Newbie Clubhouse

[AstroDan]

...adn John, you are too. Thanks.

[Ethan Holdtrue]

Quick correction--ProTools is not Mac-only. Digital Performer and Logic are, though.

oops... hee hee hee...

Yea I don't do Pro-tools if you hadent guessed :]

[teachmemetric]

i'm so glad the message board is back up again!

take this as a warning for all newbies...

i've been using ProTools for about 1 year now. Before that, I used tape for about 5 years. i went into ProTools with little to no experience in the digital realm and bought a DIGI002 rack.

i love it, but last week i almost went back to tape.

i had a massive firewire drive failure. i managed to save 12 out of 14 songs, after 8 hours of data salvaging. i'll save you all the details, but i could very well have lost 6 months of work. luckily, i lost a three-five days instead.

DRIVES ARE NOT BACKING UP! please, at least buy 2 firewire drives, one for recording and one for only backing up. if you really want to be safe, have a DVD recorder and backup your sessions that way.

you never think it'll happen to you... well, it happened to me.

i now have one 160 Gig drive for recording and a 80 Gig drive for backing up.

it is well worth the money... if i had lost 6 months of work, i might have given up recording for a year out of frustration!

[Phiz]

What Ethan said about putting together a system is completely true, but it wouldn't be impossible to do some recording work on your current 1.24 GHz system. As long as you are only recording a few tracks at once, don't pile on the effects and keep your total track count low, you should be able to do some work with what you have. I know of lots of albums that have been recorded with just a single input and lots of overdubs. With enough bouncing of tracks, you can manage to pull off just about everything this way except for a close-mic drum kit.

So if you're quite serious about this and have some money, do what Ethan said. But if you're short on cash or just a little hesitant, play around with what you've got. There is much to be created and learned with your little old computer.

[teachmemetric]

and now for my newbie questions.

1. i'm totally unfamilar with MIDI. i just bought the MTRON melotron sample pack. i have midi capable keyboards (a Korg Triton is one of them) and want to know how to use these plug-ins in either ProTools or put them on the Triton... is that possible at all? i've never used midi! (they're VST plugins, i use a mac, but i have a VST to RTAS converter program)

can someone point me to a good "Midi For Dummies" article online?

2. can tracks recorded on a mac in protools be played back/imported in protools on a windows rig and vice versa? i've been imeresed in the world of Apple for years now, but the other guy in my band just got a windows set up. i've never really thought about doing this before.

thanks!

[Ethan Holdtrue]

Phiz is also right. My first DAW was a 700mhz P3, running a hacked version of sonar 1, through my Layla24/96.

Some times it'd good to start with something minimal cause it can teach you how to learn good micing techniques, and some other creative things that you would have never thought of if you had everything. Learning tricks and secrets is a pretty big and fun aspect of recording.

Learning to compensate lack of equipment with good and true skils is invaluable.

[AstroDan]

MIDI is pretty much plug and play. Nothing too cryptic about it. Does it say in the software what kind of computer input interface you can use? You may need a MIDI to USB plug.

I don't think you can put the MTron sounds onto the Triton, unless the Triton has a sampler.

[bowling-name]

Hello. If you are going to choose to record with a mac, please see this thread on 'getting started' over at OSXAudio:
http://www.bigbluelounge.com/forums/vie ... php?t=3559

It is one of the more comprehensive (and less condescending) responses to this type of query I have seen online, and much of it is applicable even if you do not choose a mac.

Another tutorial in this spirit can be found here: http://www.tweakheadz.com/how_to_get_st ... _midi.html

What you need doesn't really change that much (mics, cables, mic pre, computer, audio interface, midi interface/controller, etc), but the type you select will largely depend on the number of people you are recording, the type of instruments (e.g. acoustic drums vs. programed beats), your budget, etc.

I'm still sorting this out myself...

--ryan

[JES]

On the Mac or PC front, it's a matter of taste. My main advice is not to switch platforms once you're in. It's a lot of lost learning curve.

If you don't like to DIY, there are a gazillion places that build PCs just for audio.

Best,
--JES

[bannerj]

re: midi. I am not a big midi user, but one hair pulling issue that you need to realize upfront is that each midi controler (whatever keyboard you have that has a midi out to a midi box that can convert the signal to a usb connection) each controler not only needs to be selected in the softwares setup...you also need to make sure you have the correct channel selected. I've had different keyboards that set up to different channels.

This clubhouse is a good idea...but in the long run you might just have to use the search engine.

[hotel_amnesia]

On the Mac or PC front, it's a matter of taste. My main advice is not to switch platforms once you're in. It's a lot of lost learning curve.

If you don't like to DIY, there are a gazillion places that build PCs just for audio.

Best,
--JES

i've only been able to find (specifically laptop) configure/Sager-modders that do their thing for gamers, not sound recorders. if you could post some links that would be a great help.

i'm in the same boat the first poster is in, though i've been recording for four or five years on my old / current system and am upgrading. my main question (i may start a new topic for it) is this: due to the warnings about mobo/hardware conflicts with peripherals (the one i'm looking at right now is the focusrite saffire, but i'm being further swayed towards firewire 8 or 16 track dial mixers), is there a comprehensive list of said conflicts, or will i be able to find that in the small print of these products?

hope that's not too convoluted. thanks in advance, and greetings, this is my first post!

[Ethan Holdtrue]

Well... I'm just guessing, but I'd say there probably is less of a chance of you running into a conflict with firewire than with a PCI card. I say this because your not quight as litteraly adding a new pice directly into your computer. However you can check your manufaturers web page for known conflicts, and don't ever be afrade to call the companies tech help. there whole purpose is to answer questions for you, like this one.

[marc]

I agree with Ethan, except on the Firewire front; PCI is a peripheral bus just like Firewire, it just happens to be on the inside of your computer for speed and ease of use reasons. If there actually were more conflicts with PCI hardware, I'd be surprised, but it wouldn't be because of the hardware.

My suggestion is to pick the audio device you most absolutely want first, then call the manufacturer and see if they have any known conflicts with particular motherboards. After that, I'd suggest going with the most widely used brand of motherboard (Intel, Abit, Asus, MSI, etc.) with what you want/need, just because that increases the likelihood of a conflict being reported, if one may exist.

[AstroDan]

Thanks, all. There's some terrific advice here that comes close to answering everything I was needing to know.

You guys are alright.

[b3groover]

AstroDan, are you comfortable with building a computer? If not, why not just get a Mac Mini or one of the new iMacs and a nice firewire interface (like the Presonus Firepod... I love that thing) and GO!