Recording.

I have no idea how much you are looking to spend, but i heard this is a great alternative to having to record in a studio without losing much quality:

http://www.3dmicpro.com/Mitra-3D-Mic-Pro/dp/B004VQ9N8E

It's like $1600, don't know if thats expensive or cheap for what you're looking to do. you can definitely get pretty good sound for much cheaper though, just not quite that good. and that mic is apparently especially good for recording a whole band in a room or something rather than recording everything individually.

i don't know a whole lot about this stuff though, so i just thought id give you the knowledge i have.

That's really high price for just a mic for me. hahaha I think I'm getting this

Can anyone help me out a little? Anything helpful gets +K

OK, basics.

First of all, you need a computer, a DAW (logic/protools/whatever), an audio interface (aka external sound card), a mic, headphones/monitors, and most likely 1 quarter inch cable.

Mic to audio interface to computer is how you wire it.

I don't record audio, everything I do is just messing around with software so I can't recommend a mic based on extensive person experience. I CAN however tell you that cheap gear is never good, and that you'd be better off getting a shure SM-57 or the 58 (which I've used and can tell you is great). Higher priced, but a mic isn't something I'd cheap out on, because shitty audio recordings are well... useless.

After you record the audio into your software, its alllll editing and producing from there.
The wonderful thing about software these days is it can do literally almost anything that an analog piece of gear can do, meaning that in $200 of software you can get what used to be a several hundred thousand dollar studio. Don't under-estimate your software, you don't need tons of external control surfaces and mixers to make it work.

PM/reply in here if you have more questions, I love talking about music.

The SM mics ARE cheap mics. However I agree that they are great mics used for countless famous records. I know Red Hot Chili Peppers swears by them both in studio and live.

The basics you need are:
-Audio Interface
-Monitors
-Microphone
-Software

I know Reaper is dirt cheap, and a much better DAW than many more pricey options. If you plan to do lots of MIDI, Reaper has the best sounding piano/drums but you can't record audio in unless you get Reaper Record, which is a great DAW. IMO Ableton's MIDI instruments suck and are only good for live music or hiphop/electro/etc.

Keep in mind that your first microphone is like your first girlfriend: it's not important. Besides, a cheap one like a Shure SM57 or Sennheiser e609 can produce amazing results if you know what you're doing. If you plan to do acoustic instruments, look into a condenser (I personally can't recommend any).

As for monitors, the KRK RP8 are great for beat-style music with heavy bass. If you want something with a little tighter low end, the M-Audio BX5a are great as well (I use them).

As for audio interface, PreSonus makes a great budget model, the FireStudio Mobile I think? It has really good pre-amps for the price. I use an M-Audio Fastrack Pro because I got it for next to nothing, and while it gets the job done for me, its preamps are horrid and produce a weak, noisy signal.

Despite what many will say, you can get AMAZING sound with the aforementioned setup as long as you know what you're doing. The quip that "equipment is only as good as the user" is especially true when it comes to audio recording.

If you want to know more, I suggest you spend some time reading up on www.tweakheadz.com

Yeah the SM57 isn't top of the line but its pretty standard. I figured it would be appropriate for the situation, as opposed to the really cheap mic OP was considering.

Also, if you want to save yourself a boatload of cash and are just planning on using audio files, you may want to look into audacity. Suuuper good free software, lots of people mix/master tracks in there after arranging in some other pro DAW.

I can also vouch for the awesomeness of the KRKs... Borrowing a friends right now and they BUMP.

True, but as far as "free" software, nothing matches Reaper.

While it technically isn't free (they want you to pay), they don't enforce licensing, so by all means you can download it for free off their site and use the full version as long as you like. However, since they are nice enough to do this, I feel obligated to say that they deserve the nominal price they ask, which is like $20. And honestly, it is far more advanced than Ableton, Reason, or Logic.

I am definitely going to be checking this out.

Thanks for the heads up, looks like some quality software.

http://www.reaper.fm/download.php

I can't thank both of you enough. Well laid out and explained thanks.