Recording Equipment

I personally think Audacity is the best recording freeware software on the market. I'm sorry I can't help you with this as I know nothing about the industry. But good luck man.

Nice. I use a mixer instead of an interface, but the Presonus is a sweet piece of gear. Especially to come with free recording software.

Right now, I'm running Logic Pro X. But I started with the free GarageBand software that comes with Macbooks. The only advice I can give you about software is, the best way to learn is to do. Mess around with the software and see what it's capable of. Explore every drop down menu and press every button. Watch videos from people on Youtube who have your software. Learn the keyboard shortcuts which make life a lot easier!

Try to get some basic knowledge of recording and acoustics, in general. I have a book called "Guerrilla Home Recording" by Karl Coryat which REALLY helped me when I first got into recording. Having the physical book there will be useful instead of trying to look up things on the internet all the time.

One of the main things in the software... Learn to use the Equalizer or EQ. Especially learn about the different frequencies (the range of human hearing is 20Hz to 20kHz). This will help you to properly mix different instruments so they don't interfere with one another. Quick rundown:

• Low End - 80Hz and below [These should be slightly rolled off in the final mix so the sound isn't muddy]
• Lower Mids - 80Hz-250Hz
• Mid Range - 250Hz-25KHz
• Upper Mid - 2.5kHz - 6kHz
• High End - 6kHz and above

Hi hats should sit somewhere in the highs and upper mids. Electric Bass in the Lower Mids. It all depends on the style of music and the producer, but I prefer the Bass Guitar sit at a higher frequency than the kick drum. There are a lot of things you'll learn by just messing around with it. Like the guitar doesn't have to be as high in the mix as guitarists (like me) would sometimes like it to be.

Panning is important too. For instance, if you have two guitars you can pan one to the left and one to the right. Then bass and kick drum can sit in the center with everything else spread out around them. Personally, I like to mix as though I'm looking at a live band onstage. Drums center (with each separate piece of the drumkit slightly panned differently), maybe bass only slightly to the left (he should stay close to the drums), guitars left and right. Maybe a keyboard in between one of the guitars and the drums. Vocalist mostly center with maybe some background vocalists on each side.

Anyway sorry for the long post man. Good luck!

Oh man, that could be a lot of different problems lol. Ranging from simple to complex.

• Did you check to see if you were getting a signal on your meters before recording? You should have some indication in the software and on the interface that it's getting signal from your microphone.
• Make sure you open a new "audio" track instead of a "software instrument" or MIDI track.
• When you record you should be able to see the audio waveform forming in real-time. If you can see the waveform your audio has been recorded and it's a playback issue (not a recording issue).

• Check if you have an "input" selected on the channel. If so, make sure it's the right input for your interface.
  
• Open the mixer (if there is one) and make sure none of the other channels are muted or soloed.
• Could be a master volume issue.
• Look in the preferences of your program. Some programs require you to change the output to your speakers (depending on the type of speakers and how they're connected).

I'll sticky this thread for anyone that has interest in audio recording. Great stuff guys.