How to Record Music with a Computer Part 2: Setting Up

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This is the second article in a series about recording music with a computer. If you missed the first article [click here]

Ok, now you are at the point where you made the commitment, you are going to record music with your computer and have bitten the bullet and bought your software and hardware. Now you have to plug all this stuff in and make sure it all talks to each other.

 More Hard Stuff

Ok, this is the easy part. You need to connect your outboard soundcard/interface to your computer. From here on, I will call the soundcard, “the interface”. You either bought a Firewire (ieee1394) or USB (hopefully USB2) interface. Plug it into an available port on your computer. Load the driver software from the cd/dvd or download supplied with your brand spanking new interface. Now, plug in your headphones into the appropriate jack on the interface. If you purchased monitors too, then plug those in as well. Set the volume to 25% on the interface. Once we get to testing the inputs and outputs, we want to hear something, but we do not want to blow our ears out or damage our equipment.

 On to the softer side

Now, we have to get the software to understand how to route sounds in and out of itself. Open your recording software, which I will refer to from now on as your DAW (digital audio workstation). In your DAW you will need to select the correct audio driver. Remember we loaded the dvd for the new interface? Well, now we have to select it in the DAW, otherwise Windows defaults to the Windows audio driver, which is cool for listening to Youtube, but not for recording your Magnus Opus!!  You will find this in either the “Audio Preferences” menu or in the “VST Connections” in your DAW. Now double check to make sure all your inputs and outputs are correctly configured in the “VST Connections” tab.  Check out my video, sometimes seeing is believing.

The Test begins!

Ok, now we will test to see if you have done this all correctly. We will need two things. A pre-recorded audio clip, and an instrument/microphone plugged into the input of your interface. Test 1- we want to see if you can play back audio at all. Create an audio track in your main work area in your DAW (right click/new audio track). Drag and drop the pre-recorded audio clip onto the track, or use file import and select and import it. Hit play. You should hear some sound coming out of your headphones/monitors. (Now, if you do not have an audio clip, Google “free audio loop”.  You can choose anything, and the selection will make your head spin.)  Ok, now, the hard part. Test 2-  Add another audio track. In the track parameters, you can choose the input and output. The output is automatically routed to the main output, so no worries there. The input needs to match where you have you test guitar or mic plugged in. Let’s say you guitar is plugged into input 1 in your interface, you have to select “input 1” from the drop down list of available inputs. Next you have to “arm” the track. “Arming” means telling the software that you will be recording with this track. It now has a “recording red light”.  Ok. Everything is ready. Hit “play-record” on the main status bar. Strum a chord or play a few notes. You will see a waveform being produced along the timeline of your new audio track. You have done it! You have recorded audio. If you used a microphone, the results will be the same.  That is it. It never gets more complicated than that.

 What’s Next?

So, we have made the decision to record music with a computer, chosen a DAW and interface, and now we have everything plugged in and talking to each other. The boring part is over. Now…..we get to create! The next blogs will ramp up the skill level. We will talk about audio and midi editing, audio processing (with effects), virtual instruments, mixing and song construction.

If anyone has any questions regarding things we have covered so far, audio interfaces, DAW’s, or setting up your audio preferences, drop me an email at [email protected]

If you are a student or teacher you can get great deals on music software, recording equipment, instruments, keyboards and accessories at studica.com. Many items also offer free shipping in the US and UK.

Author: Michael Battista

 

 

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