Fun with Vst's and other Freebies

Recently I was looking for some free audio tools I came across this great little website called VSTPlanet.com. VSTPlanet has very nice collections of freeware, and share ware programs and applications. There you can find anything from VST effects to multi track mixers, to VSTi insterments to audio editors.

If you work with any of the major and many minor multi-track audio applications or sequencers than I’m sure you have heard the term, VST. VST is a plug-in platform that was created by Steinberg and really pushed the digital audio world.

Wikipeda states “Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology and its acronym VST refer to an interface standard for connecting audio synthesizer and effect plugins to audio editors and hard-disk recording systems and also giving the plugins a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for easy manipulation. VST and similar technologies allow the replacement of traditional recording studio hardware with software counterparts. Thousands of plugins exist, making VST the most widespread audio plugin architecture. The technology can be licensed from its creator, Steinberg.” From that definition you can see how useful VST’s can be.

I had initially found the site when looking for a alternative to Cubase and discovered Reason, which I tinkered around with over the long holiday weekend. I returned to look for an audio editor, and they have quite the collections of them as well.

If you ware looking for VST’s VSTplanet.com has all sorts of freebies and shareware plug-ins for your audio pleasure.

Free Lunch

My folks always said there was no such thing as a free lunch. I think at the time I would have agreed with them. Now in this day and age where we rely so much on technology I would dispute that Idea. I had stated earlier that I was going to try and find a replacement for Cubase. I have spent a long weekend with reaper and trying out some other similar applications. In the end I’m going to get out the old debit card and purchase a copy of Cubase.

I really loved Reaper and may still use it but one thing that annoyed me that I did not experience with Cubase is clipping. For some reason when I used EZDrummer to insert in my Midi drums I’m getting a lot of clipping on some parts. I have attempted to turn down those tracks but I’m just no happy oh how it over all turned out.

I’ve also stated before that recording should be a creative process and not really a technical one. With as much time I have spend messing around with stuff over this long holiday weekend I could have had this song done by now. It could have been done even if I am as picky as I am about the little details.

Reaper is a fairly good product, and I plan on still using it form time to time it just will not be my main application of choice. Reaper gave you the option of choosing an audio editor and Midi editor for different file types. It does not have its own. I liked this idea, or at least the option. I could use Wave lab lite or Audacity to edit my wave files.

So there may still be a free lunch but it looks likes it’s on day old bread and served at 5 in the morning.

Happy thanksgiving!

Happy merry thanksgiving! I thought today it would only be appropriate to take about what I’m thankful for. To keep it related to this blog I though I should only talk about music and recording related items.

I’m thankful for software, which is both a blessing and a curse. I have recently been thinking about this. I have software that came free with my soundcard but I have felt it lacked some features, mainly with VSTi of EZDrummer and not being able to drag and drop it. This has forced me to look for alternates. First I though about Cuabse, and went out and downloaded Cubase SX 3 using bit torrent. I know, I know I broke the law, but I really only had intentions on testing it out and figured eventually I would purchase a legal copy. That is until I saw price. I have since uninstalled it. I have done the same with cakewalk Sonar and have also uninstalled it.

I’m thankful for good inexpensive software. Since the professional mainstream applications are a bit out of my price range I decided to look at some alternates. I found to rather inexpensive programs that do alto of what the big boys do like Cubase and Sonar. One I Reaper which for a non-commercial license is $50 ant the other is n-Track Studio which is $64 for a license. Both seemed to work win EZDrummer. I am going to attempt to stay “Clean” as far a software licenses go and plan on reviewing both of these in a later post.

I’m thankful for cheap imported guitars. I love cheap imported guitars. You can create all sorts of different sounds and feeling out a cheap imported guitar and be easy on the wallet. Figuring that I usually pick my guitars up second hand I can get them even cheaper.

