Starter setup advice required

[Guest]

Hi there folks.

I have a good pal who likes composing. He records guitar and has recorded it using an old Tascam thing for years and years. He has no computer setup and has resisted upgrading.

He has now decided to get a computer and get more up to date and wants me to suggest a basic set up. But I am bit out of the loop really for starter set ups.

So I think he is gonna have to go the PC route. He doesn't want to spend more than 500 quid on a computer. He has cash for the other stuff, Dunno why he has set him PC limit at 500 quid.

So a few questions if I may:

Is a 500 quid PC doable? If not, have you any good suggestions as to a good basic PC?
Where is a good place to buy audio PCs at that price?
He wants to record guitar - electric and acoustic - so what are the essential items he will need to get going?

I am thinking a mic or two, errr midi interface, cubase? Owt else?

Sorry for sounding a bit newbie here. Suggestions would be most appreciated so that I can pass them on to my buddy who has had a very bad year thus far and I think wants to lose himself in composing for a few years.

Thx

[CS70]

For recording guitar he doesn't need that much.

Assuming he has already a microphone and room treatment, budget goes to a used pc with Windows 10, plenty RAM and an SSD; and a USB interface with one or two channels.

If budget is limited the usual suspects (Focusrite etc) work fine. Otherwise an RME BabyFace, possibly used to save money.

As of DAW, Cakewalk is a flagship product and it's free from BandLab, so it's a no brainer.

If he needs plugins, he can download Booty's free set (they're 32 bit, but rock solid with Cakewalk's BitBridge) from the Variety Of Sound website - they sound magnificent.

From there then he'll find out what he needs more.

[Guest]

Very useful suggestions, cheers!

[The Elf]

And don't forget that Reaper is free to start and well supported. Not my favourite, but undeniably economic and capable.

Some audio interfaces come with the likes of Cubase as cut-down versions, which is all he might need. I particularly like the Native Instruments interfaces.

[Sam Spoons]

Which DAW do you use Chris? He's undoubtedly going to need some help in the early stages and that will probably fall to you so if he has the same DAW you will find helping him a lot easier.

[Guest]

Which DAW do you use Chris? He's undoubtedly going to need some help in the early stages and that will probably fall to you so if he has the same DAW you will find helping him a lot easier.

I have Cubase Sam. Be good if he got Cubase I guess then I could teach him but he is all about saving the pennies at this stage. But yeah, there's Cubase Elements isn't there. That would work.

Thanks for the suggestions Elf.

I also have a few bits and bobs in the garage I can donate too.

[Drew Stephenson]

I think my PC cost me about £500 nearly 10 years ago, so you should be able to get something considerably better for the same now. And it's still going strong - though occasionally does get a bit stressed on really busy mixes.
Cubase elements does come with a very limited set of plugins but you can download the reaper ones for free and use them (as I understand it). That's a comprehensive starting set (though the GUIs aren't the friendliest).

[EDIT aren't the friendliest! Sorry.]

[Guest]

Thanks!

[Logarhythm]

+1 to Drew's suggestion. I'm also using a PC that I built for around £500 a few years ago. I'd planned to upgrade later, but haven't felt the need. You should be able to build something that has enough oomph to have plenty in reserve for basic recording and sequencing purposes on that budget.
If you go for an AI with the free bundled version of Cubase you still get a discount on upgrades (even if it's just to Elements), and you can also exchange projects between you. Just be careful going from full Cubase to the smaller versions, as they'll open the project but disable a load of plugins etc to meet the limits set for the relevant version. (Voice of experience - somehow accidentally opened a project in Elements rather than full Cubase and had a small panic a bit about why all my plugins had been disabled )

[ef37a]

Hi Chris, by "computer" does he mean a laptop?

If so, this time last year I bought my son a really good W10 Lenovo T430. Fast i5 processor, 8G ram and a modest 240G SSD. He runs Samplitude Pro X 3 suite on it no problem.

I got that refurbished from an Amazon supplier for around £400 and it really was "as new" as advertised.

Native Instruments was mentioned and I can really recommend the Komplete Audio 6. Otherwise tell him to look at Mackie and Tascam as alternatives to the ubiqitous F'rites! (they are good but not really any better than others) Whatever he gets, please tell him not to go down the lowest, most basic route. He needs two microphone inputs and MIDI is handy.

Dave.

[Guest]

I do appreciate these suggestions chaps. Lots of food for thought. Hopefully, he will embrace technology (which scares him alot), joins this forum and in 6 months posts a guitar tune he has done with his new system!

Might drag him along to synthfest so he gets to experience the joyful wonders of synthdom.

[Arpangel]

Might drag him along to synthfest so he gets to experience the joyful wonders of synthdom.

I thought you said you were "his mate"...

[Music Wolf]

I'm using a desktop pc that I bought from pc world several years ago for, from memory, sub £400 without a monitor. I've since increased the RAM which I did myself without any problems. I'm running Cubase pro, Superior Drummer 3.0 plus various other bits 'n' bobs (almost) without any problems.

When I say almost I mean that every now and again I have to reinstall drivers after a Windows update. Occasionally, after a start up, I find that direct monitoring on my AI is disabled and I have to re-boot. I might just get an audio glitch (say 1 in 100 times). I should point out that, because I use direct monitoring from my Steinberg UR824 AI, I can run with very high buffer size / high latency.

When I decided to go down the PC World route, rather than buy something purpose built from Scan, I did so in the knowledge that it may not work but that, if it didn't, I could afford to write of the £400. I was also familiar enough with Cubase that I could undertake a bit of tweaking to get things stable.

[Guest]

Might drag him along to synthfest so he gets to experience the joyful wonders of synthdom.

I thought you said you were "his mate"...

hehe good point!

[The Elf]

Don't forget to come say hello to me at Synthfest!

