A few weeks back while I was in Kansas City attending a family wedding, my son and I stopped into the Guitar Center there. I thought I would check out recording equipment and I ran into a sales guy who actually seemed to know his stuff pretty good. He was able to explain the pros and cons of the different systems that could do basically what I wanted which was turn my computer into a mini-recording studio. So for bang for the buck, he showed the Presonus Inspire GT. The GT was a labelling package that Guitar Center had put together just for them, otherwise this unit is known by Inspire 1394.
So the pros? It has the ability to record 2 channels at one time in either 1/4 inch or XLR connections. It came with a miriad of software which most of it I am not sure I will ever use. The system came with a CD (that I could read) with Cubase LE and tutorial videos to get quick started. It was fairly simple to set up although a bit involved but the biggest plus I got all this at a pretty decent price comparative to the other options and features.
And the cons? The "bonus" DVD with the software can't be read (could be damaged, not sure). I need to get myself over to Gtr Ctr here and see if they can do me some justice. My first recordings played back hiss and static which I couldn't figure out where or why it was doing that although I cured it with a firmware upgrade. Our sound man at church one Sunday happened to be using a 16 track mixer and his iBook with Cubase and I was able to pick his brain a bit and he was the one who told me to try the firmware upgrade. bingo! Thanks James.
So after fumbling a round off and on for a week or three, I finally am doing some simple recording. This is one of those things you can easily get lost in and 2 or 3 hours can fly by in an instant. The hard part now is finding the time and energy to devote a few hours to focus on this as the days continue to go by. I am hoping as time goes on, it will just get easier and become an easy tool to use.
