Designed to give aspiring guitarists answers to common questions about recording your music in a brief, affordable, yet informative fashion, this FAQ book provides concepts, techniques and many answers to frequently asked questions about digital recording. It will give you the necessary tools and information that will allow you to record digital music on your own. Use this book as a foundation, then build your own recording process, and enter the world of recording that's fun, satisfying, and ready for the world to hear!

Introduction

Part One
What is digital recording?
What do I need to be able to do digital recording on my own?
What is an I/O?
What about portability?
What is storage (Hard Drive Space)?
What is a Sample Rate?
What is Bit Depth?
What is Latency?
What is Bus Speed?
What is a Cache?

Part Two
How do I set up the proper levels for recording?
What's the difference between a dynamic and a condenser microphone?
What do the different mic patterns mean?

Part Three
How do I mic acoustic guitars?
How do I mic my electric guitar amp?
What's a good way to mic drums?
What's a good way to mic vocals?
What's a good way to record bass?
What's a good way to record keyboards?

Part Four
What should I think about before recording?
What questions should I know the answers to before a session?
How do I get all of my music into the computer?
How do I get all of my music into the DAW?
How do I route inputs?
What software should I use?
MAC or PC?
What are the basics of editing?
What is Track Copy?
What is Track Cut?
What is Track Erase?
What is Zero Crossing?
What is Normalizing?
What is Save As?

Part Five
How do I approach a mix?
What are Frequency Holes?
How does panning help my mix?
Can arrangements help the song?
How does volume help my mix?
What about effects?
So when mixing, what's the big picture?

Part Six
What is Mastering?
What's important when burning my CD?
Phil Gates