Total Newbie

Slartibartfarst42

I've never bothered with recording anything at home before as I was in a Rock covers band and that was enough for me. I'm rapidly hurtling towards 58 and I doubt I'll be in a band again so now I'm thinking I might try recording a few ideas at home as a way of keeping myself amused. I won't be recording covers, just my own ideas so I guess I'm looking for a compositional tool as well as recording. I will be using a PC, not a Mac.

I play guitar and I've just ordered a Boss GX-100 that will provide all of my amp tones and effects as well as being my recording interface. I can record the bass parts through the GX-100 myself too. All I need for these parts is a way of recording and mixing, but drums will be the problem. I don't play drums and I don't have easy access to a drummer, so I need to add the drum track virtually. I assume this is possible in this modern world.

The most important thing is that whatever I use, it has to be incredibly simple and intuitive. I have never tried anything like this before and you can safely assume that my current ability is somewhere south of absolute zero. At first I thought something like a Tascam DP-008 might be old school enough for my non-existent ability but that would still give me the problem of how to add drums. I assume there is something I can use on my PC for doing this, but if I had that, would I need the Tascam at all?

If you were just starting out with no knowledge or experience at all and wanted to compose and record your own music, adding virtual drums, what would you get as the very easiest way of achieving this?

LuttiS

Reaper + EzDrummer is probably the way forward. Reaper is the recording program, it has a full access trial for as long as you want to try it for.

Ezdrummer, some might disagree with but it is the most straight forward drum program. Most loops are pre-recorded and you can drag and drop what you need.

I'm pretty sure the GX100 would work as an interface.

Good luck!

andy_k

+1 for Reaper, at least to try it out.
A few options exist for free drum programs, MTPower drums, SSD5 Free, Sitala, try a few to get the idea.
Initial cost, nothing.

Slartibartfarst42

Thank you so much for your help, it is greatly appreciated. Reaper looks like a good option. I may still not be able to use it but at least I can try it first and even when I buy it, the cost is very reasonable. EzDrummer obviously involves a bit more investment but if it's easy to use, that would be worth it. I assume the EzDrummer software is better than the free options but I think it would be prudent to try the free options first before investing hard earned cash on EzDrummer.

 This may sound like a really stupid question, but with all these drum options, is it always pre-recorded loops that I drag and drop into whichever part of the song I want or is that particular to EzDrummer?

siremoon

For a total beginner definitely Reaper.  You can try it for free, it has excellent community support, and a Kenny Gioia tutorial that literally starts from the very beginning with downloading, installing and opening it up for the first time.  There are also Kenny tutorials on how to get started with your first project and making your first recordings.

steveledzep

Yes, I've been using the Kenny Gioia tutorials, he's very good.  Here is your starting point:  https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php

For the drums, you could add to your "amusement" by getting a programmable drum machine.  Plenty available from the Alesis SR16 which you'll find for £50 or less on eBay.  I'm messing around with a Drumbrute at the moment.  Buy wisely and sell on at no (minimal) loss.

Fez

As above reaper and Ezdrummer look out for sales on the toontrack website. 

Don't write playing live off the other guitarist in my band is coming up to 74.

andy_k

MTpower drums is a free vst that has a library of midi drum tracks, and a browser to let you audition and combine them, before the midi file is dragged into the DAW.
SSD5 free is similar, but has you jump through a few hoops to get it installed.
These both use samples of real drum sounds, which are played via midi notes, so not exactly dragging in pre-recorded loops.
The midi can always be edited to suit, but usually different programs will use a slightly different mapping.
I'd recommend MTpower, as it is completely free, and is fully featured, the others will be free versions of a full package, I have the full version of SSD5, and it is very good, but can be overwhelming. They all want you to buy add on packs of midi files, and there are plenty of free ones available too if you look around, Groovemonkey do a fairly good selection in many genres.
Once you have the VST installed, it is pretty easy to make your own anyway, either from scratch, or built off something else.

blobb

Slartibartfarst42 said:

If you were just starting out with no knowledge or experience at all and wanted to compose and record your own music, adding virtual drums, what would you get as the very easiest way of achieving this?

Trio + and your phone voice recorder. That's what I do now.

TTony

Keep in mind that the interface and working process of DAW A is intuitive for some people, whilst other people find DAW B much easier.

If Reaper doesn’t work for you, don’t assume that you’ll never get the hang of this recording stuff, just try another DAW.  Most of them have pretty functional free versions, which are yours for the cost of a download and some disc space.

(I say that from experience!).

Likewise with the drumming apps.  Also, tip for those, start with a loop that almost works, and edit it to make it work for your track.  That can be a lot quicker than programming the drum track in from scratch.

andy_k

blobb said:

Slartibartfarst42 said:

If you were just starting out with no knowledge or experience at all and wanted to compose and record your own music, adding virtual drums, what would you get as the very easiest way of achieving this?

