Music Creator 5 - What is really needed?

After reading through various posts in the forums, I'm realizing that simply buying MC5 will not magically allow me to start recording.  So I'm asking the experts, what is truly needed to begin recording guitar and bass lines?

It seems that the sound card is very important.  I have two computers to give me two options to load the software onto.  A homemade desktop that runs XP pro (with an old generic soundcard), and a new Ace Aspire AOD250-1151 netbook which runs XP home.   Would I need to get a new soundcard?  If so, what are the best choices at a reasonable price (not the cheapest that will do, and not the most expensive top of the line, but the middle-ground of decent price and good performance)?  With the desktop I can upgrade the parts, but the netbook I'm not so sure about.  Is the netbook a viable option?

Will I need to get the UA-1G to record my guitar and bass?  Is there a cheaper option that will do the same thing (such as the Behringer UCG102)?

Is there anything else that I'm missing?  Thank you in advance for your help.

shredheadinstead

On a personal note, I use  this:

http://line6.com/podstudiogx/

It's great for getting Bass, vox, and guitar tracks down quickly and the amp and effect modulation it has built in with the software is incredible. The unit is an audio interface/soundcard too so you can monitor with it as well. Just another option for you to go too.

Bryant

Thank you for your help.

Just to clarify, are you saying that if I get the POD Studio GX I will NOT need to upgrade the soundcard?  Or are you saying that I need to get a good soundcard, and that I can use the POD Studio GX instead of the UA-1G?

57Gregy


If you have a computer with a sound card and a DVD ROM drive, you should be able to load MC and record. I started with a 1.1GHz Celeron computer with 128 MB of RAM and a RealTek sound card and was recording within an hour. That doesn't mean everything was perfect. Like Shred mentioned, latency can not be easily cured with the onboard sound card. Latency is a delay from the time you play a note and when you hear the note being played. It gets real annoying and can mess with your timing while recording. Also, onboard sound cards can get bogged down with multiple tracks playing, especially when you're trying to record along with them.
Almost any USB, FireWire or PCI/PCMIA audio interface should work for you. That Cakewalk thing should work for you. You need to determine what your needs are; do you want a basic audio interface? Do you want an interface with MIDI inputs? Do you need phantom power for your condenser mics? Do you want the capability to track multiple inputs so you can record a whole band?
MC only allows 2 simultaneous inputs, either 1 stereo input or 2 mono inputs. If you want to record more than 2 at a time, you'd need SONAR Home Studio.
Check Beagle's web site for interface options, and check the signatures of some of the users here. We sometimes have the gear we use listed, so you know what we have and that it works.

Greg,
I definitely checked out Beagle's website.  The first time I saw his sig I checked it out.  I'm a novice at all of this though, and after reading so many posts about what is and is not needed, what does work and what does not work, I'm a little lost.

Here are my needs:
I want to be able to record bass lines and guitar lines.  Music Creator 5 says it also has a way to make simple drum beats, which would be a plus.  My friend has a mini recording studio, so when it's time to really record music I go there.  However, I want to be able to record ideas, riffs, licks, thoughts, etc. at home.  I want to be able to record the skeleton of songs, and then I could just take it to his studio and we'd flesh it out.  The most important is the bass and the guitar.  Drum beats would be a plus, vocals would be a plus.  I would very much prefer to do the recording on my netbook rather than my desktop (for portability reasons), but is that even possible if I can't change the sound card?

You make it sound like it doesn't matter what type of sound card I have.  It seems that you're saying I can load the Cakewalk software, get an adapter to plug my guitar into my current soundcard, and then just start recording.  That's what I originally thought when I saw the software (and the fact that it's made by Cakewalk made it sound like it should be really simple).  But after reading a lot of different posts in these forums, it seems like it's not just that simple.  Even your post makes it seem like it can be done, but it won't be easy/there will be problems.

After checking out Beagle's website, I see that he lists USB Audio/Midi interfaces (for example the E-MU 0404).  Are these things that can be used INSTEAD of the fancy expensive soundcard, or do you still need a fancy expensive soundcard in addition to the USB interface?  If I could use something like the E-MU 0404 and not need a new soundcard, then it seems like I could do it on the netbook.

So that's why I am asking:  What is really needed?  What are the essentials for a good, clean recording?


Also, what is "phantom power"?

Greg,

Again, I thank you for your time in helping me to sort this out.

It looks like Phantom Power is not a priority for me, as vocals would just be a nice bonus but are not a necessity.
I don't have a keyboard, so I guess no drums, so that's another bonus I'll skip on.

Here are the specs on the netbook: http://www.newegg.com/Pro...x?Item=N82E16834115590
It has a 5400rpm drive, and 3 USB ports (no firewire).  I'll get an external DVD burner to load the software (or maybe just buy the download version of MC5).

