Whats the best way to do home music recording?

Question

Im a home musician who is interested in recording some of my stuff. Its a little overwhelming with all the diffrent ways. I want some info on what the best way would be on a restricted budgedt (I dont need anything professional but I need it to be able to keep up with my multi track recording). Is a multi track recorderder better than an external box hooked up to my computer with softwere.? how about some insights

Answer 1

Well, I'm not exactly a musician, but you'll obviously need to start with multitrack software. Pretty much everything either wants some good cash or runs on Unix and Linux only. The Linux apps are pretty powerful, but NOT quite as good as commercial offerings. Here's a few free ones:

http://ubuntustudio.org/

Audacity

Jokosher

Arduor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fre...

You'll also need a sound card with balanced inputs and professional level DACs capable of recording high resolution audio without hiss. M-audio has some pretty affordable PCI solutions, as do other companies like e-mu.

A used mixing board may be helpful, and you'll also need cables and microphones. Monoprice for the cabling, and don't scrimp on your microphone(s).

Multitrack recorder boxes are pretty limited, if you were wondering, and usually have inferior fidelity. The digital kind tends to have a constraining interface unless you spend a tremendous amount of money to duplicate the home PC you already own. The analog kind is of course inherently stuck in a linear world without sound effect plugins other than those stuck in your line of sound during recording or mixdown.

Answer 2

use the apple program

Answer 3

I would need to know what your budget is.  There are more options than there are stars in the sky (well, I exaggerate) but if you want multi track recording you would be well served to get a program like Sonar - lite version.  They have bundles at Micro Center where you get a digital/audio converter (that you can plug your microphone cables into) and the Sonar program for like $450.  But that would assume you have a decent mic or two and XLR cables, guitar, percussion, cables for your guitar amp.  Recording music isn't necessarily cheap but if you invest some money into it you will not regret it.

I use Ableton 7 which is very pricey (750 for the full suite with synthesizers and MIDI instruments).  If you have an analog/digital converter with a MIDI in you can plug a keyboard in that has MIDI hookups and use the keyboard to generate a lot of different sounds.

I'd recommend scouring musician's friend or music 123 web sites for info - look up Sonar, Cubase, Ableton, Analog/digital converter.

Good luck.