I bit the bullet and pulled the trigger (sorry). I bought the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB Audio Interface at a Guitar Center. It comes with the Ableton Live 9 Lite DAW (so that will be the 1st one I’m trying out) and some Focusrite and Novation plug-ins. I went with the 2i4 over the 2i2 to get midi input functionality that I might not use – my keyboard midi functionality goes directly into a USB on a computer as I understand after some initial research – oh well. I also forgot about the AKAI EIE I/O Pro which is in the price range where I ended up – trying not to question the purchase too much.

Anyway [insert line from the Genesis song here]… as you can see from the above picture, there are lots of knobs and meters and inputs – oh my! This old dog has a lot of learning ahead of it.  It’s a far cry from the old TASCAM four-track cassette recorder I borrowed to make my previous solo recordings in my in-laws’ garage – they would be: “I Used to Know Her Name” and “Twisted and Torn Apart” – probably not suitable for public consumption. 🙂

I set the AI up Sunday night and managed to install the software and plug-ins. It was a little tricky getting the plug-ins to display in the DAW. After a little fiddling, so-to-speak, I recorded a few seconds of bass and, after a little more fiddling, was able to play it back. I got some extra, unwanted buzz on export (I don’t think I heard it when I was listening initially). Much to figure out. Here it is with the buzz:

Meanwhile, “Regular Folk” is coming along nicely and taking a decidedly political turn.

-Rite Ed