Looking for advice on interface and sequencer

[Patterico]

Hi. I am new to the forum, and was directed here by "Awake." I am hoping you folks can help me decide how to get back into recording music.

I'm a 38-year-old guy who has always been a fairly terrible amateur musician. Back in the early 1990s when I was still in school, I had a TASCAM 8-track cassette-based recorder and wrote about 15 songs, which I recorded with no reverb or other effects, using a 3/4 size guitar and double-tracking my vocals to make them sound less crappy. In short, a real amateur. You can hear the results at a myspace.com page I just created: http://myspace.com/mangledgrapes

Now I'm thinking about writing some new songs and re-recording the old ones, what with this great new computer technology. I'm looking for a simple way to plug an acoustic guitar with a pickup, an electric guitar, a MIDI-based electric piano, and microphones for singing -- all into my XP-based laptop, to set up a simple and relatively inexpensive recording studio.

As you can tell if you listen to the myspace page, we're not talking about anything fancy. I'm strictly an amateur -- but I'd like my stuff to sound better than I was capable of doing with the TASCAM and no effects.

Awake said I need two things: 1) an interface and 2) a sequencer. For the latter, he recommends Cubase. But which version do I need? Do I really have to spend $700 for what I'm looking for?

Awake had no specific suggestions for an interface, but said (purely as an example) that I might need something basic like this Fast Track USB interface:

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

What do you guys think? Awake has a lot of faith in your ability to give advice, and I am going to lean heavily towards any solution that gains consensus here.

Thanks for your time.

[RemcoG]

I can't help you.. But I'm sure somebody else does.

Your songs are killer! :biggrin: Also the dubble vocals give a cool effect to the end result.
I'm really excited about they are going to sound when you've got your gear!

Kind regards,
RemcoG

[-=AnatomiC=-]

For guitar, I recommend Line Pod. This is a small box (not really a box) which give lot's of quality effects for electric guitars. There are also different models of vintage guitar amps and effect pedals.
Very cheap - Line Pod 199$ (hardware). My bro has XT version, it's a little bit more expensive. Plug your guitar in it, and then connect it to your laptop.
This thing will also work for acoustic guitar with pick-up.

For keyboard needs, you should get some kind of software, and use your keyboard (if you have one) as a midi controller.
You don't need a hardware sequencer - soft sequencer will do the job.

Cubase is good, but there are tons of freeware software (if you don't need fancy stuff).

By the way - there is just nothing software can't do.

[Awake]

For keyboard needs, you should get some kind of software, and use your keyboard (if you have one) as a midi controller.I think the "some kind of software" part is the blank that the original post is looking to fill in. ;) My instinctive suggestion was Cubase, but that's quite an expensive suite, and suggestions as to a lower-cost alternative (or arguments why Cubase is worth the extra $) might be apt. :)

[-=AnatomiC=-]

I have no arguments.
I mean - just for 200$ more you can get a new Fusion 6HD, and it will be able to do everything Cubase can: 32 track sequencer, 8 audio tracks, 8 audio inputs, sampling, 180 polyphony, a very large collection of sounds (pianos, strings, percussion, brass, you name it), effects, VA and ROM synth engines, keys already included, and you can take it with you and use it as a music instrument: not only a production-tool, like Cubase.

In fact, that is a good option: Alesis Fusion 6HD: for 900$ you have like a complete production studio and a synthesizer/keyboard in 1. You won't be needing anything else. It comes even with a large hard drive, so you can make your songs/samples, record it directly in there. Then transfer it via USB to you laptop and burn a CD.
If it's not over your budget, you should really check it out.

[Patterico]

I think the "some kind of software" part is the blank that the original post is looking to fill in.

Actually, that's half of it. The other half is what is the device to use to make my musical devices communicate with the computer.

Thanks to RemcoG for the kind words, although really the quality of those files is pretty embarrassing. That's one of the main reasons I want to re-do them.

[-=AnatomiC=-]

That depends on what devices you have.

You don't need anything to control Cubase - maybe a MIDI keyboard, a regular keyboard an a mouse.

Actually I not quite sure what are you trying to say...why would your devices have to communicate with each other? What devices do you mean? And what is your budget, because it's usually the main factor.

[Athox]

Listening to Demon Ghost at the moment, and it's kinda cool. ;) The double voice effect reminds me of an Israeli prog band from the late 80's called Lord Flimnap.

About the interface towards the computer, I suggest you have a look at Line6 TonePort (UX2), which is a USB-soundcard. It has inputs for microphone (2), guitar (2) as well as 2 line-level inputs at the back. It also has two line-level outputs (for monitors, etc). It comes with a software package called GearBox, which has a ton of guitar effects, everything from amp/cabinet simulations to the heaviest metal distortion you could imagine. The device has two inputs for footswitches, which I assume can be used as a stomp-box-simulation combined with GearBox. Haven't tried this yet, though.

Also included is Ableton Live Limited Edition (with maximum 4 tracks or variations or whatever)... it's very limited and annoying. Don't use it. Get some other software.

I haven't checked out which limitations the UX1 has compared to the UX2, but you can see for yourself on the line6 website (probably less inputs/outputs, the software should be the same).

[Staccato]

If you want a cheap sequencer I suggest Tracktion. I think they just released the second version. It´s maybe 100 dollars or something like that. And then some m-audio controller to that and you will do quite nice.

[Awake]

Staccato - does Traktion do both midi sequencing and audio recording?

[keyslord]

I suggest you buy
for guitar stuff:line6 PODxt
for audio and midi interface: m-audio 410 firewire card (not usb,they have latency)
for sequencer: cubase or nuendo.

[Staccato]

Staccato - does Traktion do both midi sequencing and audio recording?

I´m not really sure. Audio recording I know for sure, and I think midi recording. I guess you should be able to find that information on the net.. not sure where though!:P