Making music on my PC

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Back in the day, I had a 4-track, guitars, keyboards, drum machine and FX. I wrote and recorded a lot of crap songs, and had a jolly good time.

Fast forward fifteen years, and I've just bought a new PC which should be powerful enough to get man to Mars, let alone rekindle my lo-fi big-band dreams.

What software and hardware do I actually need to recreate (and go beyond) the basic set up that I used to have? Do I just need a microphone and Microsoft's Mediocre Indie Band Maker 2006?

― Marcel Gallingez (Marcel Gallingez), Thursday, 12 January 2006 16:27 (twenty years ago)

DL a pirate copy of Sonar 4, get an MAudio 24/96 soundcard, and a cheap ass behringer eurorack mixer with the 2 XLR inputs. you will be set.

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 12 January 2006 16:32 (twenty years ago)

yeah, basically, that's all you need (i use orion which i DL, an edirol UU20 soundcard and a behringer mixer). just make sure you take a good mic.

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 12 January 2006 17:20 (twenty years ago)

One thing you have to watch out for when recording on a PC is latency - the playback track and the track you're recording get out of sync due to the multi-task interrupt nature of PCs. You want a dedicated sound card with asynchronous I/O. Some people get mixed results with USB interfaces, depends on your hardware config. But I second the Edirol and M-Audio suggestions, they make good stuff.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile192-main.html

People seem to like the MOTU 828 as well but that's something you probably want to work your way up to. A good preamp is also nice to have: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/DMP3-main.html

There are tons of recording software out there, Cubase and n-Track are cheap, Cakewalk, Vegas, Cool Edit Pro are $300+. Audacity is a decent piece of free recording software to get your feet wet.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

I highly recommend this forum:
http://homerecording.com/bbs/index.php

TapeOp messageboard is back up now as well...
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 12 January 2006 17:40 (twenty years ago)

Don't forget protools free http://www.digidesign.com/ptfree/

paired with an input interface of some kind, ptfree can give you like 8 or more tracks and tons of pro tools' functionality for free. I don't know if this is an older version (I used it long ago) but still, can't beat the price.

― twoblackeyes (twoblackeyes), Thursday, 12 January 2006 22:05 (twenty years ago)

Ask at the I Make Music board!

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/newanswers.php?board=12

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:40 (twenty years ago)

PT free is windows 98 only

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:43 (twenty years ago)

ableton live is teh one!
pirate copies are around

― nique (nique), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:05 (twenty years ago)

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