If you want to record drums and also jam sessions, you may find two inputs restricting. To mic up drums successfully you may nbeed to use a couple of mics. Also you can get some nice effects by using a DI for an accoustic guitar and also mic at the same time. This way you can blend the sounds to get some different tones and add some depth. If you are jamming with a friend then you would deffinately want more than two inputs. Probably 2 mics, and a couple of DI's for the instruments. Also you may want to plan for more expansive requirements in the near future. No need to buy equipment twice, thats a costly exersize.

For all of the above reasons I recommend more than two iputs with your device.

Another thing to consider is latency. The best way to combat this si to ensure that you have fast communication between your hardware and your pc. Especially when recording multiple streams and using plugins or VST i's.  The fastest is USB2 very closely followed by firewire, USB1 is outdated technology and should be avoided ( apologies to those who still use USB1 hardware   )

My personal set up is with an Alesis Multimix8 USB2.0 it provides me with 8 inputs ( 4 stereo and 4 mono), mic phantom power on 4 of the inpouts,  built in effects, eq on every channel, send and receive on all channels, main out, control room out, line out, headphones out.  It is flawless and acts as a good mixer as well as soundcard. I can take it and gig with it.

I am sure there are many such beasts out there that would be as good as this one, but I hope this gives you some idea of what to look for.

If you having problems getting sound on cubase check the following:

1. That you have installed the drivers for the presonus interface you are using.

2. That you have set the presonus device as your VST Audio system. To do that

   a) Click [Devices] in the top level menu
   b) Select [ Device Setup ] from the drop down menu
   c) The device setup window will now appear and you should click on [ VST Audio System ] in the left panel.
   d) Now select [Presonus] as your ASIO driver. I dont use presonus so can only presume that is how it will appear. and I also presume no further settings need to be changed in this area.
   e) Click [ OK ] to confirm and this windo will close.

3. Now you need to set up your VST connections so that cubase can identify the various input channels. In your case there are probably 2 incoming channels and cubase needs to be able to differentiate between them.
   
   a) Click [Devices] in the top level menu
   b) Select [ VST Connections ] in the drop down menu.
   c) The VST Connections window will now appear. This window has two tabs, [INPUT] and [OUTPUT] tabs. Lets do the output one first. Click on the [OUTPUT] tab.
   d) If Presounus does not show under the heading Audio Device, chnage this setting so that it does.
   e) Now click the cross next to Stereo Out unde the first column entitled [ Bus Name ].
   f) This will split the Bus into two chanells, left and right. Under the heading [Device Port] ensure the settings read Out_Left and Out_Right. If not change these settings.
   g) Now click on the [INPUTS] tab and we will set up the input for your two presonus channels.
   h) Click [Add Bus] and select Mono.
   i) A new channel, [Mono In] will now appear. You can change the name by double clicking [Mono In] and giving it a name of your liking. You will be setting upo two of these channels. I have a USB 8 mixer so I have 8 channels permanently set up and connected to various instruments so mine are called [ Mic 1 ], [ Condenser ], [ Les Paul ], [ Takamine ], [ Bass ], [ Keyboard] etc...

   j) Close the VST connections window, and you should now be set up for all your future Cubase Projects.

4. Now start a new cubase project. And set up the tracks you will be using. I have a blank project set up using all of my normal tracks, drums, midi, vocals, lead, rhythym, bass etc and have it saved as a template. This way each time I start a new project I dont have to set up the tracks. To set up the various tracks for the first time perform the following for each track....

   a) Right click the dark vertical panel in the working area and select [ Add Audio Track ] from the popup menu.
   b) A new track will appear in your project. Click the (e) button which stands for Edit Channel Settings.
   c) On the right side of the Channel Settings window, directly above the vertical volume slider there are two routing options. Input routing and output routing. Click the input routing option and you will see the two settings you configured earlier using the VST connections. You can now select which of the two presonus inputs you want this track of your project to listen to. The output routing should be ok, normally just stereo out.
   d) You can now close your Channel settings window.
   e) There is a small speaker button on the trackcontrols panel that you can use to toggle the sound on and off.

Once you have set all of tracks up save it as a template for future project use. You can set as many tracks as you need to each VST input connection, but you are limited by presonus to only two simultaneous recording channels at any one time. I would suggest having one set to intrument and the other to microphone. That way you can leave you mic permanently hooked up to one chanenel and set all of your guitar, bass, keyboards etc.. to the instrument channel.

