How low is your budget?

A decent PC is the best first step, with a good soundcard and plenty of memory. Creative gets plenty of justified abuse, but they make a good workhorse card for not much money and almost any PC you buy will probably have one in it already, and hopefully even one with a digital I/O. I use an Echo Gina card for music, in addition to my Audigy for everything else, and they seem pretty happy together. If you're at all handy, you can build a killer PC for half of what it would cost pre-assembled.

Depending on what you want to want to do, Cubase and Sonar are my picks for audio/ MIDI work (and I think they even have low-budget versions without the extras). But if you're heavy on audio and don't need much MIDI, Sonic Foundry's Acid is an unbeatable program.

What are your recording needs? If you don't have a lot of different things to record at the same time, forget about mixers and multi-tracks- you'll be doing most of that on the PC anyway. All you really need is a good mic (or two) and a decent mic preamp. I have a Behringer tube preamp, and it was really cheap even brand new. A dynamic microphone like the standard Shure SM58 type will be okay for a lot of things, but if you're serious about sound quality you're gonna need a condenser. Rode makes great ones for not a lot of cash.

eBay all the way. Most of my hardware passes through eBay on the way in (and out). I'm also a big fan of pawn shops and garage sales- I'm still hoping to find a Moog or Oberheim for fifty bucks someday.

Multi-tracks are still a fine choice, and nothing beats the sound of good-quality analog tape IMHO. I'm just too cheap and lazy to work with them...plus there's the convenience of a software front-end that is easily expandable. And just try to play "Half Life 2" on an ADAT machine...

I do most of my guitar and bass direct, usually through a POD but sometimes through the mic preamp. Plus I have a couple of synths and effects units, so I guess it's about half direct and half microphone. Most of my synths and samples are on the PC already, so in a given song I'll usually only really 'record' three or four tracks.

If you're not getting into MIDI, I highly recommend a decent PC and a copy of ACID (or ACID Express, even cheaper). That will pretty much take care of most of your recording needs.

PC + Echo Gina + ACID + POD + a DECENT Mic is all you need, although MAC + Pro Tools is the ideal

The best thing about using a POD is that you don't have to do so much processing in software - the CPU can get quite tied up once you multi-effect a few multi-tracked guitars.

ACID handles SMP pretty well, so if you can afford a dual-processor machine, go for it. At the very least, an Intel (or better, AMD, if they make an HT unit) Hyperthreading CPU will do a reasonable job of simulating a duallie and spread the load.

We tend to use ACID far more than Sonar, and I gave up on Cubase years ago as being too fiddly by half - but maybe it's improved since then (1994 was the last time I played with it!). There's not much you can't do in the latest incarnation of ACID - although waiting for the next service pack so that it all works is a pain... ACID 4 + service packs works a treat though - although 5 has some desirable features (that don't all work...).

I've never had much luck with AMD- they perform great but tend to run way too hot. Add that to the high-end graphics cards I use, plus the general climate here in the desert...I've had PCs burn out more than once. So make sure if you go AMD you have something more than a case fan or two to keep everything cool.

top advice from the boys - can't really add any more

Behringer do a really small pre-amp for a few bucks (I know it's GB£29) that works really well. I have a Joe Meek 'Meekraphone' which is really sweet and not expensive. Rode do some good ones too.

For prog - invest in Native Instruments' Elektrik Piano (Rhodes Wulry, Clavi), B4 (hammond), GMedia's M-Tron (mellotron) and any good soft synth (I'd recommend GMedia's ImpOscar (cheap and very very powerful)

I don't know about 'hardly trying', but you can definitely make something original and expressive without knowing musical theory or how to play an instrument.

A lot of traditionalists may scoff, but making music is basically just putting sounds together...Mozart would have still been Mozart if he'd worked with a sampler and a drum machine, and I'd still just be a happy dilettante if I had an orchestra at my disposal . The technology provides tools (and often suggests a form), but it's still up to your creativity and proficiency at using these tools.

I guess that there's an inherent beauty in a musical instrument that I don't usually see in a piece of technology (though programmers and engineers may). Still, mastering the skills needed to make really good music with technology can be every bit as demanding and ultimately self-expressive as dedicating your life to an instrument.

And a hack with a PC has just as much chance of getting success as a hack with an electric guitar...but it might not impress chicks as much in the meantime. 

arcer wrote: top advice from the boys - can't really add any more Behringer do a really small pre-amp for a few bucks (I know it's GB£29) that works really well. I have a Joe Meek 'Meekraphone' which is really sweet and not expensive. Rode do some good ones too. For prog - invest in Native Instruments' Elektrik Piano (Rhodes Wulry, Clavi), B4 (hammond), GMedia's M-Tron (mellotron) and any good soft synth (I'd recommend GMedia's ImpOscar (cheap and very very powerful)

OK, Question: How do these software synths work ?  Just move the mouse pointer over the virtual keyboard on screen, or would I have to actually buy a keyboard and wire it to the PC ?

