Throughout the last week and a half, I received and put together the parts of my new custom-built computer. It has been incredible.

It will be my computer throughout college and it is spectacular for recording. It has an Intel Core 2 Quad Processor with two gig of RAM, two 500 gig SATA hard drives (yes, that adds up to a terabyte), a NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series video card that allows for dual monitors (I have a 22 in and a 19 in hooked up), Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card that I got for Christmas from my great-grandfather, and Windows Vista Ultimate, which I got for twenty dollars at IUPUI.

Mike and I have already start recording. It’s so much easier now. I got the upgrade software for Sony ACID. It’s been running so smoothly, and I can use the second monitor for AIM, internet, and games, which Mike is recording a track. I don’t know how soon music will be posted on here. Just because my computer is now up, doesn’t mean I’m ready to start again. There’s some equipment that I need to get before it really starts taking off.

In other news, I start at IUPUI this Wednesday, and I can’t possibly explain how excited I am for it! I attended the Mini-Bridge program last weekend, which was part of the First Generation Scholarship. It was very beneficial, and very fun. I made a few really close friends over the weekend, who I definitely plan on hanging out with more once school starts.

I’m going to try to get this thing going again, now that my computer is up! I’ll probably post later this week about school!

Well, slowly things are coming together with music production. I’m too impatient. There are things that I really need to get in order to start making money off of recording.

I want to record my friends’ band Westfall so badly. I don’t have much of the equipment I need for it, though. There’s just so much. A mixer, the drum microphones, the microphone for vocals, the cables, the microphone stands. Once I have all these, I could pull off some awesome stuff.

Other items that will gradually enhance the system are a new computer, and if the mixer was a firewire mixer which would be a little pricier, and having ACID pro. After all that, the sky’s the limit for me. If I could pull together a thousand dollars somehow, or slowly build up to that, it would work out perfectly.

Right now, I’m recording a demo for Mike. It’s his band Cheshire. We have two songs completely finished and hopefully we’ll have the others finished by next weekend. They sound pretty awesome, but all it is is plugged in guitars. That’s all I can really pull off right now.

The mixer is necessary because for drums, there are a ton of microphones needed to record. I could do it with four to seven microphones. I’m looking for something around $300 or under with 8 XLR inputs (those are just the kind of cable that a microphone uses).

The wanted microphones list is composed of 2 pen condenser microphones for cymbals or acoustic guitar with the microphone stands. I could find some pretty cheap ones that would do the job for probably around $150 for the set. A large diaphragm condenser microphone for vocals. I found a 3 pack that includes 2 pen condensers, the large diaphragm condenser, a shock mount for the vocal microphone, and a pop filter for vocals and acoustic guitars for $180 at IRC.

And then the drum microphones. I already have 1 that would serve as the snare microphone. But I need 3 more of those and then a large diaphragm dynamic microphone for the bass drum. I can find 4-packs all over the internet and in every music shop pretty much for decent prices.

So, that all adds up to about $730 and then I’d need 2 more microphone stands and cables which could add up to like $200 at most. I guess I have some financial figuring out to do this summer. I know I’m probably going to be getting enough money to buy a car for graduation. Hopefully, I’d have some left after that. Then, my birthday money could make a good chunk of it, and I’m going to work for the high school and make somewhere around $300 for that. I’m sure I’ll be able to pull it off somehow. I just need patience.