Jeff, other cc.net musicians/audiophiles/computer savvy?

That really all depends on what exactly you want to do and what kind of quality you want. If you just want external outputs, the nicer version of Soundblaster should do the trick and it isn't terribly expensive.

If, however, you want better quality, you'll need a better interface.

I think it is important to draw a distinction between a sound card and a digtital I/O (input/output) interface. While they do essentially the same things (move sound from the digital domain to the analog domain and vice versa), soundcards, for the most part, are fairly simplistic consumer animals.

Digital I/O's are more complex and designed more for serious recording. Obviously the latter are more expensive.

If you want to just simply take samples on your computer, edit them and then move them off of your hard drive, you can do that with a decent version of Soundblaster. If you want instruments added (guitars, bass, live drums, vocals, etc), you are better off going with some external type of interface. Most of them come with a PCI card in addition to some external interface with 1/4" ins and out or even XLR ins and outs for mics, guitars, etc.

You can also look at the new MOTU 688 which is a firewire interface. The main thing that sets the interfaces apart is their A/D D/A (analog to digital, digital to analog) conversion. The better the interface, the more powerful the converter which makes your sounds record better.

Sonic Foundry lists 5.0 as the latest version of Sound Forge. Their software, Acid Pro, is a ridiculous piece of technology.

Remember that Sound Forge isn't the only music editing software on the market. There are dozens of software packages available from the simplistic and shareware (like Cool Edit) to the very complex (Pro Tools for example). Decide exactly what you want and evaluate software from there.

Again, the more external instrumentation you are planning on adding (vocals, guitar - basically anything that isn't sampled), the more recording power you will need. Sound Forge is a good piece of software but it isn't the only thing out there.

That is completely dependent on what you are doing. Again, for just sampling and playback, you could spend less than $500 and be up and running. The more flexibility you need, the more you will pay. Pro Tools, the full version, retails for $10K and that's just a piece of software!

BTW: Remember that this is still a Mac-dominated industry. While options for the PC are much greater than they used to be, there are still many pieces of software and gear that are made for Mac only and others that make versions for PC that are not as complex as their Mac cousin. Just something to keep in mind.

 

If you want software for creating great loops and samples, there is probably nothing better than Acid Pro. That in combination with its sister softwary, Sound Forge, and you should do well.

 

They don't make Acid for Mac so I don't have it.

"Sampling" is when you take a snippet of something that already exists - a vocal, an instrument or even a piece of a song - and edit one small part of it out to use either once or repeeatedly in a new song.

"Looping" is the act of taking that "sample" and playing it over and over in succession so that it becomes the basis of some music.

A drum loop, for example, could come from a sample (either taken from a pop song, from a sample CD or even by recording live drums) or from a drum machine. By playing 1 or 2 bars of it over and over, you get a drum track.

Understand that "samples" can also be just sounds or effects as well. They don't have to be musical phrases. Synthesizers have sampled pianos, horns, etc. in them. Someone recorded the notes on a piano and then sampled each one and put it in the memory of the synth. You can even sample the reverb in a room by recording the decay of hands clapping or a voice, whatever.

 

I don't record on my Mac. I use a combination of a stand alone hard disk recorder and some other gear.

I am going to add a Mac to my system this year and go with a pair of MOTU 688 firewire interfaces running EMagic's Audio Logic and, eventually, Pro Tools. I think that I'm going to buy one of the older blue/white G3's and just upgrade the processor to a 500mhz, put in 512MB of ram and add a 60GB hard drive. Those were the last Mac's that had SCSI on them but many of them also had USB and Firewire boards on them too meaning lots of flexibility. I can get one on Ebay with a monitor and do the upgrades for under $1500 - a lot less than buying a new G4 and speed isn't essential to me since I will be doing the bulk of my actual track recording on another machine. The Mac will mainly be for editing, sampling, sequencing MIDI and special FX.

I do a small amount of sampling currently, but usually the hard way by recording and then editing with a tempo map/sync track. I do a lot of loops but I program the vast majority of them using a Alesis DM Pro drum module and an external sequencer. I just find loops I like and duplicate them with the DM Pro. It gives me a little more flexibility because it is MIDI, plus I am like a drum programming nut. I've been doing it for years and I'm really picky about drums anyway.

I'll often add live drum parts to the loop like brushes on snare or a snare drum with the snares off, things like that just to add. I'll just overdub those on as live tracks once the loop is recorded throughout the entire song.

 

Sorry for the delay. I tried to answer this yesterday but my computer went haywire. Before going and buying something, I would check out the stuff that you are interested in online and ask around. Here are a few sites that might help...

<a href="http://www.homerecording.com/">HomeRecording.com</a>
<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~rongonz/home_rec/home.html">The Musician's Guide to Home Recording</a>
<a href="http://www.homerecordingmag.com">Home Recording Magazine</a>
<a href="http://www.recordingmag.com/mumak/Recording">Recording Magazine</a>
<a href="http://industryclick.com/magazine.asp?siteid=15&magazineid=33">Electronic Musician Magazine</a> - This one is geared towards your kind of stuff.

Also, you'll want to search under Digital Audio Workstation or DAW in Yahoo as well as "home recording" and "digital recording". You'll find plenty o' links for that. Read up on stuff, hit the bulletin boards and ask questions.

I would also check out <a href="http://www.vsplanet.com">VSPlanet.com</a>. They are mainly for Roland VS recorder users but they have a big section of their BBS dedicated to DAW stuff. Also there are several <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com">Yahoo Groups</a> dedicated to to recording. They are always helpful.

When you are done, Guitar Center or Mars Music will be the best places to find software here in town. You can also find a ton through catalogs like Sweetwater Sound, Musician's Friend and others. Most of the music retailers that do mail order are online just like many of the software mail order places.

Look first because there is a lot out there. Good luck!