I’m thankful for stable PC hardware. In the eternal Mac vs. PC battle, I firmly believe that the PC as a hardware platform is much more flexible that the Mac. Look at an online retailer like Newegg or tiger direct. They carry Hundreds of motherboards, video cards, printer’s memory, etc. now go over to the Mac section or the Mac store and lets compare what my options are if I own a Mac. There is no comparison. Then look at price. Proof that competition lowers prices.

Well I hope every one has a good Thanksgiving!! But I do think they will be changing the name of thanks giving to “Christmas Kickoff” some time in the near future.

An Experiment in Linux Audio

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I had tried out Linux as a DAW a few years ago. I had figured it would be fun to attempt it again. I downloaded a 64 Studio and had a copy of Ubuntu 7.10 lying around. I am no slouch when it comes to Linux and went a couple of years running only Linux on my personal PC. The reason I was running Linux was because I was a poor student, and my hardware was old, which caused windows to run very slow and unstable. The reason I switched back to windows is I was studying for MCP certification and needed to get to know Windows XP.

64 Studio is supposed to be ideal configured for audio, video and graphics work. It features JACK Audio Connection Kit, Ardour, Hydrogen and Rosegarden. Each application is very powerful and could replace commercial professional grade programs such as Cubase or Sonar. May I could not wait to get this downloaded so I could try it out.

I had previously downloaded Ubuntu 7.10 but had not had a chance to use it. I was initially going to install in and 1 GHz machine and use it as a file server. I pulled out the CD and set it off to the side incase 64 Studio had some issues.

So I popped in 64 Studio rebooted my computer and ran through the installation which took about 30 minutes or so. When I was all done I booted up to a nice and colorful black screen. i figured Xorg had failed but could not see anything in the log files. Also it did not seem to have vi so I could not attempt to change the xorg.config file. I booted back into windows and check a forum off 64 studios main site and found that someone else had the same issue but did not see a clear fix. Rather than spend hours trying to fix it I gave up and tried Ubuntu.

I know Ubuntu very well and there motto is “Linux for Human Beings” and it a very simple and easy to use distribution. I booted off the Live CD and begin the installation. It went really smooth. 20 minutes later I booted into my new Linux OS and started tinkering around to make sure my hard ware worked. And wouldn’t you know my sound card is not being recognized. I am using the E-ME 0404 card. Again rather than comb the corners of the internet to find a solution I decided to scrap it all together.

This was a very frustrating night. Being a musician I do have a bit of a rebellious side to me. Nothing would give me greater pleasure that to “stick it to the Man”. But in my experience with my hardware I just could not do it quire yet. I’m going to keep my eyes open and when I find something that will support my hardware I may give it another go, but until then I’m going to have to settle for Windows.

EMU 0404 PCI Sound Card

I have been thinking about buying a decent sound card for the past several months. I have been extremely discouraged by latency issues with my current sound card that was so bad that if I recorded while listening to a digital track on my computer I was half a beat off.

I had to decide what I really needed first. Since I only record track at a time I figured that if I had 2 audio inputs (Left and Right) that would be fine. Additionally I wanted to have 2 speaker outputs (left and Right). As for my digital needs I wanted to make sure I had MIDI capabilities and S/PDIF coaxial for a device I had. I have fought with a latency in the past so it had to have low latency, and be windows compatible.

I did some looking on several different sites. I first went to online computer hardware retailers, like www.newegg.com and looked at what they had to offer. They really did not have much to choose from. Most of what they carried was for typical user sound cards that a gamer might require. I could either choose a consumer grade sound card which is something I wanted to shy away form or go after something a little more professional. My current sound card is a consuer grade and has caused the pains of lantacy. I found an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card I though would be really nice and cost about $149 plus shipping. Another card I found was the E-MU 0404 for about $99. I decided to steer away from USB cards because of the limited bandwidth and the way my chipset on my motherboard dealt with USB versus PCI. Since I do not have a fire wire interface I choose to stay away form that as well.

I wound up choosing the E-MU 0404 mainly because of price, and a review off of Toms Hardware.http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/04/creative/index.html. Now that I’m ready to buy, I log into new egg and they were sold out. I decided to check out some other retailer that would be local. I did some searching and guitar center shows that they have it online, and I could have ordered it. I called up the store that was local here and they did carry it in stock. So I stopped by there and picked it up that night for the same price Newegg had it for.

