Help!! clueless dad trying to help my daughter get going
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Posted on Dec 09, 2004 03:27 pm
Supermazz
Member Since: Dec 09, 2004
My daughter has a clavinova and a shure microphone. She would like to record her songs at home and has asked for a digital recorder for Christmas. I have looked at the Roland VS recorders but also see people here tout the PC as the way to go. Any insight would be appreciated....
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Dec 09, 2004 03:32 pm Hello clueless dad, I am one as well, only clueless regarding little girls, not music recording :-) (but i'm learning)
So, what does she want to record? Just one take of her clavinova, or does she want to accompany herself and have fun with it?
If you want to go PC, you are in luck, Mackie is offering free licenses to their program Tracktion until the end of the year my.mackie.com/tracktionpromo.asp
If you want to go with a little standalone unit, there would be a lot of options, after knowing more about her goals...I presume just the one track thing I mentioned, but I may be wrong...
Maybe get an adapter for the mic and plug that into the micin on your existing sound card on your PC, and try to record a little snippet with windows recorder and see how it goes...
What type/size of PC do you have?
Dec 09, 2004 03:35 pm i think most people here definitely prefer the PC. you can do the most with it, set it up how you want, and you can grow into it, adding more capability as you go on. nothing is more powerful for home recording, as long as you get a decent system. plusses for standalone units--well, i'm not too sure about that. in my case and in the case of a lot of my friends, portability can be a plus. my small boss br-8 recorder would often accompany me to band practices.
what kind of songs does she write? looks like the VS units are mostly larger 16-track units.
Dec 09, 2004 08:17 pm Hello SuperMazz...and welcome to HRC.
You've come to the right place to get help. Earlier this year I was in a similar position to you...altho my son is in a rock band.
Now he has the bones of a home studio, thanks to the advice we received here.
Cheers and best wishes,
BoysMum
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Dec 09, 2004 11:16 pm Welcome to the club. So far my daughters just leave recording to pops, but I am sure there will come a day.
This hobby is addictive. It is great fun and the results can be fabulous. But a lot like anything else, and I am sure you are aware of this, the expense can go to any length as well. Here I can't really advise too much. For myself, I bought both daughters inexpensive "starter" instruments until I saw they were going to stay with music. Didn't save me a nichol as they both are still playing in orchestra's in adulthood. Oh well good thought anyway. As stated above, there are many levels that the whole thing can be taken to. A simple mini-disk recorder, a very small mixer and a pretty good mic can give results that will produce fine reproductions of her instrument. A stand alone multitracker "Yamaha" comes to mind can go quite a long way. To create a finished CD of "marketable" quality I would personaly recomend going the PC route. One thing about the PC route is that if she doesn't stay with it, she still has something to do homework on! Another point about the PC route is that it will afford the opportunity to learn the beast if she hasn't already. Another good resume skill for the future.
Dec 10, 2004 08:26 am Aye..welcome and I also endorse the PC route.
With the PC you can learn easily (as much of what you do is point and click anyway yer half way there!!).
Add to this as Walt said, you have a multitasking machine and your laughin...
So, the PC for me it is..
Coco.
Dec 10, 2004 10:41 am Thanks to all of you for the replies. This site is truly wonderful. As an old rock drummer from the late 60's early 70's, we always used reel to reels for recording, so I am out of my league here. My daughter has written dozens of ballad/ pop type songs over the past 5 years with increasing sophistication and maturity. Her voice seems to be the real deal, also. Please keep in mind that I am the too-biased old man! This seems to be what's in her heart (she's 16) and I think she's looking to put together a CD of her stuff. I don't worry about her sticking with the music, she plays and writes for hours every day. She plays and sings in a band every week (at church, the rest of the band is 40's to 50 year olds). So, I believe that her goals are to do this as a career, if possible. And I'm sure that she would want to add tracks and instrumentation to the songs. Anyway, she has a dell 4600 computer, XP home, 512 ram. If we use the PC, what all do I need to get? Thanks for letting me ramble
Dec 10, 2004 10:53 am Glad to help. For starters, I would say in the case you have now presented, I would say to follow my link above and get the free copy of Tracktion, smokin deal for free, and, to help a bit, read my look at it at www.homerecordingconnecti...tory&id=362 I was very impressed by it for beginners.
