Re: Home Recording

#1 · May 25, 2017, 10:43 am

Quote from Forum Archives on May 25, 2017, 10:43 am
Posted by: lone.rhino <lone.rhino@...>

We ended up picking up the Focusrite 2i4 (I got it from Adorama for a decent deal), and am trying out Reaper.

Basically, my son is the one playing with it, not me at this point in time. But for the price, you really cannot beat Reaper. $60 for a full featured DAW? Can't beat that.

The way I see it, I have MIDI, two tracks in and software for less than $200.

Real wold experience, Marc can fill you in with that, but this seems to fit the bill for getting started.

Bob

On Thu, May 25, 2017 at 7:37 AM, Bill Meyer <meyerwh@optonline.net> wrote:

I want to get a little more serious about home recording. Not necessarily professional quality, but I want to overdub bass and keyboards for practice tracks, composition and demos.

I have been using PreSounus and Audacity (just for export to mp3s). I have been thinking about Pro Tools, but it seems like a steep learning curve.

Any thoughts?

Bill Meyer
Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 1, 2016, at 12:31 PM, Marc Miller <prezbass@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh, man- you're in my wheelhouse now.

Interface- this is gonna depend mightily on how many channels you want to record at once, but regardless of that, I would suggest that you stay away from the following, as they are problematic for all platforms (Windows or Mac)

Presonus VSL series

Tascam US series

Anything by Line 6

Having said that, Focusrite makes great interfaces that are solid and not that expensive. Check out the 2i2 or the 2i4 (if you need MIDI) or the 18i20. VERY good stuff and easily found.

Now- effects. That's a whole bag of worms. I would suggest that you start out with Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software that comes with effects. There's a ton out there, but I would say start out with either Reaper (http://www.reaper.fm) or Presonus Studio One (http://www.presonus.com). Each of them have a ton of effects processors built in.

For your desktop computer, there's a couple things you really need to pay attention to:

RAM- you want at least 8GB to be able to record anything with a track count > 8 tracks.

Hard drive speed- this is where latency really becomes a big factor since audio is streamed from the hard disk. You need at least a 7200RPM mechanical drive, and an SSD is optimal.

Operating System- you want to use a 64 bit version of your operating system. The reason is that no matter how much RAM your system has, if you are running a 32-bit version, you only have access to a maximum of 3GB, PERIOD. There is no way around this, and that applies equally to Macs as well as PCs. Some people will tell you that there are hacks to get above 3GB, but that is not true, and those hacks will make your machine extremely unstable.8

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Posted by: lone.rhino <lone.rhino@...>

We ended up picking up the Focusrite 2i4 (I got it from Adorama for a decent deal), and am trying out Reaper.

Basically, my son is the one playing with it, not me at this point in time. But for the price, you really cannot beat Reaper. $60 for a full featured DAW? Can't beat that.

The way I see it, I have MIDI, two tracks in and software for less than $200.

Real wold experience, Marc can fill you in with that, but this seems to fit the bill for getting started.

Bob

On Thu, May 25, 2017 at 7:37 AM, Bill Meyer <meyerwh@optonline.net> wrote:

I want to get a little more serious about home recording. Not necessarily professional quality, but I want to overdub bass and keyboards for practice tracks, composition and demos.

I have been using PreSounus and Audacity (just for export to mp3s). I have been thinking about Pro Tools, but it seems like a steep learning curve.

Any thoughts?

Bill Meyer
Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 1, 2016, at 12:31 PM, Marc Miller <prezbass@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh, man- you're in my wheelhouse now.

Interface- this is gonna depend mightily on how many channels you want to record at once, but regardless of that, I would suggest that you stay away from the following, as they are problematic for all platforms (Windows or Mac)

Presonus VSL series

Tascam US series

Anything by Line 6

Having said that, Focusrite makes great interfaces that are solid and not that expensive. Check out the 2i2 or the 2i4 (if you need MIDI) or the 18i20. VERY good stuff and easily found.

Now- effects. That's a whole bag of worms. I would suggest that you start out with Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software that comes with effects. There's a ton out there, but I would say start out with either Reaper (http://www.reaper.fm) or Presonus Studio One (http://www.presonus.com). Each of them have a ton of effects processors built in.

For your desktop computer, there's a couple things you really need to pay attention to:

RAM- you want at least 8GB to be able to record anything with a track count > 8 tracks.

Hard drive speed- this is where latency really becomes a big factor since audio is streamed from the hard disk. You need at least a 7200RPM mechanical drive, and an SSD is optimal.

Operating System- you want to use a 64 bit version of your operating system. The reason is that no matter how much RAM your system has, if you are running a 32-bit version, you only have access to a maximum of 3GB, PERIOD. There is no way around this, and that applies equally to Macs as well as PCs. Some people will tell you that there are hacks to get above 3GB, but that is not true, and those hacks will make your machine extremely unstable.8

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