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Topic: PC-based Recording |
Jonathan Cullifer
From:
Gallatin, TN
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Posted 18 Mar 2000 7:48 pm |
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I am also trying to do the same thing. About the computer, you are not well off. A lot of devices still use a serial connection, but many new devices incorporate a USB connection. I reccommend something not on your list: Parallel, Serial, AND USB.
I am trying out different methods of me recording my steel playing. Here is what I have found:
- I am experimenting with direct input, in other words, going from my guitar to my amp and then using the "Pre Amp Out" jack to go into my computer. It was required that I purchase a 1/4"-headphone adapter in order to fit the mic jack on the computer. So far this has not worked, but I hope that it will eventually.
- MICing it seems to be the best thing so far. You can record your playing with background tracks--or whatever. Only problem is, you get lots of background noise. maybe someday they will figure out a cheap and easy way around it...
- I think what I will ultimately end up doing is letting my dad do the recording with is MiniDisk recorder (with a Sony stereo mic) and then using the output on that, go into the computer and record it that way. Very cean--less background noise and even better sound. I haven't tried this yet, but will let you know as soon as I do.
Best regards,
Jonathan
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"We get up at twelve and start to work at one, take an hour's lunch and then at two were done." |
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Ken Lang
From:
Simi Valley, Ca
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Posted 18 Mar 2000 7:52 pm
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I'm sure you will get lots of replys on this one. I have played with computer recording since last summer. A 4 gig hard drove will seem very small in a short time. Songs can take 10 and above megs of space. Hard and soft ware varies with what you are doing. In short, the bigger and faster stuff you can get the better. I have a P400 and so far OK. I would think a 350 would work to start your venture. I have no experience with notebooks so I'll leave that to someone else.
Ken |
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Dan Dowd
From:
Paducah, KY, R.I.P.
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Posted 19 Mar 2000 7:07 am
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| I have a Yamaha MD 8 Mini Disk recorder that allows me to record steel,vocals,etc and go to my computer. I sync the midi tracks to the recorder (actually the md8 controls the midi sync)that way I don't actually record the midi band until the mix is right. On playback I can adjust the levels of all the midi tracks and reverb of each track. I have a Ensoniq S5016 PCI Wave Table Sound Card which has a extra audio input on the card which was not part of the back plane in-outs. I bought another connector wire for a CD which had the correct female plug to match the teminals on the sound card, cut the other end off and soldered it to a stereo 1/4" jack. Drilled out one of the small vent holes in the back of the computer chassis and mounted the jack. I also use Cakewalk and Sound Forge to record from the MD8 and the midi tracks to Wave files which can be burned to a CD Recorder. This works great for me and I get some excellent results with this setup. |
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John Lacey
From:
Black Diamond, Alberta, Canada
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Posted 19 Mar 2000 11:57 am
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| Dan, I just rented a MD8 for a month to try it out and it's pretty cool. Russ, I thought about going the hard disk route, but with all of my recording pro friends getting crashes, it seemed a little chancy to me. I also have a fiddler friend who had done tons of projects in his house on a Roland VS-1680. He's madly in love with it and his product sounds just great. It's just a little too pricey for me. I think that this MD-8 might be a keeper. I haven't synced it up to MIDI yet but it looks good. Very well written manual and short learning curve. |
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Ron Turner
From:
California, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2000 12:57 pm
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| I recommend a much larger hard drive. I do a lot of computer recording. I have 28 gigs of hard drive space, 128 MB RAM, and 450 mhz. I built this computer for approx. $1000.00. I also recommend having a small 4 track mixing board to run through before going direct to your sound card line in. I also highly recommend Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, so you can record your MIDI and audio together. It also allows you to save your files in a way so they can easily be backed up. Cakewalk can get pricy. It's around $300.00. I back up all my files to CD. I think this is the least expensive way to go for all that you get. Make sure your sound card is a good one and that it can play and record at the same time. Creative Sound Blaster has some great sounding cards out there for around $99.00. |
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Dan Tyack
From:
Olympia, WA USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2000 4:15 pm
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I have a hard disk recording setup, and one thing that you should know is that you really shouldn't plan on doing anything else with the computer other than audio. THe ideal, from the manufacturer of the software, is for you to install absolutely no other software on the computer. At minimum you can't have anything else running while you are doing any audio work (e.g. have a connection to the internet up, have a mail program or word or whatever up). Also, many manufactures will tell you to disable that super fancy graphics board you bought (so much for playing games on this machine). This isn't really the fault of any of the software, there are just a lot of 'real time' issues with audio. Anything that can interrupt the audio software while it is doing something can screw things up.