Before I could really get started I had to buy some adapters and made a stop at the local radio shack. To start out with I’m just going to use a 3 piece speaker system for monitors until I get some decent monitors, and because of that had to combine dual mono ¼ inch jack into 1/8 inch stereo. Radio Shack did not have what I was looking for and I wound up butchering a couple of other cables I had at home to create what I wanted.

Installation was very easy, as long as you are comfortable with computer parts. The EMU had 2 different dongles that plugged into 2 separate DB connecters on the back of the card. Both the analog in and out were red and white for left and right and were clearly marked either in or out.

The EMU also came with quite the collection of software and tools including; Cakewalk SONAR LE, Steinberg Cubase LE, Ableton Live Lite, Steinberg Wavelab lite, IK Multimedia AmpliTube LE, Minnetonka DiscWelder Bronze Trial Edition, and SFX Machine LT. There was also a mixer application that has several different options and effects that starts with windows. There is a lot of configuration with the mixer but right now I’m not sure how helpful it really is. Most of the software that came bundled would be good for someone really new to pc recording but I found that it did not have all the features that I required.

As for the card’s performance it is exactly what I was expecting. When I recorded I did not experience any latency issues like I had in the past. I’ll update this article with more information about this card in the future but as of right now I’m very happy I made this purchase.

Linux Audio Studio

One of my new favorite Bolger site users is http://homestudiotalk.blogspot.com/ and had I known about his site I may have not ever started this one. Today there is a new post about Ardour, which is a free open source digital music studio software for Linux and the Mac. I have been really into Linux a few years back and still see the potential for Linux. Several years ago I had setup a Linux box and attempted to turn it into a digital music studio. This was when I was in school and studying hardware and software and though it would be a good opportunity to use what I know about computers and music and put them together. I even went so far as turned it into my teach for extra credit, but really I did it just to say I could do it.

Wow how things have changed now there there are a bunch of different sound audio applications and a whole slew of different distributions just for audio production and recording.

Since the post about Ardour on http://homestudiotalk.blogspot.com/ I decided that I would dual boot my computer and really test out some of the software. As I right this I am downloading Ubuntu Linux 7.10 Desktop. I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about what it was like several years ago. I’m not sure what the exact date was but it was when Mandrake 10 was out and I’m guessing about 3 years ago.

At the time, there were some Linux issues; first was being latency and the second was a new sound driver build into the kernel called Alsa.

There were other audio freaks out there and they had created a low latency kernel that you could install. The problem with the latency in the kernel was pretty basic. Linux is based on Unix and is a server based operating system. It wants to server requests, but also it felt that a request for sound was less important that anything else the CPU might be doing and it would hold off on processing audio. This is what caused the latency. I’m under the impression that this has been fixed in more recent version of linux.

The second issue was with the sound driver called Alsa. Before Alsa there was a set of calls in Linux called OSS. The problem with that is it could only process one sound at a time. Fore example if you were listening to a CD and checking your email. The cd would play like normal but when ever your email program would chime that you have an email it would for wait to play the chime until the music was done. But Alsa fixed this but at the time it was a very new technology.

With my experiment I installed Mandrake 10 and then proceeded to re-compile the low latency kernel and alsa modules. Then other programs. In the end it took about 5 hours not including initial installation.

When I was doing this I was also comparing it to windows using Magic Music Studio Generation 6. I hated to admit that Windows performed better, was easer to use and configure.

The bottome line in creating a music studio is really about building a creative enroment. I want to make music, record my ideas, and produce and process my craft. I do not want to fight with Kernels, sound drivers, compiling source code, and shutting off services. Just let me play.

I’m going to give it another shot and will post my feeling and thoughts.

