Home recording - advice on equipment

[cookiechem]

Hi All,

I am looking for some help with regard to some easy to use hobbyist home recording. I currently have guitarport/gearbox and riff-tracker version1. What I would like to do is have a simple home studio set-up to play with (I am far from a professional musician).

The way I see it I have three options: upgrade to rifftracker v2; buy cakewalk’s Guitar Tracks Pro; or buy a Roland BR-600 portastudio.

The things I want to do is to simply record riffs that I come up with, record my own compositions/covers and record my wife and I jamming (she is a great singer – our sessions are usually just acoustic guitar and vocals).

The limitations are that I want to be able to create full band (guitar, bass, drums and vocals) without having to buy any more equipment unless absolutely necessary. Thus the software or whatever has to record guitar parts, supply drum loops and preferably allow me to play bass lines on my guitar. I concede that for recording vocals I will probably need to buy a mic.

At the moment I am leaning towards keeping Riffworks v1 for guitar tinkering and buying the BR-600 for guitar and everything else, but I would welcome input from the community. In particular I am concerned about the small screen on the BR-600 and how easy it would be to navigate.

Finally please feel free to suggest any alternatives to the products I have mentioned above.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[strat]

Hi Cookie...i own cakewalk stuff,guitar trks 3 pro/Acid5,,and others..riffworks v2 [riffworks standard from Sonoma] beats any other software ive used.Ive had it all,,big reel tape/cassett/digital[ a br 800 i think]i dont use them anymore. useing a computer for recording has been great..guitar port/gearbox and RWS IS ALL YOU NEED..a bass can be had very easy[small $$]...A mic and your set....listen to some of the stuff on riffcaster to get a idea what you can do with rw2....and the people on the forums are some of the best...they will soon become friends....Its all there for ya...peaceout..strat

[camaro24gold]

IMHO ...the biggest thing Sonoma / RiffWorks has going on for it is the "Instant Drummers".
There are other aspects also such as ease of the interface (like dealing with a piece of hardware equipment...and such). But the Instant Drummers will help you “dial in" your ideas fairly quick once you get use to how they work within this loop based application.
There is also "Riff Caster" and "Riff Link"; .... On these subjects; I haven't even begun to use them yet myself and you will have to get the opinions of others on these aspects of the product.

For "bang for buck"... Sonoma Wire Works has a great and valuable tool here regardless of your recording experiences and I highly recomend RiffWorks to you......... not only for starting to get some of your ideas up and running, ....but also finding ideas you didn't even know were there.

[Timejunkie]

I am recording strictly with RW and my EVH Wolfgang, a Charvel bass with active pickups, a cheap microphone for vocals and my daughter's Barbie headphones (thanks Mackenzie!!!)....it doesn't get easier than this!

Cheers,
Chip

[wetnap]

Hi ya Cookie.
Come here...http://www.garageband.com/artist/WETNAPS
or here...http://www.mp3.com/thewetnaps
And check out my tunes. They're ALL done with Riff Works (maybe a little Midi or something here and there).
And with your wife's singing, instead of my HORRIBLE singing...you can't go wrong with RiffWorks!
GL, wetnap

[mickeymix]

And with your wife's singing, instead of my HORRIBLE singing...you can't go wrong with RiffWorks!
GL, wetnap

Aww come on Wet
Your singing is totally cool................

Yo cookie .. ya might not even need a bass..... I've heard some guys use the fake-o bass setting in riffworks and it sounded pretty good........ give it a whirl ..you have it in V1 . click on lower left side , effects show , guitar tones, fake-o bass.
And Voila!!!!!!! instant bass !!!
What a country!
Now there are some ultra cool new things in V2 ! That are well worth the upgrade..............For my money .......it would mos def be V2 ............. don't delay another minute my brother. you'll be glad you did!
I too have all those other programs and I'm still kicking myelf in the A@# that I hadn't heard about RiffWorks 1st............
.
.
..............Mike