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My son is reseaching computer-based recording for his proposed project studio. Last night he borrowed his friend's setup with Pro Tools and an M-Box (and lot of other stuff too). After showing me a few samples of what it can do, I said, "OK, plug me in!"
All I had was my passive piezo equipped travel guitar. I did a solo version of, "White Christmas," with a mellow acoustic sound incorporating a touch of chorus and some room reverb, effortlessly punched in over a botched ending, and then added a 2nd track with jazzy melodic fills (set for classic jazztone with a different reverb).
The results, except for my playing of course, were absolutely amazing! Wow!
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12-24-2010 10:35 AM
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+1, Computer based recording is the bomb.
A few hundred in today dollars gets you a $100,000 or so in yesteryears dollars worth of recording studio, or so it seems.
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Yep-and ProTools 9 kicks serious butt.
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I suppose I have come in contact with a similar experience when a collegue tried to teach me Cubase. With a few quick clicks he created a small jingle that seemed like SciFi. Merry Christmas
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+1 for technology.
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I have to replace my recording interface, an Event Electronics EzBus (which 5 yrs ago cost a small fortune, came with no software, and is now no longer supported).
Oilywrag suggested the V-Studio 20 from Cakewalk which seems pretty good value. Does anyone here know how the m-box solution stacks up? Or other worthy solutions?
After my previous experience, I want to keep the budget reasonably low (say less than $400ish) so that the real money can be kept for more fun things like new amps and a jazz box!
Cheers.
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You could get Cubase 5 student edition ( same as full version) for $299 and a Focusrite 6 USB for $199...Sweetwater has them
I use them both and the Focusrite has great mic pres for the money...good drivers and low latency.
Protools only uses their own plug-ins...Cubase uses VST plug-ins..there are a lot of companies making those, which I think is more flexible...IMHO..
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Speaking of Technology: a 'classic' rock band I'm in did a self-recorded 5 song demo to get gigs. One of our members has a computer based recording setup using Sonar 8.5. I think I like ProTools better, but anyway ... One song was great, but the tempo was too slow. I was bummed, because it sounded terrific otherwise. He said, no problem: I'll just speed it up with 'Audacity' (a free program)! I don't know, all this seems like cheating. No more punching in - just put the fix on a new track and copy and paste it into the old one; change the speed (but not the pitch or the tone) of the final mix; virtually create the sound of a B3 or a custom drum kit! Conceptually, I'm still stuck in the days of 2-inch wide 24-track tapes running at 30 inches per second!
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Ah-but we always had varispeed to speed up recordings with tape-that was cheating as well!!
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As long as the cheating stays fun and doesn't mess up the sound quality, I say go for it! :-)
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All software has their own advantages and disadvantages. I personally prefer Cubase, as Pro Tools does not handle midi so well. You have to pay such a premium for the gear to run it and the RTas Plug-ins are considerably more expensive.
It was designed to work like a tape machine and to be ultra reliable.
I personally need something really flexible and not too expensive. Plus I have got so used to it changing to another DAW would be a pain.
With regards to the issue of cheating. I am not sure that I would see it as cheating. Live and recording are two vvery different mediums. Live you play and what have done is gone and only exist as a memory. A wrong note is quickly forgotten. A wrong note in a recording sticks out like a sore thumb. How many people in a stressful recording session can get everything right.
I know that I am not Pat Metheny - which is a shame - as I don't always get everything nailed first time. Correcting things and making it sound good is for the benefit of listeners as the want to hear the best possible performance.
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Those are the old arguments, Silhouette. Since PT 8 and now with PT9 the MIDI is just as good as Cubase, Sonar etc. It now can run on any machine, with any hardware (doesn't have to be AVID or Digidesign) and can run VST's with a wrapper. It now has ADC as well, which was the bug-bear for a lot people.
You're dead right, though-changing DAWS can be a pain in the butt!!
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You know, I was being somewhat facetious with the 'cheating' comment. If you have music conceptualized in your head, any tool that will allow you to turn that conceptualization into actual sound waves seems fair enough to me. Being able to perform live the material that you've created electronically is a different issue entirely, however!
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Got that, Tom :-) You know, I recorded some original music a few years ago WITHOUT much post-production manipulation and I'd have a hard time playing it live now!
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Hi, jazzguitar-friends!
Please check out my recent recording I made using the MBox 2 Mini and Pro Tools 8 LE here:
https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/showc...tml#post126530
Would love your votes and comments! Thanks in advance!
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If you're just getting started, definitely look into "Reaper" - a fully featured recording and MIDI app that beats all the competitors on a price basis.
Originally Posted by bass2man
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if you get pro tool 9, you can use any interface you want. i have had a couple of m-boxes and they are ok. if you want better conversion and pre's for the $$, go for an apogee duet, or if you want more mic pre's and inputs, check out motu. lots of options (and opinions), but m-box definitely is easy to use and works well.
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