Cactus Music

The best advice so far is to purchase a good audio interface along with the software. 
Many interfaces will come packaged with a basic version of DAW software so I would recommend that route. Most are easily upgraded once you settle in. 

Evnabby,    Since you are interested in Sonar, many (maybe all)  of the Roland interface come with a version of Cakewalk Sonar software.

ampfixer


I highly recommend Karl's SWA Complete Sonar X2. A great value.

Thanks John. Much appreciated.

TraceyStudios

Cactus Music

The best advice so far is to purchase a good audio interface along with the software. 
Many interfaces will come packaged with a basic version of DAW software so I would recommend that route. Most are easily upgraded once you settle in. 

Evnabby,    Since you are interested in Sonar, many (maybe all)  of the Roland interface come with a version of Cakewalk Sonar software.

THANKS SO MUCH. By far the most helpful info (everyone helped too of course but..) I was stresing over convinving parents to buy control surafce/audio interfce... THANKS.


And thanks to everyone else who answered. 

PS to those who told me to read the manual- I understand. Thats definetly what I'd do, if I bought it lol. I'm positng on these forum because I want to get educated a lil before I buy it or else my parents will kil me if I end up not making use of the product :P

you could also buy used gear off craigslist and ebay that's what i do to save a buck. stay away from buying i-lock devices used or any other one owner pro-tool type devices, as transferring it over to your name is not going to be cheap. i have 2 very cheap and easy to use delta 1010 cards. 1010 and 1010lt. 300 bucks used, and 100 bucks used. they work pretty good with windows 7 64 bit sp1. these are old pci slots cards as the usb 2.0 and fire wire stuff seemed to freak out my asus i5 8 gig , 2 tb (best buy special 700 bucks) what hardware do you use now? and what expectations do you put on your small studio? recording bands, looping, sampling, song writing? you can spend a ton and have no worries at all, or you can spend a little and still have some fun. the technology is there and the sky is the limit anymore.

Evnabby

TraceyStudios

Cactus Music

The best advice so far is to purchase a good audio interface along with the software. 
Many interfaces will come packaged with a basic version of DAW software so I would recommend that route. Most are easily upgraded once you settle in. 

Evnabby,    Since you are interested in Sonar, many (maybe all)  of the Roland interface come with a version of Cakewalk Sonar software.

THANKS SO MUCH. By far the most helpful info (everyone helped too of course but..) I was stresing over convinving parents to buy control surafce/audio interfce... THANKS.


And thanks to everyone else who answered. 

PS to those who told me to read the manual- I understand. Thats definetly what I'd do, if I bought it lol. I'm positng on these forum because I want to get educated a lil before I buy it or else my parents will kil me if I end up not making use of the product :P

The manual is 100% free and downloadable here:  http://www.cakewalk.com/S...reader.aspx/2007013290

Frostysnake

All good advice here....READ THE MANUAL, too. Also...order this...http://www.garrigus.com/pwrbkinf.asp?BookID=14
Good luck and welcome to the fold.... 

Thanks, David! I appreciate the mention.


Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - SONAR X2 Power! - http://garrigus.com/?SonarX2Power
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

Yes sir Mr. Garrigus!

Evnabby


Is there a/some GOOD, EASY TO UNDERSTAND, Not-made-by-some-kid BEGINNER (and i mean right from the start, at what a DAW is) video that I can watch for free? I know theres Complete SonarX2 but i cant pay for it :P (im only a teen so parents..yea) I really likethe way SONAR looks, i would go with FL studioas a first DAW but its just uncomfortable.  

There is no silver bullet that's going to tell you everything you want/need to know in a single spot.  You will have to do some research and use all the tools (a lot of good ones of which have been mentioned) at your disposal to get where you want to go.  Not an easy process, but certainly an attainable goal.  On the other hand, you could always convince your parents that this is an investment in your education, and you just have to buy some of these tools to keep your brain cells active.  Hey, sometimes it works ...

Take heart and enjoy the learning process...it is going to last you a lifetime!