Well, I sit at home, or take a shower, or am driving, and I get these ideas in my head for songs, fusion stuff. I have a little lick, which turns into a full fledged song with bass, keyboards, percussion, sax, drums, and guitar. Well, I have these ideas quite often. So far I have about eight, with one being a vocal song. I'm going to sit down and try to write this stuff and hopefully produce an album.

I might buy that KORG Tom Schuman is selling on EBay, because I need a good synth instead of a YAMAHA electric piano. It just doesn't cut it. But now, Im stumped. I need recording equipment and programs and I HAVE NO CLUE AS TO WHAT I NEED OR SHOULD GET!

I'm talking about computer programs, mixers, microphones and all of that other stuff. I know its a lot, but Im gonna need it.

SO, can any of you guys help lead me in the right direction to either buy what I need, or tell me how to research what I need or were/ how to look for it?

Yes, you have many options my friend. If you are an indy artist and want to produce your own album on a tight budget, you do not need a gazillion dollars. I am in the process of producing my first original album right now with software from Steinberg called "Sequel".

If I were you, I would look into purchasing ProTools. It is perhaps the most popular software used right now and even the best session players I know use it. There are many plug-ins and effects that are made with compatability with ProTools (even vocal stuff like AutoTune).

If you're going to use a desktop or laptop to record you're going to need a couple of things. First of all, plenty of RAM on the computer. I would recommend a minimum of 2 Gigs of RAM because the more tracks you get going, the more taxing it is on the processor. You can purchase an external hard-drive at a reasonable cost too.

You're also going to need some type of interface that allows you to go from your music equipment to a USB port on the computer. Again, this does not have to be anything costly. You can get a cable that will just run a "dry" connection from your instrument or amplifier into the computer, or you can purchase one of the many processors that have built-in effects for a reasonable cost. I've got one that has pretty much every thing I need and it cost about 50 dollars. It has reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, phaser, compressor, distortion, wah's, vocal effects, etc. etc. Occasionally I simply bypass the effects and run a direct signal to my laptop, but there are times I will employ the effects.

I will be glad to help you any way I can. You can PM me or contact me through the link in my signature line.

I went with a Tascam stand-alone hard disk recorder. Only because I'm fatigued from sitting at my computer all day and all night, and this unit allows me to record in my little studio, away from my computer -- a fresh experience.

It's pretty simple to use, but I think it might not be the cutting edge way to do it anymore -- even though lots of models are still available at music stores. You have to operate it through a tiny screen, unlike the software/PC based methods that give you a much better visual.

These start in the 300 dollar range depending on how many tracks you want, and if you want to be able to record to CD or Flash memory. Direct to CD is more expensive.

Also, there is a local sound recording school in the town in which I live, and apparently the students there are willing to do recording for free as projects and such -- I got an offer recently.

That might be another alternative for you, although I'm not sure how many songs they would be willing to do -- in my experience, recording engineers get a bit impatient with having to do multiple takes of the same song, so you lose the ability to "make it perfect" if you can't do the song in one or two takes.

So, these present other options....

Many indie bands use Disc Makers for duplicating and packaging their CDs. 1000 shrink wrapped CD for about $900, but there are various packages. You can also get T-shirts, posters, cards, etc to match your CD art - and pull together a marketing campaign.

Disc Makers is a CD Baby partner.

http://www.discmakers.com/

Thanks a lot guys!

I just got Logic 9 from Apple and this DAW is feature packed. I could write, produce, mix, and master a complete CD with just this tool. I also have Sonar 8.5 with Windows 7 and it also has a lot of features.

Yep! Lots of options out there. I've used every Cakewalk software available including Sonar. I've used all the Voyetra products from the 90's. I'm currently using Sony Acid Pro 6. 99% of the demos on my Myspace page are done using Acid Pro. I do tons of 'cyber' bass work for a lot of different producers using Acid Pro 6. Works best for me.

www.myspace.com/thefunkfather

I recently bought Sonar 8 while it was on a sale for 1/2 off or something like that. But I haven't a clue as to how to use it still. I've been messing around with it but not much because of school works and such. I'm not too worried about it. There are plenty of books that can teach me how to use it. I just gotta get the time and the book to do it!