Right-o this recording lark

[rockdudemitch]

Hi Chaps,
Just wondering if you could help i want to start learning about recording i have a macbook pro an apogee guitar interface so what are the best programs i have garage band and guitarrig5 can someone point me in the right direction i am a complete learner so any information would be greatly appreciated.

[PhantomRouge]

Seeing as you have Garageband, I would recommend using that to learn the trade. People bash it, but there is a LOT more to the program than meets the eye. Upgrade when you've exhausted its usability.

[danomess]

Couple of things- once you start working with one type of DAW, it's quite difficult to switch to another, they pretty much do similar things, but in different ways. dont know much about garageband, but if its gonna cover your needs, then use it. Reaper is good, free to try and not expensive with plenty of free upgrades.
Secondly you'll learn more by finishing something rather than having loads of uncompleted things on file, it may not be brilliant, but you'll get there..
From my point of view i make sure that i have the tune sorted out first, some overdubs, as many ideas as as I can think of, before recording then I can concentrate on playing rather than get bogged down with the tech. After recording, i keep a pretty open mind on how to fit everything together- some things work, some dont, it's all part of the process. It can be fairley repetetive and after a while becomes second nature- which makes it hard to switch.

[MRLEON83]

Sounds like you have all you need, just plug your geetar into the apogee and rock the hel out...

When you want to progress some more and tweak etc get logic, its really really easy to use,

When approaching a DAW you just have to think of it as a hardware mixer... super simple each strip has inserts for track effects , or you can use the Aux sends to apply effect as a group (drum group compressed for New york style compression etc)

There are loads of youtube vids that are worth checking out too!

[rockdudemitch]

Daw

[danomess]

Daw

Digital Audio Workstation- basically any recording software program ; Garageband, Logic, Reaper etc

[spark240]

Wow.....how things have changed....I started with a Teac 4 track Syncassette !

Luckily now using Sonar X1

[Lexie1]

danomess raised a very good point. From my own experiences, starting out with Garageband and then much later looking at others, it is very easy to become somewhat fixated by Garageband's ease of use. I needed to change to another program for a project that had several timing changes (something Garageband does not support btw) and it was a bit of a nause at first. But for all the learning what does what and how to do stuff, use what you already have and then move up as and when you need to.

[jim_branning]

danomess raised a very good point. From my own experiences, starting out with Garageband and then much later looking at others, it is very easy to become somewhat fixated by Garageband's ease of use. I needed to change to another program for a project that had several timing changes (something Garageband does not support btw) and it was a bit of a nause at first. But for all the learning what does what and how to do stuff, use what you already have and then move up as and when you need to.

he can start with garageband - which as mentioned is now very fully featured, then if required he can upgrade to logic pro, and import his garageband songs into that if required.

You might as well go with logic as it is made by apple and as good as any other sequncer - it retains that easy garageband way of working for beginners, but obviously goes as deep as you like to go beyond that.

[Lexie1]

Jim, does Logic allow you to have different sections in different timing? For instance, if you have a number that starts in 2/4 timing and then changes back and forth between 4/4 and 2/4? I don't seem to be able to do this with garageband, or am I missing something? Which is perfectly possible as I am a complete newbie at all this.