ORIGINAL: colinza
Hi,
I'm new to this site and have a really basic and dumb query.
I'm a guitarist playing in bands for many years but never got involved in the backing track sequencing game.
I understand the basics and as a software engineer have a technical background.
I would like to start dabbling in the one man band arena and am asking some assistance.
Is there a good site that will show me the basic gear configurations and permutations in setting up a solo artist type equipment set please?
Thanks
Best Regards
Colin
Hey Colin, I don't know of any site but you can get a lot of information here on this forum. I made the switch from bands to personal studio about 20 years ago and things have changed a lot since then. Today, a PC and some software can replace a room full of hardware and a mile of wire.
Cakewalk products seem to look and feel like a Windows program more then others so it should be fairly easy to learn. Getting the sound interface configured and tuning the latency on the system if the first task but after that it's easy.
There are two main ways to build a backing track, you can use loops (short audio recordings you can buy) kinda like paint by numbers for audio LOL !
Or you can use a keyboard or pad set (midi device) to trigger sounds and build the entire composition from scratch then add your audio tracks of guitar and vocals or whatever you can play for real. I also play bass so on some songs all I need to do in midi is the drums and keyboards.
In the software things will be layed out as tracks just like a tape recorder but with the advantage of editing and being able to have more then one take on a track. In the old days you had a set number of tracks on a tape but with a computer it's only limited to the power of your computer. A modern computer can do a silly number of tracks so it's a non issue. The computer replaces many things you used to need in a studio, it's the multi-track recorder, the wires, the effects rack, the mixer, the master recorder, and even drum machines and keyboards are all virtual now. Believe it or not a computer can do all those jobs at once now, it's amazing. When you get the tracks done you use envelopes to automate volume and pan changes on the tracks to do the mix. When you get the software read all about envelopes they are key to all automation. Then you just export the mix to a file(s) and burn that to CD.. done.
The hardware you need outside the computer will be the "front end" meaning sound card, preamps, microphones, etc. and the "back end", the output deivces like amps and speakers (or powered speakers), headphone amps, headphones, etc. Some type of remote control is handy also, my favorite is the Frontier Design Trazport wireless DAW (digital audio workstaion) controler.
Any questions ?