My Dad's home studio!

[Nubus]

He finally wants to try and record some on his own so I thought I'd recommend something to him. What he would be doing is probably a little guitar direct, probably a little mic'ed and some vocal. Fist thing that I thought about was the Presonus inspire since they are so small and simple, and from what I hear they sound good, especially for the price. He will probably get a nice new apple for this endeavor, and I figure he will be able to get his hands messy in there pretty easily.

Have you got any contributions to this proposal?

[dolivas]

Lately I would recommend these two soundcards for around that price:

Line 6 UX2

Mackie Spike


Both of them have way easier learning curves for beginners in the digital recording realm and they have goodies that either help your guitar and voice (UX2's built-in stomp mods and mic preamp modelers) or that have great programs for user friendly recording like Mackie (it has Tracktion, many great virtual plugs included). Plus they both record at around the same sampling rate if need be for real high end recordings, 24-bit 96khz.

[Nubus]

I was wondering about that Line 6 one because I'm sure my Dad is gonna end up putting his acoustic guitar directly into the interface (yuk!) and without something to add some color things will get pretty bland.
I kind of figured he would end up using garage band to do the tracking since that one seems the easiest. Or do you think traction is easier?

[dolivas]

Originally Posted by Nubus

I was wondering about that Line 6 one because I'm sure my Dad is gonna end up putting his acoustic guitar directly into the interface (yuk!) and without something to add some color things will get pretty bland.
I kind of figured he would end up using garage band to do the tracking since that one seems the easiest. Or do you think traction is easier?

Nah, I would believe GarageBand would be a whole lot easier. Tracktion itself though is pretty helpful if you're just starting out since it has help bubbles on near everything you hover your mouse around. Plus it's big screen session view is great for figuring out what you're actually doing.

Line6 to note does have digital mic modelers that are modeled after Neve, Focusrite etc. that might give your Dad something to mess around with while he records. Most of the stomps on the Line6 program are based around their own pedals as well.

Just stuff of note I see.

[Nubus]

I checked out the documentation on the model packs which was really cool. I don't know how much of it my Dad would use but I like the idea of them being there to play with just in case. Having absolutely NO plug-ins to mess with right out of the box would probably make his first few recording experiences just a turn-off. Thanks for the info dolivas - I am thinking he will like the UX2 a lot better than the Inspire. Now I'm off to search the forums for user experiences.

[Nubus]

Aw man, Line6 won't support the new Macs until Sept.

[Whoopysnorp]

How is Tracktion, anyway? Is it pretty full-featured, or is it crippled in any way? Would one be able to use it comfortably as one's primary recording software?

[mikegee]

Originally Posted by Whoopysnorp

How is Tracktion, anyway? Is it pretty full-featured, or is it crippled in any way? Would one be able to use it comfortably as one's primary recording software?

yea, i'd like to know more about tracktion also... any drawbacks? i like the fact that everything is on one screen...

[dolivas]

I would say try out the demo they have available for download:

http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion2/

thats probably the best way to get most of the gist out of this program. Other than that what I imagine it to be is Ableton Live's session view on steroids. It's hard to describe but it would do whatever most major DAWs would do but in a more streamlined way.

[Nubus]

Traction and the Spike looks appealing, but it is the same situation as Line 6. No Intel Mac support yet. Not even a date. Maudio is on top of their game (of course... don't they have ties to Apple?