From wwblues2@hotmail.com Sun Jan 30 23:19:50 2005
Subject:Re: Which recording hardware do you use?


If you have firewire on your computer, you might look at a Presonus Firepod. It has 8
preamps (they sound very clean and transparent to me) and an excellent headphone amp.
Cost about $600. If you only need two inputs at once, they have a more portable firewire
interface for about $400, I think it is called a Firebox.

Both come with Cubase LE, an easy to use software package that will do your 24/96
recording if you choose, along with really nice MIDI sequencing. Cubase LE is a stripped
down version of Cubase SX, but includes most of what you need and is free with the audio
interface. Once you mess around with the sequencing, you will probably want to get a few
virtual instruments, like B4 and a good drum kit and maybe a good piano, like Steinberg
Grand. You might also want to get good mastering tools, like Peak and T-racks.

Depending on how many tracks you want at a time, you will probably want some computer
horsepower. One thing that is a must is a large, fast hard drive. While a notebook
computer is nice and portable, you won't find the hard drive satisfactory, so you will want
a good sized firewire drive, too. In a desktop, serial ATA is plenty fast and inexpensive.

Regarding 24/96, I don't know how many people use it because of the huge file sizes. I
think most stuff is recorded at 24/44.1. 24 bit recording is noticably better than 16 bit,
because it gives so much more room for effects to work. It will all become 16/44.1 when
it goes to CD. I don't know if you can hear the difference after it is converted to MP3, but
if you want to try, there are some originals on my band's website that you can compare if
you like. http://www.zengarageband.com go to "music" and "bill's songs". Most were done
at 24 bit/44.1khz (with Cubase) except the last three, which were done at 16 bit, one with
a hard disk recorder ("Minnesotans for Global Warming"), the last two with a $10 software
package called GarageBand on my Macintosh. Please forgive my amateur Clone Wheel
work... I'm a harmonica player. :-).

Since you probably already have most of what you need, you can do high quality
recordings this way for not a lot of money. Spend the rest of your budget on good
microphones and excellent powered monitors (VERY important!!!), like Event 20 20 bas,
which you can find on eBay for about $550 per pair.

FWIW
BillG
Minneapolis