Myself and a friend are trying to organize doing some recording and having some fun with music making a new hobby after getting bored of playing guitar. We plan to record stuff and burn takes onto mini disk players and run them and other samplers through a mixer in the live enviroment along with other live instruments. Unfortunatley my computer has crapped out and i dont have one of my own to start with so im going to buy a new one. Having only ever watched an old band mate do this sort of thing i have next to zero clue of what im getting myself into. Its practically the confused equivelant of buying my first guitar, then amp, then stompbox all over again.

Just wondering if anybody could recommend a good bit of equipment preferably a lap-top to do this sort of thing with and any other bits and pieces i might need. I dont have great knowledge of computers so any help would be great even if its a link to an online tutorial or something. Preferably suggestions which work well with Cubase or Pro Tools i have a faint know how of how to work that kind of stuff

Ill admit im starting from the very bottom so feel free to patronize me. Nothing you say can offend

to summarize i need something that mainly works for doing a bit of recording and ****ing about at home.

Any other info on soundcards, firewire etc would be helpful as i know **** all about that stuff either.

I guess my limit to spend is about £600-£700 (around $1100 give or take a few hundred)

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My Music Please have a Listen

My rig thread

My Set Up

Guitar: Fender Jazzmaster (Candy Apple Red)

Effects: Zvex Vexter Fuzz Factory > Zvex Super Hard - On > Marshall Shredmaster > Boss SD1 DevilsFX Mod > Pro Co Rat II > Boss DD3

Amplifier: Peavey Classic 30

If your goal is saving money and you are doing this all in one place don't buy a laptop. Also there are companies that will build custom computers to your specs usually for less than the price of a name brand computer (depends on the build, obviously).

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Gentle Robot - Chapel Hill NC Rock Band

Seagull Artist Mosaic (acoustic)
Fender Strat Plus
Line 6 M9
Traynor YCV40WR

You could do worse than to buy an iMac. Check o
them out here. Also, they're relatively portable - a company called iLugger makes bags specifically for, well, lugging around the iMac. All things factored (price, performance, portability), you can't do better.

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The music of Wasp and Pear enjoys you here, on Myspace

And oh, if you're a student, you're entitled to discounts.

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The music of Wasp and Pear enjoys you here, on Myspace

It will need to be a lap top as im going to be using it in the live enviroment. Dont fancy carrying about a full huge computer.

In truth i was thinking about an Mac Book a friend of mine stongly reccomends it.

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My Music Please have a Listen

My rig thread

My Set Up

Guitar: Fender Jazzmaster (Candy Apple Red)

Effects: Zvex Vexter Fuzz Factory > Zvex Super Hard - On > Marshall Shredmaster > Boss SD1 DevilsFX Mod > Pro Co Rat II > Boss DD3

Amplifier: Peavey Classic 30

The MacBook is a good option as well. Not quite as powerful as the iMac, but should work well. To be frank, I'm looking to get one as well!

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The music of Wasp and Pear enjoys you here, on Myspace

i have a macbook pro and its fantastic. its definently over your budget but personally i would just save up money and buy a macbook pro because it can handle anything you throw at it.

macbooks are pretty good too, but if you really wanna have a computer for music, id go with the pro

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My Rig Thread

My Band

Uh huh brilliant because you said

Great thread.

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Gentle Robot - Chapel Hill NC Rock Band

Seagull Artist Mosaic (acoustic)
Fender Strat Plus
Line 6 M9
Traynor YCV40WR

Operating System doesnt really matter these days (although I'm partial to OS X) but In terms of Hardware I would definitely recommend something with a firewire port and enough USB ports to connect all the controllers and interfaces that you WILL buy once you enter the world of modern computer music performance.

I just got an iMac and it's amazing! I'm done with PC. Macbook are great and very portable. GarageBand is a descent starting point for recording. I would definatly go FireWire too. I went the cheap route and got a Behringer FireWire interface ($80 USD) and it works well with Macs.

MacBook is the way to go if you want portable. Don't cheap out on the low end, and don't wase money on a black case. We did a side by side comparison of a MacBook and MacBook Pro not too long ago. Other than an extra 2'' on the LCD you don't pick up much of anything on the Pro (except an average of $500 on the price). If you do any video than the pro is worth it, but if audio is your game than you really can't do better than the MacBook 2.2Ghz with 2Gb of RAM. I can't stress upgrading to 2Gb enough.

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Guitar->pedals->bank account->amp

Mac mini.

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Chuck Norris doesn't USE distortion he IS distortion.

id hardly call an imac a big computer there are screens even laptops that are heaver

Why go all out for the computer and then ruin it with a **** interface?

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I may have Alzheimer's but at least I don't have Alzheimer's!!

i think that most people ("serious" musicians included) aren't going to be able to notice any difference in audio that came through a Behringer FW mixer versus anything more high end.

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benedicteyeball

IQEQ