Beginner Interface, Daw... Options

[T1mon]

There might be some topics about this already but you don't mind writing a little, do you?

I'm a guitar player and want to start to record some of my stuff. (not that it's worth it but it's nice if you can record it together with a drum loop or something like that and to capture ideas on hd)

I would be using a 12" 867mhz Powerbook with 640MB Ram and OSX.
I tried putting my guitar directly into the line in of the PB and then using Audacity to record. As a preamp I use Amplitube Live.
But with that setup I had quite some latency which I think comes from Amplitube because when I play guitar and for example open a window or scroll it takes about 1-2 seconds to do that... not really nice.

So one of my questions is now if this problem would be history with a nice interface? (this one looks nice: M-Audio MobilePre USB

I'm also looking for a nice recording program. There are so many out there and I really have no idea which one to get. I don't need anything professional, it just has to record my guitar and maybe be able to insert a drum loop. (I'm currently using Fruity Loops on a crappy PC but I could get Reason)
So I don't midi.

I hope you understood what I mean. Thx!

[xenonaut]

Is there another method to get a good guitar sound into the computer if I use the MBox, M-Audio MobilePre USB, or the Aardvark? I would have to buy a preamp, right?

Well, philosophies vary on this topic. Some want to hear the "vibe" of the guitar sound in order to put the right feel into their playing, and insist on some sort or outboard preamp, be it POD, V-Amp, some other type of preamp/effects unit ,or any sort of conventional preamp (I use my Quad-X and a Triaxis). Others swear that they can do just as well recording the guitar "dry" and adding the sound, including amp simulation, later.

Note that here "dry" refers to distortion/amp tone ony -- it's almost always better to record without "effects" and add afterwards, so you're not stuck with what you printed, if it doesn't work well in a mix.

Hypothetically, you *could* generate the "amp tone" within the computer in realtime (as you play) with AmpliTube live, or with a real time Plug In in a DAW, but as you seem to have discovered, it seems that it's still pretty hard to get past the latency. In fact, many audio interfaces offer "zero latency monitoring" as a feature: you monitor a combination of you playback with the direct signal straight out of the interface, so the live signal doesn't have to go into the computer and then come back out.

Of course, you can still use an amp and a Mic to generate amp tone; that technique has worked pretty well for years (notwithstanding that it can be detrimental to your relationship with your neighbors).

he MBox looks good but it's a little expensive. The M-Audio or Aardvark interface would be a little cheaper...

Right; the biggest advantage of the MBox is it gives you a *decent* hardware solution (adequate for 2 tracks, with a reasonable feature set and respectable Mic preamps) *and* a pretty good audio recording/editing environment (although Pro Tools is probably not the ultimate solution for the total MIDI/Synth head).

Otherwise, you're looking at hardware + software (unless you want to use the built-in audio in/out. I'm not in position to say if it's adequate for your needs. But note that you might need an external mixer if you want to get the "zero latency" effect (by mixing your playback directly with your live source).

If you decide you would be better served by a different software package, there are indeed a number of options, M-Audio among them. I don't know Aardvark. Note that I'm confident in USB for 2 simultaneous tracks, but would be weary of those devices which claim to handle 4-6 tracks of audio over USB. My instinct is that if you want more than 2 tracks simultaneously, it's time to start looking at Firewire or PCMCIA.

Why do you need MIDI to change the drum track? How did you record the drum track?

Well, *hypothetically*, you might not, *but*, I've found that the best way for me to handle this is by setting up Pro Tools to generate a MIDI click track. Then, Pro Tools knows exactly the tempo of the song, exactly how the beats and measures line up, and can then generate MIDI Time Clock info to "remote control" my Boss DR-660 drum machine, which I can program with any drum part I want. This is then all perfectly synched, so I don't have to guess and approximate how things line up.

Note that (a) this is not specific to Pro Tools; any decent DAW will do this, and (b), it may be different if you are depending mostly on drum loops in WAV or AIFF format (although Pro Tools and other DAWs all have capability for working with loops, as well, of course).

It also depends on how you work. For me, I usually get an idea on guitar and want to get it down quick, before I lose it. I don't want to spend a bunch of time fussing with the right drum groove at that point; I'd rather work out the perfect drum track later. If, on the other hand, your process begins with drum tracks and you build everything over those, than maybe you don't need to worry about changing them out later.

I would like to put Fruity Loops loops into the recording program, that shouldn't be a problem eh?

I'm running OSX and can just start in Classic mode.

I can't really address this; I know nothing about Fruity Loops. I thought it was a Windows-only thing...

I shouldn't have a problem with the HD, we got 3 external Firewire HDs and I think I could use one of 'em.

Cool. I haven't had a problem in Pro Tools using my internal drive for a few tracks, but they recommend a fast, non-system drive, which makes sense; I'm sure all DAW's would benefit from this. And as I said, audio projects can eat drive space pretty fast.

Good luck.