Home recording help and advice.

[Mazrim]

O.K, so I've been writing a shitload of stuff and I'm ready to start recording it. My intention is to do it all myself and then recruit people to play it live.
I'm a very experienced guitar player but this digital recording malarkey is new to me.

I'm looking at using stuff like EZDrummer and so on to do the drum tracks and I'll record the guitars direct to my PC through my GT-10.

I've used Reaper and Audition to put together and master tracks before that were already recorded by my last band but I'm not sure where, how or with what software to begin with now. I like what I've heard from EZDrummer "Drumkit from Hell" so I'll be using that I think.
What do I use to put it all together? Cubase or something or is Reaper O.K?

If I record a drum track first is it a case of plugging the GT-10 in and recording a guitar tracks whilst listening to the drums or what?

So thanks in advance for any help and advice. I'd also like to know where best to get software from and for as cheap as possible if not free.
I want the moon on a stick so.... shoot.

[DumpyWumpy]

Reaper is an amazing piece of software, stick with that. I switched from Cubase to Reaper myself and found Reaper a lot more flexible and equally as full featured and professional.

You'll want to pick up a decent soundcard/audio interface in order to record with minimal latency, otherwise you'll find that when you listen back to tracks you recorded when you were playing along to the drum track you'll notice that the guitar is out of sync with the drums because of the delay between the software playing back the drums to you and actually recording what you are inputting. I recommend something like the Mackie Onyx Satellite as far as cheap solutions go, thing is fantastic. It's firewire though so you need to have a firewire port on your computer to be able to use it.

EZ Drummer should work great for you, but if you have no experience using VST instruments and plugins in Reaper there will definitely be a bit of a learning curve as you figure out how to set it all up. Basically you need to create a MIDI track in Reaper, load EZ Drummer in the FX inserts and program your drums on the MIDI map.

Does the GT-10 have a USB out? If it does, you might not need to get an audio interface if that lets you get the latency low enough. Either connect it via USB or 1/4" into an audio interface, setup a new audio track in Reaper and make sure it's recording from the right input and hit record. As long as the drums are already done before this, they'll automatically play back while you're recording. If you use the GT-10 as the interface though you'll need to be listening through headphones connected to the GT-10 to be able to hear any of the playback.

[Mazrim]

GT-10 has a USB yeah. Thanks for the advice dude. I have a pretty badass sound card as I've just bought a new PC and told the guy what I was intending to use the PC for and to put a good enough soundcard in to cope. I cant for the life of me recall what it is now though.

So whats the deal with EZ Drummer. Do I have to buy the main program and then the DFH add on?

[DumpyWumpy]

GT-10 has a USB yeah. Thanks for the advice dude. I have a pretty badass sound card as I've just bought a new PC and told the guy what I was intending to use the PC for and to put a good enough soundcard in to cope. I cant for the life of me recall what it is now though.

So whats the deal with EZ Drummer. Do I have to buy the main program and then the DFH add on?

You don't have to buy anything But yeah, you need both pieces of software

[Mazrim]

You don't have to buy anything But yeah, you need both pieces of software

So any idea where I can get this software without having to pay?

[Soap]

cough, cough, cough... torrent, cough, cough.

[Mazrim]

I'm going to be a good boy and pay for EZ Drummer, then rip off the Drum Kit from Hell expansion from Torrentz or something.

If a member of the judiciary are reading this however, I'm not going to do anything of the sort.