As for price, I want to do this right, so if I have to save up for a couple of months to get what I need then that's what I'll do.  I was looking at the E-MU 0202, the E-MU 0404 and the Line 6 Studio GX.  Is there something better than those in the price range of $100 - $150?  Do I need to go more expensive?

Thank you for clarifying the "sound-card" issue I was having.  What I really need is an interface, and that can be either an internal sound-card, or an external USB device.

Desdinov - looks like these guys have you sorted.  I just wanted to add a couple of things:

hard drive - 5400rpm hard drive is not recommended - it could cause problems.  if you can upgrade to a 7200rpm that will help a lot with recording audio.

EMU0202 or 0404 or the line 6 are all excellent cards for this level.  if you do a lot of guitar work, the line 6 cards come with amp, cab, stomp box, and other simulation software that will give you a lot of extras for the guitar.

m-audio - I've not updated my website lately, but if you're running vista (either version) I do not recommend m-audio.  there have been too many complaints of people having problems with m-audio's vista drivers.  some don't have problems - others do - it's a gamble as to whether you would have problems or not.

drums - even without a keyboard - an entry level drum softsynth called EZDrummer is an excellent way to add drums to your projects.  you can choose from pre-made MIDI loops and the sound is really great and the interface is easy to work with.  others on this forum would also recommend Jamstix.  Jamstix will create a drum pattern for you with it's "brain" - it jams along with your project and creates a drum track for you.  I didn't care for it myself, but a couple of other well-respected forum members like Robo and Guitarhacker love it.  they do have a demo you can download and try, EZD does not, however.

good luck!

Personally I do not think that the SSD drives are "there" yet.  I personally would not try one until they become much more available in the market.  there are some who have tried the SSD's for audio and think they're OK and some who have tried them and cannot get them to work well on heavy projects.

I haven't read of anyone who uses the line 6 products on the cakewalk forums who have had problems with quality, but I have not read the line 6 forums or other reviews, so my opinion is biased by what I've read and not read. 

possibly.  if you have to sacrifice hard drive speed OR CPU speed - I'd sacrifice the HD speed instead.  it's unlikely you'd get much joy out of MC with a low processor speed.

I would stay away fro netbooks myself, you may save a bit of money, but it will soon show up in the performance area. Keep your eyes open for a good buy on a laptop. About three weeks ago my daughter got a nice HP with 3 gigs and a 320 gig drive for $399 at best buy.

While what everyone says about a 5400 rpm not being ideal is true, it will work for now, as long as you do not go with 20 or more tracks on most songs. Many folks use them. Later add a 7200 rpm drive. You can buy one pop it in a external case and clone the original drive and exchange them. then format the original and use it as storage.

no, flash drives are slower than any harddrive - that would be worse.

MetalMan, it's all relative.  Writing to a flash drive is really fast as compared to writing to a floppy disk or a CD, but really slow compared to writing to your hard drive.  I checked out that song "experiment", it's pretty cool.

Robomusic, I was already thinking about your suggestion, and now that you've said that less than 20 tracks and I'll be fine - I'll probably go that route.  I really can't see myself recording more than 10 tracks.  If I want to get into that detail, I'll go to my friend's studio.  I just need it to record ideas without having to travel.  The netbook is more desirable because of size and portability, but since it seems the Atom processor tops out at 1.6 GHz, I'll have to keep my eyes out for a good laptop.  Will pumping up the RAM help, or will 2 gigs of RAM be enough?  I'm definitely looking for a CPU that's signficantly higher than 2GHz, as I really don't want any latency.

Once again every, thank you for your advice.  When I do make a purchase, I won't have that nervous feeling of "this could all be a disastrous waste of money".

2G of RAM will be fine, but not the 1.6GHz processor.  just to clarify.

The processor is minimal, but don't be suprized if it does okay on audio only recordings. Just do not over use effects and stuff until you get the bulk recorded. Turn off any antivirus and firewalls and any background services before recording. I bet you get a decent track count for what you want.

the audio quality is not high with that thing.  it's 16bit only - I can't even believe that a company puts out a product in this age which is not 24bit A/D conversion.  Personally I would not buy any sound card that is 16bit only, but that's your choice.

I have Cubase AI and it's different from MC, but it perfoms the same functions and is just as powerful.

you're welcome, sarniajeff - that's why we like this forum and this forum is the reason I bought cakewalk software instead of cubase or PT M-powered or N-track or MTS when I was looking at buying recording software.

that looks like an acceptable laptop for your purpose!
 
one question, tho, you say "if you partition it" - do you mean to have a dual boot system?  or just to partition it to have 2 separate drives on the same boot?  if the latter, I would not recommend that.  partitioning a drive actually makes it slower (especially when you partition the boot drive).  the reason is because now you've split the drive's heads for the 2 different logical partitions and they will both be fighting over trying to read at the same time - that slows down the hard drive's performance.