Then, after that it would seem all you really need is a sound card and perhaps an outboard compressor and preamp to get started...
My advice regarding some of this, and to try to minimize the fanancial pain of starting would be to pick up this little mixer service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear which you may look at and say "what the %@$#%^@ do I need this for", so, let me explain. That mixer has preamps built in it, as well as effects, including compression. By no means the best in the biz, but good nough for you and her to get your feet wet and get some work done.
After that the sound card, which you have in your PC, but the ones included in PC's are for gaming and DVD watching. It would work if you daughter was going to do what I originally thought and just record herself playing that original instrument you mentioned. When you start recording, playing that back and recording something over it, playing those two back and recording over it, etc, those cards can choke. A very common card, and one I used to use is this service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear Audiophile from M-Audio.
Welcome to the wonderful world of digital recording, it's a bit of a learning curve, but once you hear your first few recording and get the thrill of editing digitally you'll wonder why you ever did tape...except for it was all you could do then...I remember those days...if you have a new arrangement, you don't rerecord, you just copy and paste the sections in a different order :-)
Dec 10, 2004 02:10 pm If you are not computer savy, I wouldn't get involved with the pc for music recording. A stand alone unit is much more of a plug in and go experience.
Dec 10, 2004 02:20 pm don't listen to Karyn, she has anti-PC Issues ;-)
Dec 10, 2004 02:31 pm Thanks for the excellent advice, Administrator and Recording Chick! I do have some computer knowledge, so that will hopefully not be an issue. Pug and go is atractive though. I will check out the links recommended and try to get this setup done by the holidays...Slightly less clueless dad
Dec 10, 2004 06:05 pm Someone has got to be anti PC on this board dB, Your forum has to be fair and balanced. I'm like the Fox news on HRC (Fair and Balanced) :)
Dec 10, 2004 06:10 pm Bwahahaha, Fox, fair and balanced...whoa...
BTW, I just applied for a job at Fox today, so send me good Mojo :-)
Fair and balanced sucks, I am more of the "my way or the hi-way" frame of mind :-D
Dec 10, 2004 06:23 pm Good luck. You might want to change your post considering where you hope to work. They might not take kindly to the " Bwahahaha, Fox, fair and balanced...whoa..." The world is smaller than you think. :)
Dec 10, 2004 06:58 pm Fair point...
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Dec 11, 2004 03:19 am Oh my,
"Fair and Balanced"; Now there's a concept. And see it now on Figment Of Xanadu!
Regardless dB, good luck! Money is good for a balanced meal!
Dec 11, 2004 03:25 am QUOTE: 'Money is good for a balanced meal!'
Lol...Walt...how ya doing?
And much good mojo to ya too dB.
Cheers,
BM :-)
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Dec 11, 2004 02:07 pm Hey BM!
Not bad, pretty much groovin and being obnoxious when I can get by with it. Had a neat gig last night for a corp. Xmas party. Five hour gig and they brought in a pair of professional dancers to help keep the entertainment going. Must say I was born too late. Try as I might, the little hormonal Wally kept pointing out the moves that girl could do. Bad Wally, bad Wally, He missed a few notes. All joking aside it was a lot of fun. I was very supprised at the crowd. In another auditorium they had a rock show. I thought we would get only an older crowd. This was not the case. Very good blend of folks. Everybody danced a lot and had a great time.
How's things shakin down under?
Dec 11, 2004 05:03 pm Cool Walt...sounds like a crowd with class eh? Only been on the receiving end of good entertainment...and it always makes your night!
Here...usually a little warmer leading up to Xmas...Today is Sunday and I'm a gonna meet mah girls for lunch...today, besides fixing everyone up, dusting off the world and putting it back together again...we are going to see what we can come up with to sell on eBay...
Children and men do the lawns and stuff today...yay!
Cheers,
BM :-)
