Never made a CD before...re: recording some of my original songs.... Tips?

United States
March 20, 2010 11:19am CST
Good afternoon~ I have some little songs I have written. Actually, I've never written them down. Anyway, I'm wondering if some of you could please help me out with how to go about recording some of my music. I do have a computer; and I have a keyboard. A long time ago, I tried recording some of my music by hooking up my computer to my keyboard. But that was keyboard only. I don't know how to add vocals. When I was trying to record some stuff by hooking up my computer to my keyboard, I was using a free software program someone told me about that was online. I had no clue what I was doing. I'm even trying to remember now what the name of the program was. I think other people could benefit from some of my music. Some of it is Scripture music. (The lyrics are Bible verses.) I've also written a few instructional Spanish songs. I'd love to get some of this music out and sell it. But I feel stuck in this phase of getting it recorded. Plus, I'm concerned about having my songs stolen from me. Different people have told me about getting my music copyrighted. The whole processes is just daunting to me. Funds are extremely limited also. I'd like to be able to do a half-way decent recording, but I can't put out a lot of money (if any).... A friend of a friend did a professional recording, and he paid about $5,000 to do it. We just can't swing anything at all near that.... Any tips for me? Thanks very much! ~thepianoladie, aka, artsyfartsygal
1 response
xfahctor
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
20 Mar 10
Thanks to the computer age, anyone with a little know how and teh right software can record a proffesional sounding cd. With out knowing what you have for system specs and what specific instruments you have it's hard to know where to start though. I personaly use Cakewalk Sonar 6 for my studio software and an audigy2 LS sound card. I sequence my drum tracks using a sampler thats built in to cakewalk, using actual drum sound samples. All my guitar and bass tracks are recorded using amplifier and effect simulator software called "Guitar Rig) from Native Instruments. All my keyboard tracks are sequenced in cakewalk as well, since I don't play keyboards very well, lol, it's just easier for me to do note by note sequencing. I also only use software based synths, rather than the actual sounds on the keyboard itself. It's a lot more versitle. but, you can also trigger thses synths through a MIDI signal from your keyboard. So....before I can help out any more, I need to know exactly what you want to do. Are you looking to simply record keyboard and vocal? Or are you also wanting to add other instruments as well like guitar and drums? Will you also be doing the mixing, producing and mastering yourself as well?
artsyfartsygal
@artsyfartsygal (121)
• United States
20 Mar 10
Hello, xfahctor~ Thanks so much for your reply and all the information! I guess I didn't really give you much information myself! Sorry about that! I'd like to be able to play my keyboard and have the music transcribed. That way is so much easier for me than writing everything note by note. I think if I have to write everything note by note, I'll never get anything done at all! If I can play and have my music transcribed, I can do more experimenting with my writing...just seems like a good way to go for me! So, I guess what I really want to do is actually TRANSCRIBE my music AND record it! Wow! Not asking too much, huh?!? Is a midi the thing that connects your keyboard to your computer? I have one of those. My brother-in-law talked to me a long time ago about having some little box to connect to my computer for my writing. It costs about $100. Money is just so tight for us right now. Even that small amount is hard for us at this point.... I'm not very familiar with cakewalk. A guy I know at our local music store has talked to me about PrintMusic and Sibelius. He said that Sibelius was harder to work with than PrintMusic. I haven't bought either of these. I can't think of what kind of keyboard I have right now, and it's packed up at the moment...... I basically would like to transcribe and record my keyboard music and also record my voice with the keyboard music. I don't have any other instruments that I want to add at this point. I also play clarinet, and my husband plays trumpet. So perhaps, I might want to add those down the road. But that seems to complicated for now. I think, for now, I just want to do the keyboard and vocals. Thanks again for your help! I greatly appreciate this! ~thepianoladie P.S. Don't forget to go to Rita's for your free water ice! LOL! Happy First Day of Spring!
xfahctor
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
20 Mar 10
I would say the first thing you should get is a sound card that is ASIO complient. This will allow for realtime recrding and monitoring. It doesn't have to be too fancy or expensive, you can probably get a simple one for under 30 bucks. A little looking online can point you in the right direction. You should also look in to getting a MIDI to joystick port adapter. This will allow you to hook your keyboard up to your computer and directly controll any software synthesiser. This is the interface that will also allow what you play to be transcribed in to the notation software that is usualy built right in to most recording software. I am not familiar with the notation software you mentioned I'm afraid though. I know there are a number of open source programs out there and I have tried a few, but they all seem lacking in one way or another. Maybe it's just because I have been using CakeWalk for so long it's just become comfortable for me. What will probably happen is you will record the keyboard part first in one track and then add the vocal track on seperately. It is just easier to manage that way and will gove you far more controll over the over all sound of it. I may be able to help you locate some software as well...I'll do a little digging and mesage you on the matter.
artsyfartsygal
@artsyfartsygal (121)
• United States
8 May 10
Thanks very much! My husband is the techy around here! I'm so bad at all that! And money is sooo tight these days...I'd like to do this at some point, though....