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Getting Started with a simple tape recorder

The first songs I wrote used just a guitar and a simple tape recorder with a built-in mike.

Required: guitar + tape recorder

Adding Mixing

Adding a simple audio mixer, I succeeded to do my first multi-tracking, recording additional layers on top of the first recording, on a second tape. This involved lots of noise, but the mixer made for a better control over the levels. Finally I could tweak the voice volume with regard to the music volume.

Added: second tape recorder + mixer + audio cables + mike

The Electric Guitar

The urge for an electric guitar lead to a fluorescent pink cheap model, bought second hand.

Added: pink electric guitar, jack cables, borrowed amplifier from nephew

This definitely required some sound boosts, so I started hunting second-hand shops and bought some stomp boxes.

Added: digital delay, distortion, heavy metal and chorus pedals and additional cables

Going digital (or not?)

My first music efforts were on the old Apple IIc (before the Macintosh was released), which could generate more then one beep at a time. Entering songs note by note, I could run some of my old stuff on the computer. This sounded bad, really bad, but it was quite some fun.

A simple keyboard

Then I also bought, together with one of my brothers, a simple Yamaha portable keyboard. It featured very small keys and some synthesizing capabilities. This was quickly sold again and we upgraded to a better model with a MIDI connection. This was then replaced afterwards with a model with General Midi compatibility and touch sensitivity. The sound was not that good, unfortunately.

Added: simple keyboard, replaced with slightly better keyboard, replaced with slightly better keyboard

We connected this to an old 286 PC running DOS and a demo version of Cakewalk, downloaded from an old shareware site. Very similar to http://www.cakewalknet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=81&...

We actually tried to buy this software, but it was not available anymore... And buying on internet was problematic at the time. Adding one of the oldest SoundBlaster cards available, we could connect a MIDI cable to its gameport, to hook up the MIDI keyboard.

Added: 286 PC running MS-DOS and Cakewalk Demo, SoundBlaster

A better guitar

When one of my brothers decided to quit his own guitar hobby, he convinced me to buy all his gear. This is the guitar I still use today.

Sold: old guitar, Added: Charvel-Jackson blue electric guitar, Marshall very small amp (10W only), some Ibanez (digital delay+modulation, distortion) and Boss pedals (compression, equalizer), cables

A few simple mikes were tried, but failed to give good recordings.

A real synthesizer

When we went to look to a second-hand keyboard, the owner also had a real synthesizer: a Roland JV-80 (www.vintagesynth.com/roland/jv80.shtml), which we eventually bought (he did knock of a part of the price, when delivering). This still sounds very good and has full-size keys, key velocity, channel aftertouch, MIDI IN/OUT, PCM samples and full synthesizer functionality, including LFO, 4 sounds per voice and two digital effects. It also featured a POP expansion bord and two ROM cards (piano and harmonium samples).

Added: Roland JV-80, MIDI cables

Doing MIDI sequencing

I tried running Windows 3.11 on the old PC and found a shareware/freeware soft, called WinJammer (http://www.sonicspot.com/winjammer/winjammer.html), which was the first time I could record MIDI songs. All previous compositions were lost, unless when recorded to tape (well, only the audio). I also installed the first PC version of Cubase on the 486 PC of our dad, to insert songs note by note using a mouse. We could not connect the Roland, since there was no MIDI port.

When I bought my own PC, with a little help from my father, I could start doing real stuff. I tried several applications, but was hooked to Cubase. It was possible to do many things with the music still running. The hardware was fast enough, since this was the era before VST: only MIDI data was running and that is something a computer has been fast enough to do since a long time (although the old 286 did manage to miss some MIDI events from time to time).

Added: Pentium 166MHz, 32MB RAM, SoundBlaster AWE32

A few years later, the year 2000 was there and I still used mainly the same gear: two guitars, the Roland JV80, a simple mike (speech recognition headphone + mike and a simple Sony).

Writing my first CD

The next PC included a CD Writer and a SoundBlaster Live! Platinum, which was used to create my first CD. I used nTrack (http://www.ntrack.com) for the first tracks and Cubasis VST 4.0 (included with the soundcard) for the other tracks. This introduced me to software-based audio effects. This was of tremendous importance for this first CD.

Pentium III 600 MHz, 128 MB RAM, SoundBlaster Live Platinum (with LiveDrive patchbox)

Discovering other digital tools

The next discovery was ACID, included as an entry-version with my CD-Writer. Suddenly, loop-based music became possible: time-stretching and pitch-shifting in a multitrack sample-based environment.

Cubasis VST 4.0, ACID Music 2.0, GoldWave, nTrack Studio

The next discovery where VST software instruments. Suddenly, the PC was a full replacement for a studio full of hardware. I also upgraded from ACID Music to the full suite of Screenblast applications (ACID, Sound Forge, Vegas, but in a lite version) for a reduced price. This is now the Studio Product Family (http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/studiofamily.asp), which is low-priced, but still professional quality.

VST instruments, ACID Music Studio, Sound Forge Audio Studio, Vegas Movie Studio

Other notable applications I played with are Rebirth (now free on http://www.rebirthmuseum.com) and Buzzmachines (http://www.buzzmachines.com). I tried Cakewalk and Logic, but stayed with Cubase.

A MIDI controller keyboard

Since I got married, I didn't have the Roland available with me (my youngest brother, not the one from the blue Charvel guitar, owns it now). I bought a MIDI controller keyboard with additional sliders and knobs to use with MIDI-enabled software. I started using Cubase SX 1.0.

Edirol PCR-30 (http://www.roland.com/products/en/PCR-30/index.html), Cubase SX 1.0

Apple Powerbook

The next discovery was when I finally was allowed to buy a Powerbook G4. This included Garageband (http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband), which was very nice for an entry-level application. The rest of the applications from iLife were nice, but I hardly use them. I prefer Vegas Movie Studio over iMovie. I also played with Cubase SE and many other applications: PureData (http://puredata.info) and Plogue Bidule (http://www.plogue.com).

Powerbook G4, Garageband

Audio Interface and Mike

I bought an audio interface to get much, much better audio recording with finally a good solution for recording the guitar. I also bought a second-hand professional mike.

m-audio FireWire Solo for guitar and Mic (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWireSolo-main.html), Sure SM58 (http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Products/WiredMicrophones/us_pro_SM58-CN_c...) + cable

I was told that this mike is good for live recordings, but there are much better solutions for home studio recording.

Better Audio Software

This audio interface included Ableton Live Lite. I tried it in release 4 on my PC, but this lacked the power to run it adequately. It ran fine on the Mac, so I started using it more and more. Now I'm using release 6 almost exclusively.

Ableton Live 6 (http://www.ableton.com)

A Headphone

I also bought a decent headphone from Sennheiser, which was advised to me since it leaks very little noise, which is important when recording from a mike.

Sennheiser HD 25 SP1 (http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/icm_eng.nsf/root/03759)

Conclusion

And that is my current setup: a mobile home studio, involving an Apple Powerbook, Ableton Live, Sennheiser Headphone, m-audio FireWire Solo, SM58, Charvel-Jackson electric guitar, Rodrigo Classical Guitar and many cables and leftover hardware (stomp boxes and amp).

I will go into more detail on some of these later in the blog, but this is almost a full overview.