Recording at home.

[Donald Wormuth]

Well I've been writing my own music for a couple years. Not an amazing amount of songs, Just a few. I downloaded a free copy I guess you call it of pro tools. I want to set up like a small mixing board or something. That I can plug my guitar snd bas into. Then into my PC is there something like that and fairly new to all this. I've never had a question in my life for actually that's a lie. I just started just started SBL. And I've learned that I taught myself bad habits. Which is correcting now kind of hard because I've been doing things wrong so long. But that's near here nor there. I'm looking for something is not going to break me it works decently and is it a reasonable price. And disabled and live on it very limited income. And I'm just learning with pro tools. So I don't want to go and buy all this stuff. And spend a lot of money if I'm not able to accomplish what I'm trying to do. Something for like a beginner. Something that fairly simple to use.

 

[Laurentian Dave]

My advice if you are just starting out would be to download Reaper DAW (shareware) and purchase a good used USB input interface like a Focusrite Scarlett. If you need a microphone and can only afford one, get a Shure SM57.

 

[AceOfBassFace]

My advice if you are just starting out would be to download Reaper DAW (shareware) and purchase a good used USB input interface like a Focusrite Scarlett. If you need a microphone and can only afford one, get a Shure SM57.

This is exactly the way to go. Reaper is $60, but there's a free trial. You can continue using it after the free trial, there's just a nag screen. Advise paying for it though if you do like it and intend to keep using it. It's full-featured and very easy to install and use. There are literally hundreds of free tutorials on youtube. The free Pro-tools is ok, but much of it is locked down. I found it to be bloated, painful to install, and it crashed a lot.

If you have some extra $, some decent headphones and/or studio monitors, and an amp-simulation DI like the Tech 21 VT Bass will make a huge difference.

 

[DirtDog]

You'll need an audio interface as a minimum solution to connect your guitars/bass to your computer. Lots of options at less than $100. some come in a mixer-like form factor so you might want to focus in on those. Software options abound as well - esp. on the low-cost and open source side of things: Ardour, Audacity, Reaper and others might meet your needs.

That's the starting point - things can get quite complex and sophisticated from there.

Basic signal flow goes: guitar/bass and/or microphone(s) -> pedals and/or preamp* -> direct into audio interface -> USB connect interface to computer -> recording software.

*optional - you don't NEED pedals or preamps, but you can use 'em if you have em