First - Timer Recording

[Neural Rust]

Hi

I've been looking to get into setting up a basic home recording solution. I have a laptop sitting idle so I'd thought I might be able to get away with using that ( wind 10 Intel dual core 2ghz). The budget not huge at £500 just to dip my toe in and see (could be flexible). As micing up an amp is not an option, would I be better off using amp plugins or outboard gear? (multi effects/etc)

Please advise/pour scorn as you see fit.

 

[Punkyskunky]

Hey there mate, £500 is more than enough to get some great starter gear.

What I'd buy for £500:

Reaper as your DAW - excellent audio workstation that you can use for free.

A pair of Audio Technica ATH M50x Headphones - pretty much the gold standard around here - £90

A Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Audio Interface - good quality, inexpensive, doesn't break the bank if you end up deciding that recording isn't for you - £90

Positive Grid Bias (as your guitar amp/cab/fx) - very versatile and affordable - $70/$170 depending on which version you want to go for.

A microphone - maybe a Rode NT1A or a Shure SM7B? - Depends on what purposes you'd be using the mic for, there are tons of great affordable mics to choose from these days - anywhere between £100-£300

EzDrummer2/Superior Drummer - Choose the best expansion for either of these depending on what you need - Metal Machine/Made of Metal/The Progressive Foundry are all excellent choices - £100-£200 depending on what you need.


Hope that helps you in terms of getting an idea of what you can get pretty cheaply these days.

Cheers.

 

[Neural Rust]

Cheers mate for the detailed reply.

My main point of concern is running all these programs on a basic laptop. That's why I was considering M/Effects. Will it struggle?

I will mainly be multi-tracking guitar with some effects, drums and bass as well of course.

 

[MrBongo]

it won´t. Except if Win10 sissies out on the plugins, but that shouldn´t be the case.

Hey, my first mixing desktop PC was a singlecore 2,4GHz. Modern 2GHz cores are a lot faster than older models, so you should be totally fine. If you are unsure, download a demo of Process Lasso, and check if your DAW is running on both cores or just one of them. Both cores at once is naturally better for mixing.
Remember to set your buffer according to the situation. Recording: as low as possible. Mixing: usually 1024 or more. Helps with CPU load

re. Microphone choice: no large diaphragm condenser, and no SM7. The SM7 is too expensive as a beginner´s choice IMO, and condensers tend to sound worse on guitar cabs than many dynamic mics do.
Used AKG D3700 are fine, Heil PR20, etcpp.

 

[Neural Rust]

Thanks MrBongo.

I've downloaded Reaper DAW, ordered a Focusrite 2i4 and I'm going to see how I get on with some free guitar plugins for starters. Not sure about free drum plugins yet. If I Really start getting into it I'll order the EZ drummer.

 

[nezvers]

Free drums MT power drums 2, it's possible to get good results with it and considering it's free - no brainier. I'd suggest to find some samplers that could play round robin sample circles, than use samples found on this forum. Maybe free Kontakt player (some guys made NKI and they could work on free one).
For headphones don't buy AT-m50, I have one and was grate upgrade for me but now I see huge flaw in hi-mids because of closed back. Try to get open back or at least semi-open.
Positive Grid Bias not worth for me (only worth it has is EQ-match to make it sound good). Better off with free Le Pou/ TSE/ Ignite amps for amps; MickRich IRs; line 6 free podfarm 2,5 version for cleans and few fx + Google for shit-ton free fx.
Use saved money to get best headphones you can get - maybe Senheiser 650/ 600 if possible.

 

[Neural Rust]

Well, still haven't recieved interface I ordered. So I bought one locally. An Alesis that I was informed would work with win 10 by the assistant at the shop. Turns out it doesn't work with win 10 and the assistant is a twat. Anyway, I found another, downloaded the drivers ready for trying with reaper.

Windows decided to install a major update and after 3 fucking hours it restarted. Minus reaper.

I wasn't aware of this but apparently wind 10 removes programs that it thinks doesn't belong.

What a clusterfuck.

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

Yeah, I would roll back to 8.1 if you can. No reason to have Win 10 at this point for virtually anybody.