I'm going to start off with a side note so folks don't have to read my drivel to get to this important fact : If you have a PC you can get into this now, for free, by downloadingReaper, checking out some Reaper tutorial vids on Youtube (there are lots of good ones) and start laying down drum, bass and instrument tracks down immediately from that package. There has never been a better time to get into this. What cost tens of thousands of $$$$ to do fifteen years ago is now available from free.
I started playing guitar in the '80s. For the last ten years or so I've had a strat, but never picked it up. Last time I did any recording it was in the stone age, before PCs, when it was all hardware and getting any kind of decent sound meant spending many thousands $$$. It suddenly occurred to me last week that I wanted to do some recording on my own.
I am as green to doing this as a new born babe. What I'm about to lay down is just what I've read the last couple of days. I have zero, zip, zilch, nil experience. I'm sure folks can offer better advice and correct me on things. But maybe I can pique your interest, let you know what's needed and lay down some of the options.
For me I just want to set a drum pattern down, play a little bass, rhythm and lead and put some dogged awful singing on top of it. For you it might be rapping or hip hop. It might be you fancy putting a pod cast together.
Now I found a few guides but I also found that the software (especially) and the hardware is evolving so quickly that most of them are out of date in one part or another.
The first decision is are you going to use hardware or software. Do you want a physical mixing desk, a hybrid or are you taking the software approach. We know PCs, we like music, so the first decision for me was easy - software. Software also allows much easier, more flexible and more powerful editing. It can also be lots cheaper. The hardware approach is all but dead when there is a choice - it is still useful if you have to, for example, record something while you are out and about, but then the best idea is to take it back and transfer what you have recorded onto the software for editing.
The things we need which we hadn't considered before are :
1)A physical audio interface.Something to plug in your microphone/guitar/MIDI into that interfaces with your PC. Though if you just want to put some drum and bass down you can do without this.
Using an audio interface also means you need a couple of things to plug directly into it - largely due to the problem of sound delay caused by CPU processing sound - as well as a microphone and any instruments :
i) Headphones;
ii) Monitor (speaker(s)).
2) A Digital Audio Workstation.The software. Everyone needs this. This is like 'the motherboard' of your operation. Part of its GUI can look like a Mixer desk but it is oh so much more than this. It's kind of like a virtual mixer board that you can plug in literally hundreds of apps and thousands of tools into. Most, though, come with a range of their own sampled instruments and tools so you can start composing as soon as this is installed. They all have trial or free condensed version. Above that most have price points for different levels of the software package.
I started playing guitar in the '80s. For the last ten years or so I've had a strat, but never picked it up. Last time I did any recording it was in the stone age, before PCs, when it was all hardware and getting any kind of decent sound meant spending many thousands $$$. It suddenly occurred to me last week that I wanted to do some recording on my own.
I am as green to doing this as a new born babe. What I'm about to lay down is just what I've read the last couple of days. I have zero, zip, zilch, nil experience. I'm sure folks can offer better advice and correct me on things. But maybe I can pique your interest, let you know what's needed and lay down some of the options.
For me I just want to set a drum pattern down, play a little bass, rhythm and lead and put some dogged awful singing on top of it. For you it might be rapping or hip hop. It might be you fancy putting a pod cast together.
Now I found a few guides but I also found that the software (especially) and the hardware is evolving so quickly that most of them are out of date in one part or another.
The first decision is are you going to use hardware or software. Do you want a physical mixing desk, a hybrid or are you taking the software approach. We know PCs, we like music, so the first decision for me was easy - software. Software also allows much easier, more flexible and more powerful editing. It can also be lots cheaper. The hardware approach is all but dead when there is a choice - it is still useful if you have to, for example, record something while you are out and about, but then the best idea is to take it back and transfer what you have recorded onto the software for editing.
The things we need which we hadn't considered before are :
1)A physical audio interface.Something to plug in your microphone/guitar/MIDI into that interfaces with your PC. Though if you just want to put some drum and bass down you can do without this.
Using an audio interface also means you need a couple of things to plug directly into it - largely due to the problem of sound delay caused by CPU processing sound - as well as a microphone and any instruments :
i) Headphones;
ii) Monitor (speaker(s)).
2) A Digital Audio Workstation.The software. Everyone needs this. This is like 'the motherboard' of your operation. Part of its GUI can look like a Mixer desk but it is oh so much more than this. It's kind of like a virtual mixer board that you can plug in literally hundreds of apps and thousands of tools into. Most, though, come with a range of their own sampled instruments and tools so you can start composing as soon as this is installed. They all have trial or free condensed version. Above that most have price points for different levels of the software package.