Another Weekend Burnt…By Looping Mistakes

There goes another weekend gone way too fast. I did get a chance to do some recording of a song I have had for along time. I had two lines on a verse that I could just never seem to finish so I sat on it for couple of years. Friday I just happened to be playing my guitar and started playing the verse potion and boom, it’s now done. So I have been working on getting the basics of it recorded and hope to have it up online soon. But it may take another couple of fast weekends.

One lesson I did learn this weekend is about looping. In the past I would always, record track by track live, but I was also recording on a cassette 4-track. So with this song I have been working on I decided to use the full power of Cubase and utilize looping. So there I am, I have my EZDrummer drum track all setup, I have recorded my clean guitar rhythm parts, I’ve got the bass recorded, some overdriven guitar parts. And it sounds really good so far. I decide to listen to some of the track solo. This is when I start to hear this little chirp. What the hell is that?

So I went to some of my Cubase Tutorials and other resources and I guess it is pretty common to have happen when you cut a track in the middle of a wave. This I did not know. I could have saved some of the project but I decided to scrap the whole thing and start out fresh and this time added a bridge to the song. Further more I realized how great Cubase really is! Now that I realize there are these artifacts in the audio file when you cut the tracks I really began to appreciate how good Cubase is and allows you to zoom way down into the file. I also see that as long as snap Is turned off Cubase is really responsive to your changes. There really is a lot I still have to learn about the program.

Details.....

So here is our simple bass line










With Snap on Just cut it at the start of the Measure.










Every thing looks good until we zoom in and look really close. Notice that our cut is just a tiny bit past the middle line. if we looped the two files it would sound fine but when we would loop just one over and over you would hear a little chirp, or click. usualy if you have drums they would cover it up, but not allways.






Now, to fix this problem is we will take the same file and zoom in to the area we want to cut at, but first we want to take off the snap function. then you want to cut as close to where we were going to but this time but when the wavy line meets at the center line.






Now when we loop this file there will be no chirp or click. make usre to turn snap back on and have fun with you new loop.

Coverfest Mothly Recording Forum

Tonight I went over to Harmony-central and browsed around there for a while. I have not been on there for 6 moths or so. I decided to check out there forum and found a really cool thins they had going on.

It was in the Guitar Jam Forum and Form the looks of things they have a monthly contest called Coverfest. The ideas are that people submit cover songs that meet a certain theme or idea. Some of the previous ones were horror themes, Hip Hop and Rap, The Beatles, Songs of the 2000, Songs of the 90, and songs of the 80’s.

I went through some of the previous entries and it was a lot of fun.

If your any think like me, I can only sit and start working on something new when I’m inspired to do so. I cannot force it. I think I may attempt to participate at some point I just suck as a singer. I also figured that by participating in something like this it will force you get better and mixing and producing. Practice does make perfect.

The Windows Based DAW Part IV

Over the last couple of posts I have talked a lot about PC’s from hardware to tweaking your computer to get optimal performance, in windows and up until now have been fairly unrelated to actual doing any recording. This article is going to introduce you to some digital audio studio recording suites.

Most companies who produce these software suites will provide a verity of different versions. Companies do this to provide different tools to different levels of customers; form the producer to the amateur. Many times if you purchase a professional grade sound card then you will get some software that comes bundled with it. This may meet all of your needs, but sometimes you may find that you need some additional features that aren’t there.

This is by no means a complete list and if you are thinking about purchasing one of these, I would highly recommend finding a Demo version of one and make sure it meets you needs. Also there are tons of online resources on the internet of musicians who use some of this software. Look for some input from someone who does some of the same type of music and skill level as you and get input form them.

Below is a list of some PC studio software to wikipeda links.

• Ableton Live Wikipeda Page
• Ableton offical web page
• Acid Pro Wikipeda Page
• Acid Pro offical web page
• Adobe Auditon Wikipeda Page
• Offical Adobe Audion web page
• Cakewalk Sonar Wikipeda Page
• Offical Cakewalk Sonar Page
• Steinberg Cubase Wikipeda Page
• Offical Stienberg Cubase Web Page
• Reaper Wikipeda Page
• Offical Reaper Web Page
• Pro Tools Wikipeda Page
• Offical Pro Tools Web Page

There is also some software that will only work with certain hardware, for example Pro Tools, which is also a very popular will only work with certain soundcards, but it is also one on the most popular, out there.

