Advice on getting started

Legacyman... welcome.

S7 is a good platform to use....however....

I opted to start with MC4. It is a decent platform...fairly simple, not alot of extra stuff to distract you, it supports plenty of audio & midi tracks and plugins....and it only costs $35 for the downloaded version. There is good support in the MC forum. I'd also recommendan external interface ( soundcard) so that your recording experience is a smooth one.


.... and you can always upgrade later....to S7.

Motu, Echo, Ediriol and RMe are all great cards. I would update your pc also to atleast 2 gigs of rams and atleast a dual core. I would get the sonar program and not even botrher with MC4. There are many many many features youll be missong out on if you get MC4.
If your going to learn somethnig, learn sonar. If you start with MC4 ,youll need to learn 2 different programs, if you go to sonar, and you will go to sonar, cause MC4 isnt really anythnig anyways. Buy Scotts power book and get sonar producer 8.
Cj

a big +1 to what Michael said previously.

the 2 things regardless of what interface etc. you choose I'd say

research , where will you be (or like to be in say 12 months) if you buy things now that aren't up to the job you might end up spending when a bit of research would have help keep the cobwebs on your wallet.

your reasons for doing it, if it's a hobby then obviously it's different from producing that #1 seller.

regardless of whatever you buy you will have to devote a bit of time to get the most out of it. (scott's sonar power book helped as well as the manual)

As for tascam, well of late they haven't done their giga customers a big favour. So I would personally avoid them, as for me it's a bad omen.

a keyboard is really a must also, yep I know your a guitar player, but so many instruments you just trigger from keys (drums / strings / synths / the list is endless). remember it just has to be a controller of some description and not have any sounds. The computer has virtual instruments etc that you can trigger.

this time of year ALL the companies are trying to woo you for your custom and you can get some great deals on things.

if you are lucky enough to live near pro audio shops, visit a few. However remember some sales people get a greater commission on certain products than others , so get a few options / opinions (not just the one that will help the sales person get the greatest money)

when you say midi, it's really an audio interface you want? the majority do have built in midi in / out, but the common thing now is that midi things like keyboards normally work via usb. That all depends on your budget.

you can even trial sonar 7, although it won't have everything the full one has

http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/kb/kb20061101.asp

also with a pc for music , or mac.. the better the pc the more you can chuck at it, much as you won't see my old car in a nascar or formula 1 race..hehe

there are some good deals on 7 at the moment, even that has options.. do you want studio or producer.. producer comes with a LOT more for the price..

hopefully that's been objective enough. I've not shown favouritism for any brand in the post on purpose.

Here's another book that helped me a lot, straightforward and easy to understand.
Guerrilla Home Recording by Karl Coryat (Backbeat Books)
Gareth