what I would need to do that? I don't want anything to fancy. I just want to be able to record vocals, a couple of guitar tracks, maybe a harmonica or keyboard, and then be able to mix that and to burn it.

 

What would I need to do that?

 

Thanks for all your help.

 

Digidesign boxes w/ Pro Tools is the only way to go!

 

I own the Digi 002 Rack. It's great if you need to record multiple tracks at a time. If you only need record two tracks at a time try the Digi MBox 2. Info from Digidesign's web site is listed below:

 

Digi 002 Rack

[bxb03a]

If your computer has a firewire port I recommend the Presonus Firepod. Records 8 inputs simultaneously, comes with cubase LE. Blows the Mbox bullshit out of the water

[delmarkurt]

If your computer has a firewire port I recommend the Presonus Firepod. Records 8 inputs simultaneously, comes with cubase LE. Blows the Mbox bullshit out of the water

 

I agree. I own the digi 002 rack. It's much better then the Mbox

[tthcore]

Pt is the way to go, or cubase, they are both great. I have the Maudio Pre, looks just like the mbox, folks say the Pre has better pre amps. Now PT has the M-powered PT software, that is compatable with all Maudio boxes. Technology is the shit.

[squarewave]

I second (or third, whatever...) the recommendation for a firewire mic preamp box.

I don't have personal experience with the Pre-Sonus, but I have only heard good things about their gear.

 

Also, recording is very demanding on your resources, so shut down all of the bundled Gateway helper crap software that auto-boots on startup.

 

Better yet, buy a license for XP Pro and wipe the entire system and rebuild fresh to eliminate all of that add-on crap altogether. (You can't ues the Gateway build disc, because it has all of that crap on it.)

 

PS. I am typing this on a Gateway laptop, so that recommendation comes from personal experience...

[a.miller]

I just did a ton of research for a university paper on, you guessed it, designing a home studio. Trust me, bang for the buck: Mbox 2, 2 Shure SM57 microphones, and wah-lah. Mbox 2 comes with protools, which is a great recording software. Other than that, the more RAM you have in your computer, the merrier. That's my take on the whole thing.