im wanting to sort out a small simple setup idealy on a laptop, just wondering what other people use.

so whats your.....
computer spec?
hard drive?
sound card?
mics?
midi?
speakers/monitoring?
software? recording, mixing, mastering etc.
anything else...

also what do you get upto with it?

cheers

Not 100% sure on my setup...but...

computer spec? Dual Core AMD Processor, 2gig of ram
hard drive? over a Terrabyte
sound card? Delta 66
mics? Shurre SM58
midi? never used it
speakers/monitoring? Luckily I was a home cinema geek before music geek, so I have some Monitor Audio Studio 12 speakers which cost a bomb and sound amazing. Also some very nice gold plated studio headphones (forget the brand/model number) that cost about £150
software? recording, mixing, mastering etc. Cool Edit & Pro Tools (not got to use Pro Tools just yet)
anything else...I've got something called Omni Studio that takes all the inputs I need for my equipment....again its not fully functional yet as i'm getting myself confused with all the options!

Don't forget a mic stand and pop shield for the vocals.

also what do you get upto with it?
www.myspace.com/fusion25music <--- this is what i'm getting upto

do you use an external hard drive. im hearing firewire interfaces are better than usb ones for music. have you head anything/have an opinion

I have a couple of 500gig external hard drives that I use for films/games etc but use my internal 300gig for my music at mo, will prob shift to external as files get larger and larger....but I've not had any experience in storing them on an external and the possible draw backs.

I don't see a potential problem except for maybe loading time into your editing software?

I'm having to get a mate around to try and help me with my setup as i'm struggling to get it all working together since I upgraded to M-Audio soundcard and Pro Tools...then I have the fun of teaching myself pro tools.

i posted this same thread on the harmony central forum and got a good reply that may be interesting for other people wanting to get in to home recording........

""""First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076... ooks&v=glance
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)
You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Guit...5734124&sr=1-1
(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!)

Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!!

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics and have good tips:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/..._beginner_pdfs
http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig: http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books: http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) not quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Here's a good guide and suggestions: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards...ome_studio.htm


Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)
Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\
Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com/smm

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)
I use Reaper and highly reccomend it...

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($25) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full FREE studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they gave away SamplitudeV9SE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)"""

I'm the opposite of a computer geek...so I know nothing!

computer spec? A cheapo Fujitsu laptop
hard drive? ?
sound card? standard that came with it...
mics? Cheapo Shure PG 58
midi? nTrack Studio
speakers/monitoring? Creative Audigy jobbies
software? recording, mixing, mastering etc.

nTrack studio cheap as chips at about $35 or something but does everything I need

It really depends on what you want to do. You can achieve an awful lot with very little these days. I personally find Mac to be a much better platform for it, and they come equipped for entry level music production out of the box.

I don't really make computer based music, as such; I just use my computers as a means for demoing ideas, making cover songs for fun, and working on my playing and writing skills. I use a 2.15 GHz dual core Apple iMac with 2GB RAM and 250GB HD, and a 2 GHz MacBook with 1GB RAM and 80GB HB. Until recently, I ran my guitar straight into the back of whichever computer happened to be handy, and used Apple's GarageBand software with an Amplitube guitar amp emulator. I've just recently upgraded to Apple's Logic Express 8, with EZ Drummer for the drum parts. I still run my guitar straight into the computer, and alternate between Amplitube and Logic's Guitar Amp Pro. Monitor through good quality Senheisser headphones and, occasionally, my regular stereo (Marantz amp and Kef speakers).

This lot covers everything I need, and really isn't expensive. Incidentally, there's no perceptible latency when live monitoring my guitar signal through GarageBand or Logic, even when running Amplitube and/or a number of other effects, i.e. there's no need for an additional sound card (unless you want to record multiple instruments simultaneously or need XLR inputs).

ffffffffffffffff

i love it, well lo.fi ! who needs i macs...

Luckily, I can afford two portable tape recorders. I record one track (say drums) on the first, and then play that recording whilst playing along with what will be the next track, (let's say guitar), and record both simultaneously on the second tape recorder. This is called multi-tracking and you can repeat this for as many tracks as you need. Careful with those volume controls! You don't want to drown out one track by over doing it with another. Of course this is where practise and expertise comes into it. It certainly isn't what I'd call professional quality, but it's good for any 'demo', and although it sounds complicated, it really is quite simple if you understand the technology.
Glad to be of help, sadboy.

I have a 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo MacBook with 2Gb DDR2 Ram. I plug my bass/guitar into an M-Audio Solo which records onto Garageband

just been messing around with the two tape machine idea from sadboy. lots of fun!

Not sure if you mean video or audio. Dont do video recording as such but for audio i have a Dell inspiron 1720 with 2.00GB @ 2.17GHz and Intel Core 2 Duo to run Reason 4 and an Edirol interface with an M -Audio Oxygen 61 keyboard controller also use Audacity for recording audio into my reason tunes.

