Free (or very cheap) Computer Music Guidance

[ElectricPuppy]

So, wait.

You're saying that this thread is NOT about trux? Hmm. Interesting. :skeptical-hippo.jpg:

[Plink Floyd]

Heck idunno lol. I liek trux. an botes. adn trukx.

[MetroSonus]

I still wish I had my tacoma

[christianrock]

I has a small sorry. :(

I look at your avatar and I'm like, no you don't, Dolan is never sorry

/taking thread further off topic

[selfinflikted]

I look at your avatar and I'm like, no you don't, Dolan is never sorry

I do, it's true! It was just about too small to see, and I watched it way too long - it was pulling me down.

[Veracohr]

Say you're a nineteen year old musician who just moved out of his 'rents house and works @ McDonalds. His dad was always telling him Boring Stories about how good he had it in the nice big ancestral basement with free access to Dad's pretty good recording studio. 19 is just beginning to discover how true these ridiculous claims were, and how broke he is. He has actually asked his Boring Old Dad to suggest a remedy to this surprising and completely unforeseen bummer.

I said (yeah, it's me & Guitarboy) I could probably scrape together a PC & sound card for him from ye olde parts pile, but here's what I'd like to hear about from y'all: What do y'all think about trying to go ALL FREEWARE? Even LINUX, because, as I understand it, Reaper runs just fine on Wine.

Would he need MIDI or just audio? Audacity is free and runs on Linux, but it doesn't have MIDI.

[Plink Floyd]

Would he need MIDI or just audio? Audacity is free and runs on Linux, but it doesn't have MIDI.

I always forget about Audacity, even though I've recommended it to lots of people. He has no hardware synth or drums, so, maybe just audio would be good enough. But he probably would want to use some free VSTs, so...

But ya know, he's come home to eat & wash clothes & mooch my studio almost every day since he's gotten his own place, why the helz should he buy his own computer?

So never mind with this thread, let's go back to trucks. I betcha mine's the ugliest.

[ClavAnother]

Audacity seems like a crappy daw. I use it for file conversions occasionally. It can read .mogg files and turn them into .wav

[christianrock]

Yeah I don't like Audacity. Since I got Reaper I never used it anymore.

Reaper ftw.

[Veracohr]

Yeah Audacity isn't exactly the most pretty or user-friendly DAW, but it IS freeware. Reaper isn't.

[christianrock]

But it's 60 bucks and you get free upgrades for years... if a musician can afford an instrument they should also invest in a DAW.

[Plink Floyd]

Truck, I'm tellin ya...

[gregwar]

with teh youth daw

step 1) what r u trying to accomplish ?
ex: record guitaars, drums ? or electronicas ? or jazzes ? etc

step 2) what r ur i/o needs ?
ex: massive synths studios with 48 channel mixer ? 1 mic input ? versatile ?

step 3) what r ur daws preference (tricky if not used daw before)
ex: SONAr, logic, pro tools (because pro tools), reapier, fruity loops, ableton ?

step 4) other
ex: protable/laptop, large room/desk, headphone vs 'monitors' (speakers not screen), etc

[gregwar]

also its pronounced taco-maa (with japanese accent)

i drive an '07 tundra, its blue and it makes a great rig rocket

[ElectricPuppy]

Mr Plinky, I've still got my old EMU 1820 (not the 'M' variant) audio interface, which I'll send you if Guitar Boy still needs an audio interface. It needs a PC with a classic PCI bus slot, and I think Creative still provides drivers.

[Plink Floyd]

Mighty kind offer, Mr. PupDude! You are ever the Gent!

But I'm thinking of telling him to "forget about DAWs, boy, gitcher self a truck".

Not really, but I am thinking of steering him towards saving up for a mid-level lappy. For ~ $300 on sale, he could get a quad core box with more than enough power for most DAW work. Maybe not so great for vid editing, but it would still be better than what I could slap together with five year old ends & odds, of which machine I'd be locked in to furnishing free emergency support for evar in perpetuity.

And I have a few USB interfaces underfoot that would be fine for that, such as the Edirol UA4FX which I once obtained from some buzzing mucsovite.

[christianrock]

Or, how about this instead of a laptop.

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i- ... fgodVloAOw

Buy one, and you're ready, no Windows or Linux, no extra interface, no controller, you're just good to go.

Or get the 32 track version for an extra 100 bucks. http://www.amazon.com/TASCAM-DP-32SD-32 ... k+recorder

[gregwar]

here's a link to the apple refurb shop:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

this is where i got my late 2013 retina macbook pro 15" with a decent discount. i recently bit the bullet to extend the apple care warrantee so its good for slightly less than 2 more years

i was looking specifically for a 2012 mac mini quad core i7 (a killer little machine) but sadly i don't see any minis in the refurb shop right now. they might come

the 2012 mini has user replaceable ram but most of the newer models don't. i took special care to max out the ram & vid card when i bought this laptop.

[gregwar]

for an interface i'd consider looking 2nd hand on kijiji or craigslist. a hi-z input, mic input and rock solid drivers that are still actively developed and downloadable would be ideal.

this criteria doesn't have to cost tons of money and honestly converters are so good now that in a blind test it would be hard to distinguish them (not like when i started in the late 90s lol)

my dad had a korg O1W/fd that i played around with in the basement and i got a yammy cs-20m for $40 at the local pawn shop

(i passed on a roland tr-808 for $50 cause i thought that was a lot for such a limited drum machine lol)

i quit my job washing dishes and got a job at mcdonalds that year and bought my first daw, an amd athlon 2600 'tank', 256 ram (?) and i can't remember the hard drive size. we got logic 5 express from the local music shop that sold mostly sheet music and high school band instruments

i used the mobo 1/8" sound input for my synths and sequenced mostly samples and break beats with the computer and mixed it all down. from there we got gold wave, fruity loops 1.0, ableton live 1.0, early versions of native instruments, jeskola buzz, etc etc

cool story bro

[Plink Floyd]

I like those portapotastudios but he needs a puter too.

Three wks ago his gf bought a used lappy from a local pawn shop. It's now on my workbench suffering from No Boot For You! It has Win 8 & UEFI, but of course no recovery files. New learns for me I guess yay. It wouldn't restore to the last point, which was a Windows update. I wonder, if the OS was illegal, & I could find the key somehow, if I could scare the pwn shop guy into a refund?

But maybe it's a moot point, since MS is jumping on the Free OS Applewagon. Rumor says "Free Win 10 for EVERYBODY! Even U stinkin pirates!"