[Guest]

Don't forget to come say hello to me at Synthfest!

Are you on a stand?

[The Elf]

Don't forget to come say hello to me at Synthfest!

Are you on a stand?

I'm managing the exhibitors. I'm easy to find - I'm the one looking for cables and connectors the exhibitors forgot to bring!

[Guest]

Don't forget to come say hello to me at Synthfest!

Are you on a stand?

I'm managing the exhibitors. I'm easy to find - I'm the one looking for cables and connectors the exhibitors forgot to bring!

Ahhh so that's you is it

[jimh76]

Hi, another option, if he's just wanting to record guitar and vocals, which is a good middle ground for the step up from analogue to a computer is what I use.

It's the tascam dp32sd. It's a porta studio, but has more of a computer feel to it as you can see wave forms, cut, copy, paste, duplicate, it has click tracks, effects, dynamics etc. You can replace sections using auto punch in and out as well.

You can mix, and master in the box as well. It's got 8 ins, but the thing I like about it is it's all saved to an sd card, so you can always take that out and then load onto a computer to finish it off.

I'm a singer and guitarist and the thing I really like is that it's on and ready to record in a matter of seconds, and doesn't suffer from drive incompatibility issues, or 1 card not talking to another, etc. Get yourself a couple of mics, a drum machine and you're away.

It's 32 tracks so I find it limits me in a good way as I've not got 15 guitar tracks with 9 vocal tracks that I'm trying to somehow mix together.

Anyway it works for me as I'm never turning it on when inspiration hits me, but am hour later still trying to get the computer working and therefore losing the spark.

Worth a look imho.

Jim

[ef37a]

Hi, another option, if he's just wanting to record guitar and vocals, which is a good middle ground for the step up from analogue to a computer is what I use.

It's the tascam dp32sd. It's a porta studio, but has more of a computer feel to it as you can see wave forms, cut, copy, paste, duplicate, it has click tracks, effects, dynamics etc. You can replace sections using auto punch in and out as well.

You can mix, and master in the box as well. It's got 8 ins, but the thing I like about it is it's all saved to an sd card, so you can always take that out and then load onto a computer to finish it off.

I'm a singer and guitarist and the thing I really like is that it's on and ready to record in a matter of seconds, and doesn't suffer from drive incompatibility issues, or 1 card not talking to another, etc. Get yourself a couple of mics, a drum machine and you're away.

It's 32 tracks so I find it limits me in a good way as I've not got 15 guitar tracks with 9 vocal tracks that I'm trying to somehow mix together.

Anyway it works for me as I'm never turning it on when inspiration hits me, but am hour later still trying to get the computer working and therefore losing the spark.

Worth a look imho.

Jim

Now see, I don't get that? I am pretty lowbrow in this forum company when it comes to computer matters but I could now simple get up, go into the "studio", fire up the desktop in there and after at most a minute have the computer standing by. I then simple bring up Samplitude, "Start new track", name it and plug a mic into the NI KA6 and I am away....Or, I could unplug the KA6, take it into another room and plug it into this laptop. Samplitude again (or indeed Reaper or Audacity) and I am cooking. If I could still play guitar worth a fig, I could plug in son's Mex Strat no worries.

Jim, you have a deep problem with your computer/AI/DAW setup.

Dave.

[jimh76]

Hi Dave,

Just saying that there are other options to computers. In my personal experience, computers work fine when new, but when they have been around the block with plugin's added, deleted, drivers changed etc, they can take ages to load up. Of course this is just my experience, but on occasions in the past I have gone into my studio to record something, and spent an hour trying to work out why something is in conflict with something else, and then the nights gone.

I'm a bit of an old school tascam boy at heart....

To be honest I can see that I'm the dying breed here and know I'll have to make the full leap to a full computer only setup at some stage, but to be honest, I just record for fun.
Mostly live instruments I play or mates and family, so it's mainly live recordings (no syths or programming).

When the OP mentioned his mate, he sounded a lot like me so thought I'd chip in...;o)

Cheers,

[CS70]

If it consoles you, it’s important to know that it doesn’t have to be like that.

What often makes a DAW application obsolete is the fact that we keep upgrading it, just because we can.

A well maintained and stable DAW system will be as fast after 10 years as the first time it was run,.

That said, after a few years the cost of getting a system with much more functionality and possibilities tends to be small, so certain upgrades are very beneficial. The trick is to be smart about it.

[ef37a]

Hmm, This i3 HP g6 laptop upon which I type has 3 free versions of Samplitude on it plus a purchased ProX3. Audacity, Adobe Audition 1.5, Reaper (paid for!) Cubase Essentials 6. Office 2007 and a shedload of other stuff gathered over 6 or 7 years.

And yes, as I say, I can just plug in my NI KA6 (or indeed an 8i6 if I can be arsed to find the PSU!) and be recording in a minute or so.

And yet, I am NO PC guru, I have no deep knowledge of computer management. It runs all my internet work, hopping between FFox and IE11 and generally works fine. I have just the free version of Ms SEss and run the free Malwarebytes once a month or so. Rarely do either facilities find a problem. Once in a bluey I run Ccleaner in the Registry mode (an old one. I don't trust the new update) .

Don't take MY advice FHS but If I had your problems I would first uninstall and reinstall the DAW and same for any hard ware drivers (the DAW might have a repair mode, always worth a hack) .

If that does not help. I would format the HDD and re install the Jewson lot!

Dave.

[innerchord]

Don't forget that this could be accomplished on an iPad too! Some excellent guitar sounds available as well, for very little money.

[Guest]

When the OP mentioned his mate, he sounded a lot like me so thought I'd chip in...;o)

Yeah, my buddy has been recording his tunes on some Tascam 8 track thingy for years - it must be 20 years old at least.