THis makes buying the standalone recorder a lot more cost effective.....
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www.tyacktunes.com |
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RickRichtmyer
From:
Beautiful Adamstown, MD
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Posted 20 Mar 2000 7:21 am
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| Quote: |
| I've been 'tossing the coin' as whether to go for PC-based or 'self-contained' digital recording - |
Well, this is about as big a can of worms as the push/pull vs all pull thing, but I would clearly vote for (especially for a non-technical computer user) the standalone hard-disk recorder. I have a Roland VS-880 Expanded, which was Roland's first entry into the hard drive recording market (it's now "obselete" but still a great piece of equipment). Even though, I'm fairly computer savvy and built my own from scratch, in fact maybe because I'm fairly computer savvy, I rejected PC (or MAC) based systems as too expensive, too unstable, and not portable enough for my needs. I've had the VS-880 for about three years and never has it crashed.
The major complaint about Roland stuff os that the manuals are terrible (your really need a good manual as these machines are fairly complicated for the new user to learn. However, there are several forums similar to this one and there are scads of people who've learned the lessons and are always ready to help. One such forum is at VS-Planet. Both b0b and I wander over there now and then.
There's also an excellent Video Users' Guide put out by Roland. It's a lot more informative than the manual.
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Rick Richtmyer
users.erols.com/rickrichtmyer
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Jerry Gleason
From:
Eugene, Oregon, USA
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Posted 20 Mar 2000 12:07 pm
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Ok, I'll weigh in from the Macintosh side of the room. Dan says that you can't use your PC for much else than digital audio or you can expect problems. I know things are different in the Wintel world, but I have a Mac G3 that I use for everything you can imagine, from digital audio & MIDI to digital photographic work with multiple scanners, internet, you name it. Of course, it makes sense to do only one task at a time, especially if that task involves digital audio recording or CD burning.
I use ProTools software for audio recording, and it works great. I use Cakewalk's Metro for MIDI and some audio. Both programs do audio and MIDI, but ProTools is defintely better for audio and Metro is better for MIDI.
Admittedly, this is hobbist level stuff, I'm just using the Mac's built-in 16-bit DA converters, no fancy sound card, but that's still "CD quality" and it's good enough for now.
It's not very expensive to get software to utilize a computer's built-in cabilities (at least what's built in to a Macintosh), and it's nice to be able to do digital recording at home, but I have to agree that a stand-alone recorder is a better way to go if your idea is to buy a computer for the main purpose of audio recording. Recording on a computer has many practical problems in a home system, such as having to be in close proximty to it, which means you can pick up hum from the monitor, or mics can pick up fan noise, and you can't just move to another room if the drums can't be isolated in your home studio space, and on and on.
A computer is a great (and sometimes necessary) accessory for some digital audio processing, mastering CD's and such, but for a home studio, a dedicated multi-track recorder is a better way to spend your money, IMHO. |
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Ken Lang
From:
Simi Valley, Ca
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Posted 20 Mar 2000 7:13 pm
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Guess I'll have to pop in one more time just to relay my situation. While I have no games on my computer, I do have autocad (96 MGB), cakewalk v8 and v9, band in the box, and various other small programs. It's a pentium II 400, 64 meg mem, 10 gb hard drive.
I have not had a problem with other programs causing problems. I have been on the net and run cakewalk at the same time with out a problem (yet). I would agree that the ideal would be to have a dedicated computer for music, but don't let that dissuade you from the great experience available to you.
The digital stand alones may be great, and if I needed to be portable I would buy one in a heartbeat; however the number of tracks are limited. While I have yet to use all of them, just the capability of 256 tracks is mind boggling. To each his own, and I'm sure you'll be happy with whatever you choose when you see what digital can do.
Ken |
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