The link below provides a nice little break down and comparison of the different suites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_multitrack_recording_software.

Next we are going to look at the interface form a generic point of view. I will be using Cubase LE, Cakewalk Sonar LE, and Albeton Live Lite because that is what I currently have installed on my PC and also came free with my sound card.

Default Interfaces....

Ableton Live Lite

Steinberg Cubase LE











Cakewalk Sonar LE

All the different music suites have track interface, where you can see the wave forms of the different track, usually there are tools at the top of the windows and a movable “Transport Panel” sometimes this panel is built into the tools sometimes it floats above every thing else. but it basically is a play button, with other functions of a tape/DVD deck.

Ableton Live Lite Transport




Cakewalk Sonar LE Transport




Steinbert Cubase LE Transport



No you may have noticed that every one of these apps had some what similar options. They all had some similar buttons. We are going to go over the very basics, of recording and playing back.

The very first thing you need to do is set up your inputs in the applications, each program is different, as is some of the options form sound card to sound card. See the correct documentation for details on how to set this up.

The first thing you will need to do is arm the track you wish to record to. There is a button that either says R for recorded or will have a dark circle like on a VCR. Next we will need to go to the transport bar and press the record button.

Ableton Live Lite Track is Armed and Ready to record !!!













Cakewalk Sonar LE audio track is armed and ready to record










Cubase LE has audio track armed and ready to record.

You will see a bar go across the application and behind it will be a wave form. Play something then press stop when your done, and un-arm your track.

Press the rewind button and then play. Now you know the basics on how to record.

I briefly wanted to talk about VST and VSTi. VST is an acronym for Virtual Studio Tools, and the little “I” is for interments. VST’s are little plug-in or programs that will run inside your studio application suite. They will give you different functions and can be alto of fun. I’ll show a couple of different one in the screen shots below

IK Multimedia Amplitube LE

This is an guitar and bass amp simulator sort of like a Line6 Pod.

EZDrummer is a MIDI drummer with a ton of build in groves and changes. You can just drag and drop the midi file into the arranger. On of the really cool things about VSTi like EZDrummer, is that I can get additional kits and just change them on the fly to get a completely different sound and feel.

And here is a image of a Korg keyboard VSTi

This about covers this series of posts on running a Windows based DAW. I hope that you found it helpful and informative. In this series we talked about the basics of PC hardware, discussed some tweaks to Windows XP for better performance, and then using some different Audio Studio software and VSTs. Feel free to post a comment or email me at stonedtrout (at) gmail.com.

The Windows Based DAW Part III

In part I we briefly discussed using a PC running windows for a home music studio. Then in part II we discussed a very general over view of pc hardware. Now in this installment we will further discuss computers but this time focusing on your operating system, and some simple tweaks you can do to squeeze some more performance out of your hardware. I’m going to assume that every one is running Windows XP, or Windows 2000. If not there will be little here that will benefit form.

If you ware running Windows the first tweak I am going to suggest it to check the start up folder and see if there are any applicators that are set to automatically start when your computer starts. This folder is found by going to Start à Programs or All Programs à then look for a folder called Startup. Next see if there are any icons in there, if there are go ahead a delete them. By deleting them you are not uninstalling the programs but just keeping it form automatically starting when the computer boots up.

Now you have noticed that Windows XP has a nice pretty interface compared to Windows 2000 and earlier. Sure pressing the green start button is so much better that pressing the gray one, but there is a cost of this “improved interface” and it does use memory and CPU cycles. This may be unnecessary on some newer computers but on old machines this can make a big difference. Again we will go to Start à then settings and then control panel, on some start menus you can go directly form Start à Control Panel. When the control panel opens up click on the Display icon then the Appearance Tab, and under Windows and buttons choose “Windows Classic” and press O.K.

