Might as well start off with a question

[Squirrlnutz]

Hi all! Great site.

I'm pretty new at this. My experience with personal recording is limited to Cakewalk Guitar Tracks (circa 1999?) and a beat up mixer running RCAs out to my stock sound card. It was essentially good enough to lay down guitar riffs so I wouldn't forget them...the time has come to grow up and get serious about this.

Thanks to this site I have a pretty good feel for what I need to get my recording project underway. One thing I really want as a lonely guitar player is a solid drum loop program. The one I've been using for the past 10 years is nothing more than a glorified click track. So I have a couple in mind but I'm worried about compatability with my recording software (which I've yet to purcahse).

Are all these loop programs pretty compatable? For instance the one I'm most interested in is Beta Monkey's Double Bass Mania (I play prog metal) says its available in "16 bit or 24 bit WAV, APPLE or REX2 format loops" are these formats that will be compatable with Cubase or Sonar or Reason etc? I imagine the WAV formats are the norm (for a PC base program which I'll have)...but I really don't know which brings me here!

Also if anyone has recommendations for recording software to get me going I'd appreciate it. My budget will probably be around $300 and I'm really looking for ease of use first with the ability to add on plug-ins later as I get more and more comfortable mixing and editing.

Thanks in advance

[Vulconizer]

Hey bud. Welcome to the site.

I'd definitely check out Cubase. So far, for me, it has been pretty easy to use. Seems to have quite a bit of flexibility in regards to virtual instruments and plug-ins. Figured I'd toss it out as the one that works for me.

Make sure to check into some other software as well, just to see which might be the right one for you. Compare. Evaluate. Ask around. Then go buy Cubase.

I happen to know that EZDrummer works very well with Cubase and I like the sound I am able to get with it to this point.

[Blues Boy]

Ezdrummer and Beta Monkey and Drums on Demand all work very well in Reaper. Reaper is a no brainer for recording software. It is free to evaluate and 50 bucks to register if you decide you like it.

Good luck.

[brandondrury]

Are all these loop programs pretty compatable?

It depends on the loop program. Some are going to be standalone (like Fruity Loops) and don't really have a good way to get the drums into Cubase short of rendering them to wav files.

You want to make sure that whatever you select is capable of being ran as a plugin. Cubase uses the VST plugin format. So you want to make sure that your drum software also uses that format.

Loops are one way to go but personally I don't like them. I'd highly recommend checking out either EZ Drummer or the brand new Superior Drummer 2.0 as both of these sound great and ofter total flexibility with MIDI.

As for the recording software, do you have an audio interface yet. (If not, see the Home Recording Soundcard Wizard and look for an audio interface with Cubase LE). You may have to research it a bit, but the newer Cubase LE4 is MUCH more powerful and probably won't require an upgrade of any kind. If you do need to upgrade, it's half price to upgrade Cubase LE vs buying Cubase 4 Studio or Cubase 4 straight up.

Lastly, consider buying your recording gear here.

[Squirrlnutz]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

It depends on the loop program. Some are going to be standalone (like Fruity Loops) and don't really have a good way to get the drums into Cubase short of rendering them to wav files.

You want to make sure that whatever you select is capable of being ran as a plugin. Cubase uses the VST plugin format. So you want to make sure that your drum software also uses that format.

Loops are one way to go but personally I don't like them. I'd highly recommend checking out either EZ Drummer or the brand new Superior Drummer 2.0 as both of these sound great and ofter total flexibility with MIDI.

As for the recording software, do you have an audio interface yet. (If not, see the Home Recording Soundcard Wizard and look for an audio interface with Cubase LE). You may have to research it a bit, but the newer Cubase LE4 is MUCH more powerful and probably won't require an upgrade of any kind. If you do need to upgrade, it's half price to upgrade Cubase LE vs buying Cubase 4 Studio or Cubase 4 straight up.

Lastly, consider buying your recording gear here.

Certainly loops aren't ideal, but as someone with zero midi/piano skill or experience I don't envision myself being able to use midi very effectively. Plus I have pretty bad rythym in general so I imagine it would be hard to create 130bpm blast beats while chaning time sigs. I could be wrong, perhaps its a lot easier than I'm thinking? Drag and drop is probably going to have to work for me for a while. I do plan on getting an interface with midi capabilities so I can ease myself into it down the road (with strings and synths probably) but its not my first priority.

I can't remember the two interfaces I had narrowed it down to, but I'll post them when I get home.

[brandondrury]

Well, there is some work to learning MIDI stuff, but timing isn't necessary at all. You simply put the dots where you want the drum to be struck.

It's your call, but I think you will be happier in the long run going the MIDI route. Superior Drummer 2.0 has quite a few MIDI files you can import.

Brandon

[Squirrlnutz]

The audio interfaces I had looked into were the Edirol FA-101 and the Focusrite Saffire. Does anyone know about these? They had gotten good reviews compared to other similar interfaces like the M-Audio line.

I only need 1-2 inputs as its just me recording, I want to connect via firewire, and I wanted Midi capabilities. I don't know about their compatability with Cubase.

Can you point me towards a good midi guide for beginners i.e. what I should have (both equipment and experience) and what I can expect when learning to use it?

[brandondrury]

I had looked into were the Edirol FA-101 and the Focusrite Saffire. Does anyone know about these?

We have users around here who have either one. They are both excellent audio interfaces.

I don't know about their compatability with Cubase.

Cubase works with any audio interface that works within Windows. (The Pro Tools hardware gets tricky, but other than that both of these audio interfaces should work fine).

Can you point me towards a good midi guide for beginners i.e. what I should have (both equipment and experience) and what I can expect when learning to use it?

I'm not sure if these will meet all of your needs, but they are a start. I hit the issue much more comprehensively in the MIDI chapter of my upcoming home recording book.

Getting Started With Midi Sequencing

MIDI Troubleshooting 101

Brandon