Hello I'm just starting with recording and wanted to get some advice on
which would be the best way to go about it (if this is not the most
appropriate group for these type of questions, could you recommend a
better one)

My goal is to record some instrumentals featuring: electric guitar
(mostly clean), synthetic drums, maybe some chords from a synth, bass
(either synthetic or bass guitar).

I have now: my guitars, bass and an old PC (Windows ME... urgh! 500MHZ
Celeron, 128MB RAM, El Cheapo Soundblaster clone).

On the hardware side, I assume that for my goals I will need to upgrade
the PC, plus buy a good soundcard and some mixer or preamp, am I right?

I don't have the money right now for buying all that hardware, so I
thought that a good idea would be to buy some DAW software on the old
machine and start working on the backing tracks. I saw Cakewalk Home
Studio, which seems to have a lot of features to get me started until I
upgrade to something better (it's also the only one that works with
Windows ME).

So let's assume for the time being that I will not be recording any
audio tracks -- I'll add them later, when I have some decent hardware.
For now I will be only sequencing. This is MIDI, right?

At this point, I want to be able to generate a decent-sounding WAV in
teh end. I would like to to operate in the digital domain as much as
possible. That is, I want to use the sound card only to monitor what
Cakewalk is doing, and not to produce any cheesy MIDI sounds.

My question I have is: is this possible in any of the entry-level DAW
programs?

Do they come with their own drum/synth sounds?

Can I get them to play all these fabulous free soundfonts that I find
everywhere on the 'Net?

The documentation I was able to find on the web is a little sketchy, so
any clues you can send this way are greatly appreciated.
Thanks! Lorenzo

Lorenzo wrote:

I have now: my guitars, bass and an old PC (Windows ME... urgh! 500MHZ
Celeron, 128MB RAM, El Cheapo Soundblaster clone).

On the hardware side, I assume that for my goals I will need to upgrade
the PC, plus buy a good soundcard and some mixer or preamp, am I right?

I don't have the money right now for buying all that hardware, so I
thought that a good idea would be to buy some DAW software on the old
machine and start working on the backing tracks. I saw Cakewalk Home
Studio, which seems to have a lot of features to get me started until I
upgrade to something better (it's also the only one that works with
Windows ME).

If you're *that* new to recording, you might like to check out the EMU
0404 sound card. Check that it has a Windoze ME driver. If not, upgrade
to Windows 2k or Windows XP Home.

The EMU 0404 can be purchased for $80-$100 in USA. It comes shipped with
all the I/O you'll need and the (limited edition) cubasis software plus
a bunch of other stuff. Also it has a software mixer so no external
mixer is needed and they are going to have 192kHz software for free
download "real soon now".

It's a cheap way to get started but the card is good. And, no, I do not
represent EMU or any such affiliate - I just like value for money!

Philip N. Daly wrote:
Lorenzo wrote:

If you're *that* new to recording, you might like to check out the
EMU
0404 sound card. Check that it has a Windoze ME driver. If not,
upgrade
to Windows 2k or Windows XP Home.

Thanks for the recommendation, it seems that a good deal.
Unfortunately, it requires a slightly beefier PC than the one I
currently have. Guess I'll have to wait until I can upgrade everything.
Thanks,

Lorenzo