In this part (part 1) the following subjects:
Introduction
Development
Sequencers and recording software
From idea to song
How to record a guitar
Cubase SX3 / Cubase 5

In part 2 you will find:
Soundcards
Make a loop
Mixing and mastering

Introduction

From the moment I tried to play guitar, the art of recording has fascinated me. In my teens (yeah... about I had a friend who possessed an impressive Akai tape recorder with the sound-on-sound feature. For days and days we were busy with an acoustic guitar and a few pots and pans recording "Hey Joe". Alas, in the last decisive take my mother called me for diner. From that moment her "Hans, diner is ready!!!" was included in the impressive chorus of the song.... for ever! Hendrix would be proud!

In the time I played in all kind of bands it was the dream of every musician to have the possibility to record his own music in a somewhat professional way. But the highest you could achieve in that time was e.g. a Tascam 4-track recorder (with a cassette!). Expensive and with limited possibilities.
But luckily for musicians ICT made a giant leap since then, with as key concept the digitization. Almost everything that used to be analog (e.g. pictures, movies, music - who remembers 'long play records'?) is now available in a format consisting of only ones and zeros. This is a huge benefit for listening or viewing, because it has a high quality, is in a compact format and easy to copy without quality loss (ahum). For us musicians, the benefits go even further. To record and edit music these days you can come a long way with only a PC - that you already own - and of course some software.
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Development.

Only in the last couple of years recording software and applications to edit music are within the reach of the average musician. This is simply because of the fact that it takes a lot of processor power and memory to run these programs smoothly, especially when you want to record "multi track". Besides this about ten years ago the choice was rather limited and certainly not comparable with what is available now. But with a lot of hassle and determination it was possible, even in those days, to achieve some results (that sounded lousy when I listen to them now...). Applications I used then were by example n-track (it still exists, but isn't a big player) and a predecessor of CoolEdit. And besides these of course a lot of different programs to make drum tracks, synth sounds and so on.
At the moment there is a wide choice of all kind of excellent performing software in this domain. Not only recording software, but there is also a gigantic choice in samples (or "loops", "refills"), Plug-ins, Virtual instruments (e.g. Midi controlled virtual piano's, guitars or basses) and of course a lot of software to edit or enhance sound (compressors, reverbs, effects, limiters and so on). Ten years ago the limitations were in the software, nowadays in the musician (well, in my case that is).
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Sequencers and recording software.

Before I explain how I made my recordings in that time (see a bit further why I now use Cubase) it might be informative to talk a little about the difference between sequencer software and applications by which you can record analog instruments (vocals, guitars, basses and so on)
Roughly speaking sequencer software functions as follows: with a keyboard (or an emulated software keyboard) you control, using the Midi protocol, a (software) instrument. I'm certainly not an expert on these midi matters, so no technical details here, but I use it and it works. Reason and FruityLoops by example are typical sequencer applications.
For recording a guitar this software is useless. For this you need software by which you can capture the sound that's going into of the input of your soundcard. In a way a digital tape recorder. Typical recording software is e.g. CoolEdit.
Now we wanna record guitars, but also use all those miraculous possibilities of sequencer software. For this there are several options: there is software that can do both (Cubase, ProTools, Cakewalk), or you can record your guitars with simple recording software and export this (as a sample) in sequencer software.
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From idea to song.

For a long time I used a combination of sequencer software (Reason) and a simple recording tool (CoolEdit) to record my songs (I now use Cubase, see overhere). This may seem a little unpractical, but in practice it's no hassle at all. Both applications are perfectly tuned to do their job and have an easy to understand user-interface. Besides this the switching between the two programs is no problem at all if you keep them both "active". An other possibility is the use of Rewire. For an explanation see the box on the right
So, how do I work? I start with the Reason Redrum drummachine. From one of the hundreds of drumkits I select one that suits my needs and program the basic rhythm of the song. I keep it very simple, enhancements will be added in a later stage. Its important to start with the right tempo (bpm), when you have recorded a couple of guitars over this rhythm it's almost impossible to adjust the tempo without having to redo the recording of your guitars. I export this drumtrack as a wav file and import it in one the tracks of CoolEdit.
The very first thing you do now is set the tempo (bpm) of CoolEdit. And of course this has to be the same tempo as the Reason drumtrack. If you don't do this it will be almost impossible the "cut" the samples and get them on the right position in Reason.
Ok, the drumtrack is loaded in CoolEdit, after this we record the first guitar on another CoolEdit track. (About recording guitars: see the next page). In this first framework I try to record the whole song or at least the whole couplet or chorus in a rough form. If necessary I use track 2 for the couplet and track 3 for the chorus and so on. When this is done and we have some usable takes the cutting and pasting starts. Most of the times I play the drumtrack for a couple of minutes and record the guitar parts several times. I cut the best part (if there is one....) and I save it as a wav file. Always cut on a bar or on a beat. This makes it easy to paste the file on the right position in Reason. This file is imported in Reason using the NN19 or NN-XT, put in the right position in the sequencer (say 3x for the couplet), and you are finished with the first phase. It may seem to be rather complicated, but believe me, it's a piece of cake.
You can guess the next steps: in Reason I enhance the drumtracks, add a bassline, export the whole thing (export song file) again to a wav file. Import this new version in CoolEdit, add more guitars etc etc

Cubase SX3

Cubase SX3, Cubase 5
For several reasons I recently switched to Cubase SX3 and in the mean time to Cubase 5. This is an application with which analog instruments and midi instruments can be recorded at the same time and in the same project. The most important reason for switching was that I wanted to exchange my projects with other musicians. And Cubase (together with Pro-Tools - but that's even more expensive and needs special hardware) is the application that's used most: a standard in home- and studio recording. Furthermore it's not possible in Reason to use plug-ins (also called VSTi's). These are programs with which you can do virtually everything. There are soft synths, drum machines and all kinds of software to edit and enhance your sound. With these programs you can expand the possibilities almost without a limit. In reason you cannot use them.
Looking backwards I think I made a good choise. Cubase has everything a recording application should have (the manual is 800 pages!). This makes it difficult to learn, but once you know it, it's a pleasure to work with. In my opinion it also sounds better, but maybe that's caused by all that functionality right there at your fingertips. To finalize, the cutting and pasting I used to do, working with Reason and Cooledit.... I don't miss it for a second....
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Part two

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