Computer Recording For Non-Tech

[brandondrury]

This was sent to me as a PM. I figured that everyone could pitch in.

Hello, Brandon.

I'm an old dude, old school thinking and I don't know a damn this about computers, much less computer DAW's. I know a DAW will do great things on a budget, but I'm wondering if I'll be better off with an analog tape machine or a stand alone digital recorder?
I'm not a sound engineer, just a musician wanting to capture my music. It's frustrating, to say the least.

I know once I get a good grasp on computer recording, then the sky's the limit and that's exciting!

A good recording engineer/musician friend and I decided to build a home studio about 3 years ago. We pooled our resources together. I provided my basement, plus a nice collection of gear. He supplied his engineering expertise, plus his Pro Tools PC recording system.
We made some fantastic recordings. I know very little about sound engineering, but with his help, all I had to do is play my music. It was great.

My friend passed away suddenly a year ago and all recording stopped. His family reclaimed his Pro Tools and the studio has remained silent ever since. I’ve really been missing laying down the tracks.

Recently, I decided to bite the bullet and attempt to learn how to record on my PC. I purchased Adobe Audition 2.0 and a Delta 1010LT audio card. But you know, reading the operating manuals for this equipment is like reading a Chinese newspaper for me. I’m intimidated by all of the terminology, acronyms and such. I’m sure this equipment will do amazing things, but all I want to do at this time is just lay down some basic tracks. That’s all.

Luckily, I found this website and so maybe there’s hope for me! I need some patient help to learn this stuff and I’m hoping people here on this forum can help me out.

I mostly want to record acoustic & electric guitar, Roland keyboard and vocals. I have a Rode NTK tube mike and several SM 57’s/58’s.
I have the Audition 2.0 loaded on my computer, but yet have I installed the Delta 1010LT card. First I need to make sure I have the jumper switches on the card configured properly for the recording I’m going to be doing.

Sorry for the whining. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. It would be much appreciated.

Thank You,
Roy

[brandondrury]

I know once I get a good grasp on computer recording, then the sky's the limit and that's exciting!

Good. That's the direction you should go considering you already have all the gear you need. It would be ridiculous to ditch all your computer gear to learn a standalone box. The standalone boxes are, in my opinion, MUCH harder to learn than the computer stuff. I think many people hear "computer" and immediately cower in fear. There is no reason to do this.

My friend passed away suddenly a year ago and all recording stopped.

I hate to hear that, dude. My condolences.

But you know, reading the operating manuals for this equipment is like reading a Chinese newspaper for me.

I think you decided that before you even started reading the manuals. We both know those manuals are in English. There are some vocabulary words you need to work on, but Google (or asking question on RecordingReview.com) takes care of all of this. If you gave it 4 solid hours of reading the manual while looking up each term on Google that you didn't know, you would EASILY know everything you need to. In fact, it may only take 2 hours.

I could sum up the whole thing in a paragraph.

So, while I appreciate you taking the time to discuss on the forum, I do have to say that the 10 minutes you spent on this private message should have went to SLOWLY and PRECISELY reading the manual.

You'll do fine. This whole "I'm a tech" so I can't do this or "I'm not a tech" so I can't do this is all hogwash. If you can drive a car, you can work recording software.

Brandon