Sony Vaio laptop (only single core at mo but 2 Gb DDR2 RAM)
M-Audio Solo soundcard (FireWire)
Ext 500Gb H/D

Cubase (#) / Stylus RMX / Ableton / Acid / Sound Forge

Fender Jazz bass / dated Roland keyboard.
Millions of samples. :|

(#) - still my favourite, right from the old Atari ST days !!

A bog standard PC, a Tascam portastudio, a cheap Les Paul copy (accoustic pickup fitted) and an SM58.
Samples on my homepage:- jeestring.co.uk

Phil

My recording set up is very basic but I like it - a 4 track cassette tape recorder. I generally record in the following sequence - rhythm on track 1, main keyboard track 2, extra keyboard sounds track 3, vocal track 4. It is important to get the recording level set exactly right when recording each track, ie too low and you get background noise, too high and you get distortion. Having recorded all 4 tracks, I then connect the tape recorder to the computer soundcard and use Audacity to convert it to .wav format followed by conversion to MP3.

I currently use a PC with an AMD Athlon 2600, 512Mb Ram, 320Gb external hard drive and dual display, Reason 4 with a Behringer BCF2000 control surface and a Kork Mono/Poly M midi controller keyboard. USB creative soundcard and Phillips speakers. Just ordered an M-Audio 192 card because I want to start recording live guitar onto tracks rather than using a limited quantity of samples. I have got Cubase and Pro-Tools but don't use them that often since most of my music is sequenced dance and electonica

My recording set up consists of two pebbles, which i bash together repeatly and record the results on the voicemail of my mobile phone.

My recording set up consists of two pebbles, which i bash together repeatly and record the results on the voicemail of my mobile phone.

I didn’t think you were into Rock!

I also thought you dismissed Pebble players as self indulgent and if the need came up for their distinctive sound on a song you used Steinberg’s Virtual Pebble??

My recording set up consists of two pebbles, which i bash together repeatly and record the results on the voicemail of my mobile phone.

sounds amazing. you should upload the results onto your myspace! better yet a whole new page dedicated to just to that, you could call yourselves 'the flintstones'

I'm on an Athlon dual core 2.4Ghz, 2GB Ram, 500GB 7200rpm SATA drive
Audio Interface: Saffire Pro 40
Mics: SM58,SM57,SE2000,RODE NT1A,SE4a
Midi controllers: Remote 91SL, Akai MPD42, BCF2000
Synths/grooveboxes: Novation A Station, Yamaha AN200, Korg ESX
Pres: Art TubeMP V3
FX: DBX266XL Compressor, Lexicon MX200, Electrix FilterFactory
Other: Lin6 Toneport, 2x Behringer PX2000 patchbay
Instr: Bongos :P, Yamaha Pacifica guitar (badly out of tune, I just use it for some interesting fx), Yamaha DGX620 Electric Grand

.........................................yes it's an obsession.........
Monitors: Tannoy Reveal 5a + hifi speakers on a JVC !X333 amp

Rastardley: the 192's inputs wont take a hi-z guitar input - you'll need a DI box to get the signal right - look at the Lin6 toneport GX - basically a DI box with an amp plugin OR you could look at getting a preamp and a mic to record direct from an amp.
Additionally, you'll need an extra program to record your guitar into as Reason wont record audio - I've used Audacity when I needed to do this - freeware of course :)

Phooey: I'd lean the other way these days - the new Macbooks have apparently dropped the firewire ports completely, which rules out a fair few really good interfaces!!!
to be fair i've always been a PC man, but thought i'd mention it.

RB83: Firewire is better for multichannel - though USB2 can handle 2 in 2 out with respectable latency figures I wouldnt trust it on an 8 in 8 out interface.

Phooey: I'd lean the other way these days - the new Macbooks have apparently dropped the firewire ports completely, which rules out a fair few really good interfaces!!!
to be fair i've always been a PC man, but thought i'd mention it.

True, for the most recent release, but then I wouldn't recommend recording anything beyond sketchbook song demos on a laptop anyway. Once you're into the realm of physical interfaces and other outboard gear, the benefits of portability are lost, so it makes sense to get a desktop computer.

I have at last entered the digital age and got a Fostex M8 multitrack recorder, this records onto Compact Flash cards and the one supplied is 2GB and will last for many hours of recording. Just learning how to use it, previously I was still using 4 track cassette! Initial findings are that the microphone input is not very powerful, either that or I've got a weak voice.

computer spec? Apple iMac
hard drive? Internal 400gb
sound card? Line 6 Toneport UX8
mics? MXL 990s. Shure PG57, Shure SM58, T-Bone SC300, JTS TX2, JTS TX9, Behringer C-2 x2 (Stereo Pair)
midi? Carillon Control 25 USB Midi Keyboard
speakers/monitoring? Tapco S8s
software? recording, mixing, mastering etc. Logic 9, Ableton Live Intro, EZdrummer, iZotope iDrum, lots of other software instruments I've built up over the years.