Trio + and your phone voice recorder. That's what I do now.

I have tried this with a v1 Trio, the lack of accurate tempo makes it a frustrating experience.
We have to assume the OP has some basic knowledge of installing / using software, after that it is all down to personal choice.
If he was using a Mac, Logic would be the obvious choice, but as he is using PC, there are many options.
Reaper is the DAW for him, I am sure of it, there is nothing it cannot do.
Kenny's YT channel has all the tutorials, for any purpose, and he is paid to do the vids by Cockos, so is probably one of the main sources of info.
There is also a good forum, where most things get discussed.
I seem to spend most of my time working on drum tracks, so it is good to have something good to start with, MTPower is still as good as anything, when you realise the source can be manipulated any way in the mix, eq and compression is all done in the mix, along with reverb, all of which are built into Reaper. ( they are also all built into any other DAW, but are usually given fancy names, with retro interfaces ).
A full licence for Reaper lasts for 2 full versions, which will probably be another 5 years, and costs £60, but the program is fully functional anyway.
Start with Reaper, take some time to understand how good it is, and pay for the license when you realise how good the value is.

andy_k

As a little further tip, I can recommend a plugin called Unify, which at first seems a little expensive, £79, but when you get a grasp of what it does, it becomes invaluable, and could easily replace a drum plugin, and also add any other instrument to your armoury.
If I was starting from scratch right now, Reaper and Unify would be all that is needed, to make any kind of music.
Any live guitar that got recorded on top would be a bonus.

andy_k

Pluginguru Unify, plenty of demo's on YT.

Slartibartfarst42

Thank you so much to everyone for your help, it is greatly appreciated. It certainly sounds like Reaper is the way to go. I tried Studio One some years ago when I tried buying a Presonus interface but I was completely lost. I never managed to record anything and never managed to work out how to add drums etc. so I eventually abandoned the idea, sold the interface and deleted Studio One. I'd guess that was about 7 or 8 years ago. I wouldn't have come back to this at all but my work uses iPads extensively and although I generally don't like them, the process of recording and editing audio and video seems very easy so it made me start to wonder if the recording software for my PC might now be easier to use. As I'm getting the GX-100 anyway and it can act as an interface, I figured I might as well ask about recording. With Reaper being so cheap and being able to try before I buy, it seems like a no brainer to give recording another go.

andy_k

Once you have got a little comfortable with using Reaper to record something, which will probably be an emulated guitar sound from your GX-100, you will want to flesh out your ideas with production, ie other sounds.
People often criticise Reaper for it's lack of included sound making plugins, apart from the very basic Reasamplomatic.
There are a couple of free add ons for Reaper, which are essentials, SWS extensions, and Reapack. These things allow for the installation of pretty much any plugin that has been developed for Reaper, in its native JS format, and go very deep.
As I stated above,  If I was starting from absolute scratch now, I would get a basic drum plugin, such as MTPowerdrums, and I would also seriously recommend Unify for everything else, instead of simply getting a lot of free VST synths etc.
There is a demo version of Unify, which is possibly worth looking at, as I suspect the upgrade path would be simple once you have decided to purchase it.
I first saw it when it was released about 2 years ago, and after seeing what it was capable of, I was one of the first purchasers.
The software has been constantly updated, and is now at the point where there are many libraries of sounds available for it'
There are a few highlights for me, the entire free Spitfire LABS plugins have been unified, and also the free BBCSO plugin has had an extensive library done for it, these two things cover virtually all the orchestral string sounds you could need.
There are many drum samples included in the basic version of Unify, which cover all the modern drum sounds, and there have been libraries made for most of the free synth plugins released so far, ( Helm, Surge, Tal etc. )
This might sound very overwhelming as a beginner, I fully understand, I was one once myself, but I think we have come a long way in the last couple of years, and no longer need to be spending serious money to get good sounds.
A large part of the journey, will be the realisation of how important Midi is in modern music making, which goes a lot further than just keeping things in sync and to tempo, and once you get a grip on it, you will see anything is possible these days.
I would also encourage the early adoption of recording a DI track of any guitar you record, at the same tie as capturing a sound and this would require an interface with at least 2 inputs, which might not be immediately possible with your GX-100, but this should not be a barrier to getting started on the journey.
Good luck, have fun.

duotone

Would definitely recommend the 10 day free trial of EZ Drummer 2, so you can give it a proper test & see what you think of it. It comes with a modern & vintage kit, which covers a lot of ground.
https://www.toontrack.com/product/ezdrummer-2/

I use EZ Drummer 2 + Reaper & find they both work really well. 

mrkb

There are also lots of drum apps for phones/tablets that very quickly let you create a groove and you could then record that into a DAW in a few minutes. GarageBand is free on iOS and has some good drum grooves.