OffsetGuitars.com

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

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.

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

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

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


Still like Cool Edit Pro II better

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

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...

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

pullover wrote: 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/

Thanks Killamangiro, I'll check it out.

audacity is great for free

I use cubase sx3 and an alesis multimix