completely clueless recording newbie - help?

[jeremy]

hi, as the topic suggests ive no experience recording but want to have a go at it. at this point i just want to plug a mic into the pc (shure sm57 which i thinks pretty decent?? but onboard sound unfortunately) and make some bedroom recordings from my amp and possibly vocals. so my plea for help is concerning software reccomendations, i want something very easy to use and free/cheap which i can arrange a couple of different tracks with. eventually i might get something like the boss br-600 but for now i want to use the pc as a cheap way of experimenting. thanks in advance

[Pingu]

The SM57 should serve you well, a good mic is the most important part of any home studio. Good free software is hard to find, i suggest you download a few demos and find the one you like. I use Ableton and love it, but it's pretty expensive. Judging from your post i think you would be quite happy with Tracktion, it's super easy to use, has a good set of features and is reasonably priced(ca $250). If you want something completely free there's always Audacity, but it kinda sucks.

[pullover]

Kryrstal Audio Engine is free. There can be latency issues if you don't have a proper sound card though. I record to a Fostex 16 track DAW and then mix everything down on Krystal.

You can download free plugins from here.
http://www.gersic.com/plugins/index.php?daCat=-3

[HeartfeltDawn]

Krystal or Reaper are the best two free pieces of DAW software.

http://www.cockos.com/reaper/


Still like Cool Edit Pro II better

[Meshuggahnans]

Okay, well here is the most important question:  What is your budget?

[glimmertwin]

You can get the old Tascam US-122 computer interface on ebay for around $100 and it comes with a 48 track version of Cubase.  It don't get much cheaper than that to have a dedicated audio interface with a decent multi track recorder.  Plus learning the work flow of Cubase will help you understand Nuendo later on if you decide you want to expand the capabilites...

[hendrix219]

Audacity is free and nice unless you into Guitar Rig and Amplitube.

[ugly casanova]

Kryrstal Audio Engine is free. There can be latency issues if you don't have a proper sound card though. I record to a Fostex 16 track DAW and then mix everything down on Krystal.

You can download free plugins from here.
http://www.gersic.com/plugins/index.php?daCat=-3

yeah, i still use KRYSTAL to record my rough ideas because it's set up in 2 clicks and ready to start. and it works with vst effects to work out new ideas.

one thing you really need if you use onboard-sound is ASIO4ALL which is a driver for nearly every onboard-sound to get rid of the latency issues 'pullover' talked about.
download here: http://www.asio4all.com/

[pullover]

Thanks Killamangiro, I'll check it out.

[planes]

audacity is great for free

I use cubase sx3 and an alesis multimix