Thats all there is to it and once you have completed this it should be a breeze for the future.

If you strike any problems just repost, Ill have a look and see if you need more help.

cheers.

Allan.

Beautiful song Phil. And capyured with some nice guitar work and a great voice !!

Allan

I am in agreement with the others on the song needing to be a bit more uptempo but wonder if you could also aid this by singing a little crisper as well, just shortening slightly the time you hold each word. Not a lot, just tad to sharpen the vocal line alittle.

The drums a lost in the mix and as you have no bass I feel this is an important part to adjust. I would through a compressor in the effects and push the eq up in the bass area a notch and even experiment with some high eq to try and pull out the hats as well.

As for the guitar try pulling the high eq back slightly so it doesnt interfere with the top end of the drums and also pull it back around the 2khz area so as not to compete with the vocals.

As for the vocals they could be pushed a small amount around the 2kh area and then put a gate in low down. Also gate the guitar low down and these gates will then leave room for the bass areas of the drums: ie the kick, to gain some deffinition.

Hope it helps get a better mix for you, still a nice song all the same would love to hear what you end up with after taking everyones comments on board.

cheers

A classical guitar is designed specificaly for picking with the fingers and not strumming so this may help describe its 'crappy' sound if you are trying to strum it.

On your easy to play question I would recommend an accoustic over a classical guitar. Classical will take years to get any good where as strumming an accoustic you will quickly be able to play your pieces once you have learned the chords. Classic guitar is not chord based so much as fingered positions which are changing constantly. It is a beatiful sound once mastered and you will have skills which will transfer over to picking on an accousticv guitar with conrtemporary music. I learned classical for a couple of years when I was a wee nipper and I had a private tutor, I would never contemplate learning it without one. Classical has so many technical issues associated with it and like most things if you learn the wrong way you will never be able to master the more difficult concepts further down the line.

With an accoustic, almost everything you do will advance you down the road to stardom and fame ( sigh! if only I didnt talk so much crap )

My two cents worth are as follows:

Get a program that allows the use of plugins VST effects and instruments. The good ones are the likes of Pro Tools and Cubase but there is also a good cheapo out there called Mixcraft which comes with a ton of drum loops etc to help you along.

I always start by putting in a drum loop through the entire track. This will at the very least keep you in time. You can always delete after if you want a track with no drums. Alternatively you can insert some fills and things later on as the beat matching will be very easy as you have eliminating all timing issues doing it this way.

Second lay down your rhythym guitar track or piano whatever you are using and this will give your song some structure and allow you to see where it is going and add vocals etc.

When recording vocals I always stand close to the mic to avoid capturing too much room noise. Also I use a pop filter to get rid of the annoying explosive sounds. If you dont have a pop filter make on out of an old pair of pantyhose stretched over a wire hoop. There is an opportunity here for Old Doll to start up a cottage industry using some of her worn out pantyhose, course you may not be able to stand too close to the mic then lol.

I would strongly recommend only recording one instrument at a time ( a voice is considered an instrument ) unless you are after a 'live' sound. The reason for this is to avoid 'bleeding' of sound from track to track.

The main effects to use on mixing are:

compression - used to compress the volume range. Almost always need on both guitar and vocals. Alows you to lift the low volume areas up and stops the loud areas from getting awat from you.

reverb - Should be used on all vocals sparingly. A good rule of thumb is to put it on so you can hear it and then wind it back until it is only just perceptible. Of course sometimes you want more for effect. Also on slow tracks sometimes it is cool to have a delay of a second on reverb for a neat sound. Be aware that too much reverb will push your vocals into the background.

eq - use sparingly, and cutting is often a better way to go than boosting. To seperate sounds out eg: to make the vocal sound better give the vocal track a small boost at around the 1k mark and cut all other tracks slightly here. This stops the various instruments from competing in the same space. If your voice sounds too deep then cut a little un the low end.

To hear some samples of my recording please go to http://mixcraftlive.com/members/133/audio.php
I dont claim to be an expert on this, Ive only been doing it a couple of years myself, but I find these ideas to be effective.

One from way back that always intrigued me was 'Three Dog Night' I think it stems from a cold night where you have to pull up three dogs to sleep with you to keep warm.

Also friends of mine had a band called 'Cheap for a reason' , it pretty much says it all lol.

Very thought provoking lyrics and a wonderful melody.

Thanks for sharing