Also, GMedia's M-Tron is just a software plug-in, right ?  What I mean is, I would have to purchase additional software to run the M-Tron stuff...Yes...No ???

utah_man wrote: Need advice for setting up a low-budget, "bare-bones" home recording studio: (Maybe this topic has already been dealt with) But, if you already have one in operation, then... 1) What kind of setup do you have as far as equipment (multi-track units, mixers, microphones, and so forth) ? 2) Assuming you edit recordings via computer, what software do you use / prefer ? 3) Any good internet links, tips, or relevant (and cost saving) suggestions ? Thank You for your time

For entry-level with a lot of features:

Stand-Alone Recorder - The new TASCAM 8-track DAW's are great values for the money, and can be interfaced with a computer

http://www.tascam.com/Products/dp01fx.html - http://www.tascam.com/Products/dp01fx.html

http://www.tascam.com/Products/dp01.html - http://www.tascam.com/Products/dp01.html

Software: CUBASE SE is a great package, $99 (US) and it gives you TONS Of features (48-tracks of audio, unlimited midi, good editing and plug-in support etc)

http://www.steinberg.net/ProductPage_sb.asp?Product_ID=2141&Langue_ID=7 - http://www.steinberg.net/ProductPage_sb.asp?Product_ID=2141& amp;Langue_ID=7

Hope that helps

James Lee wrote: I've never had much luck with AMD- they perform great but tend to run way too hot. Add that to the high-end graphics cards I use, plus the general climate here in the desert...I've had PCs burn out more than once. So make sure if you go AMD you have something more than a case fan or two to keep everything cool.

That certainly used to be the case, but they're pretty much the same as Intel these days. I stopped building machines with Intel Inside a couple of years ago, as AMD are 1) MUCH cheaper and 2) just as powerful - more bang for the buck.

As a PC building enthusiast, I tend to plan my rigs from the case upwards, so tend to start with a case designed for good airflow - preferably aluminium - with plenty of fan bays.

Two are required; One in front, orientated such that it takes air into the case. The other is needed at the rear, as an exhaust - in addition to the one that comes with the PSU. It's not too hard to track down quiet fans, and fan controller units that fit into a drive bay are a handy way of monitoring heat and adjusting the fans if less noise or more cooling is required. Silent PSUs are a good investment, and it's better to get a decent heatsink/fan unit than use the one that ships with CPUs. Heat also builds up around the disk drives, so round cables (for good case airflow) and a disk cooling fan are useful additions, but refer to my note at the end of the next paragraph.

Your music studio PC won't need a stonking graphics card, so a low-end GF4 is not only cheap, but doesn't need another fan on it to create more noise; Graphics card fans are not as straightforward to find replacements for, and you really want as little noise in the case as possible, as it finds its way into your recordings.

The ultimate cooling system is a water-cooler, which is silent. They're fairly expensive, and you'll still have noise from your HDD and PSU - but that's all. The case can be lined with fairly inexpensive sound-absorbing material for the final touches.

The sound card/unit should be external, or have a "break-out" box to really minimise noise.

utah_man wrote: Now this software ACID that several of you guys mentioned, is it the same thing as made by Sony ? My internet search results came up with some puzzling info...

Yes

virtual instruments are triggered via MIDI; you can plug a keyboard into the PC (most use a MIDI connection but some have USB also) and play them that way, but I often simply place the notes where I need them in the instrument's 'track window' and keep editing until they sound right. In any case, you don't necessarily need a keyboard to use them, but it's a good thing to have if you like experimenting with sounds over your other tracks.

There's an issue called 'latency' which may come up depending on the software you use. Basically, latency is the gap between when you press a key on your keyboard and when the sound actually starts. The lower latency the better, and it depends on things like how good your soundcard is and how powerful your PC is. When the first VSTs came out, I couldn't play them in real time at all (ever try to play an instrument that was a half a second late all the time?) but technology has helped the situation...though Sonar still responds more quickly than Cubase in my set-up.

virtual effects don't require any controller, but you can get them to do fun things by recording and editing changes in their parameters...

I just bought Stylus by spectrasonics for my studio, awsome vsti with 7.5 gigs of drum loops and sounds.

My home studio comprises PC with 3GHz cpu 2 Gb ram SATA 200Gb drive running Cubase SX and loads of VSTi synths inc Reason 2.5. There is so much good stuff out there now.