I am looking to build a basic recording setup so my band can record orginials. I have 5 piece rock band. I think I would like to use a laptop and recording software so I could burn the music onto cds. We have all the necessary equipment to gig and I have a laptop. Any advice on what I need to get would be greatly appreciated.
PS Since I already have a computer I'd like to keep the cost reasonably low.
You might want to, and others might want to as well, look into using Linux. There is some really cool audio stuff comming out for linux lately. You might have some trouble with the laptop since many have rather rinkadink hardware in them that doesn't always work in linux, but if it does you have a whole set of proffesional grade tools at your disposal for free including recording, mixing, mastering, effects, etc...
You could try buying a Tascam US-224 audio interface/control surface. It is portable and gets power from USB so you can take it around with your laptop without the need of a wall wart. I believe the retail cost is somewhere around $299. It is compatible with most of the software out there. I would recommend Sonar as it's very user friendly, versatile, and packed with features like ReWire and DXi plug-ins and instruments. That right there is a pretty nice setup assuming that your laptop has plenty of RAM (with 256MB you might be OK but try to get the most that you can). Of course, you might have to buy an inexpensive 4-channel mixer (anywhere in the vicinity of $70 or $80) which you will need if you intend on recording drums. That way you could use 4 microphones for you drums and record the stereo output of the mixer into the two inputs of the Tascam US-224.
This setup is inexpensive and highly effective. You should get good quality demos, considering you mix the songs correctly. I might even go as far as to say that, if you play your cards right, you could record your band's EP's on this and the quality can potentially rival a professional recording (considering your mixing skill).
