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Complete newbie looking for advice


mr zed
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Hi all - I'm looking to start unleashing my creative side and do some home recording. Never done this before but this is something that has been on my mind to try for a while. I have a budget of around £500 and will be wanting to use my existing windows based laptop. This is not the best spec in the world but I'm hoping it will be ok to start me off. It has a core i5 processor & 6gb of ram. Currently running windows 7. I'm guessing this will be ok?

To get me going, is this the best bang for your buck or does anyone have any better suggestions? [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/gak-home-recording-bundle/97813?gclid=CMKVksmUjMsCFdgaGwoddzoHFg"]http://www.gak.co.uk...CFdgaGwoddzoHFg[/url]

Thanks all.

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It depends on how much and how quick you want to proceed , the keyboard is for MIDI work , the monitors are ok , but not necessarily essential.

If it is instruments and singing ( maybe virtual drum samples) then the 2i2 is a great little bit of kit and you will need a mic or two.

A MIDI keyboard will be great for virtual plug in instruments , pianos , synths and orchestra parts , but you will need to get these aswell , some are free loads can be bought . If you are wanting to dive in and do the lot then the bundle is probably decent value.

My own route was to start very basically with the interface and a mic , then added the MIDI and finally the monitors , but even then my room is not really sound treated to make the best use of the monitors , so its mainly headphones .

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Reaper is a great DAW, especially as you don't have to pay for it straight away & when you do, it's only $60.
It does take a little patience to set it up though, but once you have done that & got to know the basics, it's relatively easy to use.

Like Lurks says... What are you planning on doing? Real instruments & vocals with A couple of VSTs for keys & drums, all live instruments or all synths with just your bass?
This is going to determine which audio interface to choose. Is one or two inputs enough or are you having musicians round to record together?

If you're going for the guitar, bass & singing with vst other things, then the Presonus iTwo studio might be worth a look, especially at £139 (the interface used to be that price alone) & comes with cans, mic & their DAW - Studio One 3. And you can use it with your iPad!!
I very nearly went for it, but the NI KA6 met my needs better. It was a tight call though!

As for monitors. They're not really a necessity when it comes to home recording. So I'd put them towards the end of your list & don't let them stop you getting that better bit of kit just now.

For keys. The Nektar LX are apparently very hard to beat for the money. Question... Is 2 octaves enough? Do you play keys or are you just gonna bash a little one fingered hook on it?
I'd say go for at least 49 keys. The LX25 is £75 & the LX49 is £100, so it might be worth spending that extra £25 there.

You can even get a good bundle with the LX49 & Bigwig Studio (DAW) for £249. That's saving £50 as Bigwig is £199 on it's own.

You don't have to spend a lot on headphones either to get a great set. Have a look at Superlux.

My route was similar to Lurks too. Got a mac, bought logic, bought an interface, bought better headphones, got a mic & most recently (as in 5 days ago) got a set of keys. Not got monitors yet, but I do have computer monitors that I've had for years that get occasional use.

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Thanks for the replys. Some more research is obviously necessary and I really appreciate your valued input. What I'm looking to do is vocals and bass then using plug-ins for drums and guitar (if that's possible). Keys will be a 1 fingered affair as I'm no keyboard player. I can lay my hands on an electric guitar and/or acoustic to add parts when this suits. I will be working alone most of the time but will on occasion get other band members around to record. Whenever I've been in the studio we have always recorded one instrument at a time so a single input should suffice for this. For live drums I was thinking of using our live mixing desk then taking a stereo feed through the speaker outs then into the audio interface through the 2 inputs. Fully appreciate what you are both saying about the monitors. Maybe something to be considered as a later purchase (if at all). Hope this helps explain what I'm trying to achieve.

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If you haven't already, then have a wee read through Skol303's "Beginner's Guide..." sticky thread in this sub forum. It's got a wealth of info.
For the interface, you just need to decide how many inputs you want (2 in/out is quite common). Whether you choose Focusrite, Steinberg, Roland, Presonus or any other is down to preference. They're all pretty much up to the job (though I'd read a couple of reviews on sound & build quality if it's not one of the more popular ones that you choose).

If the keyboard is for single note things, then you'll get plenty of keyboards for next to nowt. I'd still consider the Nektar ones as you can control your daw from it to quite a degree.

I think the Presonus studio might fit your bill, but have a look around at your options. :)

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I've now had a good read through Skol's excellent beginner's guide and this has answered a lot of questions. Really torn between the presonus itwo and the focusrite 2i4. I like the pad on the input to the 2i4 to keep the gains in check which the presonus doesn't have but I like the interface with an ipad on the presonus. If I go for the presonus I won't bother with the studio pack because I will upgrade the mic anyway. First choice is a Rode NT1A vocal pack. Decisions decisions.

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[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1456214693' post='2986578']...as you can control your daw from it to quite a degree...
[/quote]

I'm not sure, as I've not tried, but I believe that it's not that simple to command Reaper from a controller. It has been done, but I don't think that there are that many templates to get it up and running. I'm willing to be corrected on this, but worth checking before investing with that in mind. I don't know about other DAWs. Just sayin'.

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A couple of things.
The Presonus Studio One V3 software that come with the Interface,
does not have support for VST fx and instruments, you have to pay extra for that.
Although it comes bundled with a couple of internal synths and some fx.
The iPad App works as a controller and was just updated yesterday.
So was Studio One, and it's a pretty impressive upgrade (my boys have it).

TouchOSC for iPad will control Reaper (or any DAW for that matter), not sure if there are many templates
out there, but it's pretty easy to set them up. I have done this with Cubase
and it works a treat.
http://hexler.net/software/TouchOSC (£5.00)

You would need the midi bridge as well, along with the software
for your Puter (both fee links at the bottom of the above page link).
TouchOSC is one of the best controller apps about.
Excellent for Midi cc# controlling, along with audio of course.

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