Our next tweak is going to modify the page file. This is the file that windows uses when a computer has run out of system memory and your computer will start using your hard drive as memory. This is a tweak that Microsoft does not recommend but you can get any where for 7 to 20% increased performance out of your computer. Assuming that eh control panes is still open double click on the System icon à select the “Advanced” tab then under performance click on the settings button. You may also notice there is an option to change the visual settings of windows on the “Visual Effects” section. I would suggest that you select “adjust for best performance” then select apply. Next go to the “Advanced” tab and under Virtual Memory choose Change.

Windows default to set your virtual memory at the Minimum of 1.5 of your current system memory to 2 times for the Maximum. I always recommend that you set your minimum and maximum to be the same value as the maximum. The reason behind this is by using windows default; the computer is constantly resizing your page file, and using unnecessary resources to do so. By setting the min and max to a static value then your computer will not.

If you have an additional hard drive on your computer moving your paging file onto a drive that does not contain your operating system will also help performance. You will need to apply your changes and reboot your computer.

This sums up this article on tweaking windows for better performance. The last article IV in this series will discuss the actual software suite and how to use it, and some general generic concepts.

The Windows Based DAW Part II

In part I we briefly discussed using a PC running windows for a home music studio. In this segment we will talk about some of the specifics on PC hardware and the most important aspects of the computer as it relates to recording audio and MIDI.

Personally I would not recommend running using anything slower that a 1 Ghz processor 512 Megs of ram. The beefier your computer that more you will be able to do with it; such as recording multiple track, and the more tracks you will be able to have in a project.

The core of the Computer

I call the CUP (processor), Motherboard, and Ram (System Memory) the computer Core. These components will greatly impact your ability to work on your computer.

The CPU will provide the processing power such as applying effects to an audio file or compressing a .wav file to .mp3. The faster your processor the fast this task will complete, also some processors will perform this task faster than others. For example Intel based processors beat out AMD in compressing .wav to .mp3 in most benchmark tests.

Ram, also called Memory or System memory is where applications and programs are stored temporarily. If you don’t have enough ram you will begin to experience a dramatic slow down on your computer or if you run out when recording audio you may hear skips or other anomalies. The reason for this is when your computers memory gets full, your computer will move data on to a temporarily space on your hard drive which is much slower that memory. With memory you want as much as possible and it needs to run as fast as your mother board can handle.

The mother board is where everything plugs into and contains a component call the Chipset. The motherboard and the chipset really dictates what functions and how it is able to handles different components and interfaces, such as USB 2.0, Fire Wire, Blue Tooth, video card interface and PCI slots. This is important to note if your are using any sort or break out box, or PCI.

Another item that might that will get over looked is the video card. Music projects can get big and depending on you’re your creative environment, there may be a need to set up 2 monitors’ and having this abilities could be a great blessing.

One of the most important things you will find for a DAW is going to be the Sound Card. You will want a good quality sound card and depending on what you do with your computer. This should be something you take care in deciding, you want something that is going to meet your needs, maybe ever give you room to grow. This is one of the biggest decisions you will have to make with you DAW. Soundcards will not put out 24 bit digital at varying frequencies. Often when your purchase a sound card it will come bundled with software, and will talk more about that in another article. When choosing a sound card look at what you will be doing, what inputs will you need? What outputs will you need, does it need to be PC compatible, or Mac, or both? One thing I have run into is latency issues when recording when using consumer sound cards. There is nothing more frustrating than recording some killer track then when you play back being half a beat off. So, I would recommend staying clear of average consumer grade soundcards, and gaming cards. There are several company who make professional grade sound cards just for this purpose and I would feel investing In one of them would be very rewarding.

So far I have covered the basics of PC hardware as it relates to a DAW. I wanted to describe some basic components to give a tiny bit of insight on how the different parts will effect different processes in the recording process. The next two parts we will discuss more about software, both with your windows based operating system and an brief overview of your studio software suite.

