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What are the basic things that I need to do computer recording?

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anonymous Sat, 11/18/2006 - 14:30

Go to the Forum index and select:

"DAW's and Computing" and/or "Digital Audio Recording"

You're question is way too open ended for anyone to answer.

What do you have now? What do you want to accomplish?
How many tracks do you want to record at a time?

It's vague, but you'll need:
decent sound card
monitors
multi-track recording software
sufficient hard-drive space and memory

Check out those other forums and read through the threads.

anonymous Sat, 11/18/2006 - 15:04

I have a IBM thinkpad with 256mb of memory and 40gb of hard drive running on Windows 98 with a cd burner. I have FL Studio, Auda City and Pro tools with a Behringer mic, mic filter, mic stand a keyboard, headphone and a four track. I am in the proces of starting a reacording label and I will like be able to make clear sounding music. I want be able to make 20 tracks at a time

anonymous Sat, 11/18/2006 - 15:05

I have a IBM thinkpad with 256mb of memory and 40gb of hard drive running on Windows 98 with a cd burner. I have FL Studio, Auda City and Pro tools with a Behringer mic, mic filter, mic stand a keyboard, headphone and a four track. I am in the proces of starting a reacording label and I will like be able to make clear sounding music. I want be able to make 20 tracks at a time

anonymous Sat, 11/18/2006 - 21:07

hey, let's not be jerks about it. Some of the stuff i love that i created came when I was just starting out putting a 1/4in from my guitar to 1/8in into my computer's mic input.

Everybody on here knows that you have to start somewhere and as soon as you get a taste for it, all you want to do is record something.

ODT-

you don't have the gear necessary to form a label. but you do have the gear to get started, and record some of the musicians that you know that will appreciate your free services as you get on your feet and buy better gear. Recording is all about the learning curves you will encounter along the way. It's a science, but it's also an art. Everybody on this board is still learning, and that is why recording is so addictive.

happy recording.

also, if you like FL, you might want to go the sony website and download acid pro 6 demo. It's fully fuctional for 30 days and you can decide if you like it. It's loop based, so you can build tracks with the instruments that you don't have at your disposal, then use the multi-track features to start learning computer recording with a DAW (digital audio workstation).

peace

anonymous Sun, 11/19/2006 - 04:24

>>you don't have the gear necessary to form a label<<

On the contrary.

A Label has NOTHING whatsoever to do with having a recording studio. A Label is ONLY a business entity which markets music in one shape or another.

A laptop such as ODT described can run the business software necessary to start and run a label.

As far as recording is concerned, the laptop as described won't work well at all for a variety of reasons (older OS, no separate drive for music, NOT enough RAM, etc...). Also, much of the newer software won't run properly unless a system actually EXCEEDS the min. requirements.

So, you definitely can start a LABEL with yuor laptop but, you won't be able to use it for music recording effectively as it will have too many limitations.

Scoobie Sun, 11/19/2006 - 11:15

If you think that was being a jerk , You sure haven't been around much.
What I read was funny.........ProTools and a Behringer mic, ...................
Now thats funny, I don't care who you are. I know some people that would die to see those two words in the same sentence.

I'm with Digit on this.........A lable has nothing to do with a recording studio.

Peace.............Scoobie

Scoobie Sun, 11/19/2006 - 13:54

You would have to pick the recording software you wanted to use first. To find out what their requirements are. I would think you'd need a computer with a newer OS for sure. The software company you pick for your needs will have a requirement to run their software.

You have to think about what interface you want to use also. They have requirments too. Chip sets on the motherboard has alot to do with how a DAW runs also.

Peace.................Scoobie

anonymous Sun, 11/19/2006 - 15:12

these are the programs that i plan to get
FL STUDIO
Windows 95/98/Millenium/2000/XP
Latest version of DirectX and DirectX-supported video & soundcard recommended
30 MB free disk space
Minimum Pentium II processor required; Pentium III processor or higher recommended
16 MB memory required; 64 MB memory or higher recommended

Croakus Mon, 11/20/2006 - 13:01

I once started a record label with an Akai four track mini casette recorder and a harmonica microphone. Our first artist was a little known fellow named Andre Young. You probably know him as "Doctor Dre."

We used to record 40 tracks at once using that setup. We would add the samples during mix down to my mother's Walkman.

I'll tell you a little secret. It's all in the EQ.

Scoobie Mon, 11/20/2006 - 17:03

When Sgt Pepper was recorded, was when 8 track recorders didn't even exist. They were just starting to make them in 1967.

They used 4 ....4- track's to get 16 tracks in 1967. Ping them all down to one bad ass 2-track for master. On some massive Swiss made 1" 4-track tape machine. At Abby Road Studio.

Read about that along time ago.

Peace................Scoobie

Croakus Tue, 11/21/2006 - 08:57

Actually, the Akai 4 track really was my first exposure to recording. I borrowed that and a couple SM58 mics from my guitar teacher and recorded all my originals at the time. On a couple I bounced the tracks and layered guitar, bucket percussion, and some harmony vocals. I printed up J cards and made tapes under the name, "Bayou Self Productions." The name seemed funny at the time.

To be honest, it probably sounded better than the junk I do on my computer today.

RemyRAD Tue, 11/21/2006 - 09:19

ODT_ENT, I don't know how you expect to be a recording engineer/producer, label mogul, when you aren't listening to anything that people are telling you here??

Your old laptop is now your business computer. It is completely inappropriate and insufficient to utilize for audio recording purposes on a professional scale.

What you need to do is go out and purchase yourself a new dual core AMD/Intel machine and order 2GB of RAM!

Your operating system will be Windows XP Pro. Forget about VISTA. It's not ready for prime time yet and won't be for another year to come.

You cannot run Pro tools, unless you have an audio interface already designed to run with Pro tools, otherwise you are lying about having Pro tools and if you're not lying, you can't run ProTools anyhow? And you don't really know what you have? Which will necessitate a purchase of some real audio software such as Sony's Vegas, Magix Samplitude, Adobe Audition and if you happen to purchase an "M-Audio" audio interface that is ProTools compatible, it may even come bundled with ProToolsLE.

So bottom line, be prepared to shell out approximately $2000 for your new laptop and audio interface. Then you can start to think about making recordings in a professional manner, after you purchase microphones, headphones, cables, speakers, etc.?

Can you hear me now?? Good.
Ms. Remy Ann David