Its barely creeping its way now, finally ... a little light is starting to show itself to me. I'm talking about the digital recording world in case you're wondering. Way back in like 1984/85 or so? I was tooling along there with my Fostex X-18 4 track cassette recorder and my Alesis SR16 digital drum machine. I was doing what I call "sketch padding" some songs. And then the digital recording world reared its ugly head and stepped into the picture. It was "the new thing" and it was aggressively taking over the entire recording world. Being the rebel in nature that I tend to be I said "fuck you digital recording" and slowly let it all go to the wayside. "You got me" ... "Fuck it, it probably wasn't going to be a good idea anyway" "sour grapes" yadda yadda ....
Well, I just like music damnit, and fuck it, if ya can't beat 'em join 'em right? I asked around from people I know for advice. People who I look up to and people who do that shit for a living. There's a concept ... just ask someone who KNOWS right? So I get to talking one night to a buddy who's a drummer for a fairly well known band in Texas (at least). I try to go see them when they get close and play a gig somewhere. They're just damn good ole regular guys trying to make it in the music business. Not doing too bad either I might add.
But anyway, after talking to this drummer who kinda has his own home studio and is into recording, Pro Tools, etc, I talked to another friend. A record producer/recording engineer/genius/musician/you friggin name it! ........... I decided I should get a macbook pro first and foremost, and then some kind of interface. My drummer friend had insisted on Focusrite because it has the "Neve" pre's in it. I know, this is "shop talk" lol. Rupert Neve is like a recording guru in the world of recording. He's regarded as the God of mixing boards by some of the best in the business. Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame features Neve in Grohl's documentary; Sound City. That's a kick ass documentary by the way! I highly recommend watching it 3 or 4 times at least. Its really THAT good. No shit.
So here's where I am right now. I probably SHOULD get Pro Tools.
But do I really NEED it? Its like a $700.00 question right now.
I have the macbook pro ... and I have an interface. A Focusrite 2i4 to be exact.
The macbook pro comes with a program called "Garageband" ... its a regular factory installed program included with the laptop. Now, from all the video watching and reading I've been doing on this whole thing I have found out I never really needed a macbook pro in the first place. There are a lot of PC based programs out there. I didn't even really need an interface either if I wanted to get downright technical about it. NEED being the key word here. I could have used a 1/4" to 1/8" mono cord and hooked right into the headphone jack. If I was doing it "bare bones poor mans ways" it would be the way to go. Just be careful not to fuck up your jack inputs by putting stress on them. Like everything, use a little common sense right? Getting the macbook was a wise choice I believe. At least in the long run. Garageband looks to have a ton of potential for what I was looking to do though, which is continue to "sketchpad" songs. I have finally figured out how to make my interface communicate with Garageband. But that also means I can most likely figure it out on most any DAW ... that's "shop talk" for digital audio workstation.
I guess the real question here is, how far does a person want to go with it? Before turning it over to the pros?
I have no real desire to be a recording engineer guru type of person. Although I have the utmost respect for the craft. I just have some songs that might be good. "Might" being the keyword here.
Still thinking about it all ......... I'll let you know what I do.
Peace to all ..