The Windows Based DAW Part I

I though I would take some time and talk about computers. I know a lot of people use Mac’s for there DAW (Digital Audio Workstations) because PC’s are so unreliable and crash all of the time, etc. I would say that is true to a degree, and also false and the same time.

I also feel that I am qualified to discuss this, I have a 2 year degree in computer technology, I have worked for a large finical company supporting windows based computers for the last 2 years, and I hold certifications from both Microsoft and CompTIA.

furthermore, I think if you were putting to together a DAW in 1999 and had to deal with the pains of Windows ME and 98 then I would agree that windows in unreliable. In this day and age of Windows it is very reliable. Let me start by saying that I am talking about Windows XP and not Vista. If you are having problems with you PC constantly locking up and rebooting then most likely your computer is having a hard ware problem. This is not a windows only problem because Mac’s have hardware failure also, which would cause OSX to start acting strange.

Additionally, I’m not at all supporting any major computer companies such as Dell and HP. I think that these companies skip on some of the more important aspects of a computer and that is stability. They usually make cheap computer for the masses. I think if you need a PC go to a local Ma and Pop shop or order the parts and build it yourself. The company who are selling the parts are for the power user. These parts are usually very reliable and stable and I have had very little problems with them. In fact I have still have a PC I build in 2000 with a 500mhz processor, and it still runs if I need it to.

Another big benefit to these systems is the ability to upgreade. Fore example I upgraded my computer form a 1100+ processor to 3500+ for under $300. In Mac terms that would be compared to going form a G3 to Pentium class Mac’s and I’m sure there would be a higher cost.

to show the flexibility of a PC, I have in the past installed Windows twice on my computer on different partitions. Keep one configuration just for recording audio, and another for what ever else you user your computer for. This way you can reboot into your DAW Windows and know that the OS has been tweaked to provide optimal performance and reliability, yet still be able to pay bills online and watch you tube videos.

This part of the article shows some of the flexibility of a PC based DAW. This just breaks the surface some of the PC requirements. In Part II we will look at some additional “Tweaks” we can apply to windows to try and get some better performance out of our hardware. In Part III we will look at some hardware requirements for a DAW. Then in Part IV we will look at some of the different Studio software Suites.

What an exciting time to be a musician!

Since the dawn of time playing music and recording and documenting the art, has gone hand in hand. Elvis, Johnny Cash and Buddy Holly all recorded live in a single track studio. Les Paul, who created the first created the multi-track recorder showed the world about over dubbing. Up until several years ago there were basically 3 ways to record; Pay a studio $30 or more per hour to have them record you, or purchase a 4-track recorder at about $400, or put your amp in front of an old boom box and press record and hope for the best.

Wow how things have changed.

I had until recently recorded all of my ideas onto cassette tape using a 4-track recorder. Recently my 4-track has been falling apart (I have had it and used it for about 10 years). First some of the pots started getting scratchy, and then a couple of the inputs started not to work. It got to the point that I just could not use it without some anomaly screwing every thing up. This is not the musical environment that the Porta-Studio once was.

I used to spend hours with a guitar on my lap, and a drum machine hunched over my Tascam 414 recording and playing. I had so much fun with it, and it was a great way to hear what you are playing rather than what you think you sound like. My playing improved by leaps and bounds. Now my Tascam is falling a part I came to a point where I had a choice, buy a new 4 track or go digital.

I mean the tools are there that any one can be a star, right? There’s Moby, what about Modest Mouse? We live in the era of the ipod, where complete music collections can be carried in a pocket, and the next big thing could come off my MySpace. It does seem to be a very powerful idea, digital recording, distribution, digital marketing all in one nice little package.

My day job is working on PC computers so logically I figured that this was the way to go. I used some craptastic $20 soundcard and $50 speakers and figured I would be ready to roll. WRONG!!! Turns out that my $20 sound card had some serious latency issues.

I have decided that I will continue on with using my computer as my main means of recording. I wanted to use this blog as documentation of the process, both good and bad. Feel free to share your opinions and email me what you think.