Hi gang-

Found out over the weekend that my wife and I are finally going to join the ranks of homeowners!

We'd come in second place on two other properties recently but found this one a few weeks ago. I never knew buying a house would be such an emotional roller-coaster type affair! WOW!!!

We're, (my family of 5 plus 2 pugs, 2 guinea pigs, a rat and some goldfish) are moving from a 1000 square foot ranch (i.e. a sardine can) to a 2300+ square foot split level corner property just across town. We go from having a rather small back yard to having over 3/4's of an acre in BOTH our front and back yards. (Any suggestions on a good riding mower?)There is also a small creek that runs through the rear of our property...with an additional section of our land just across it. (We'll need to build a nice deck-bridge over its span...)We have roughly 30 mature trees (mostly Oak and some Evergreens) outlining our lot. 2 fireplaces, four bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, family room, laundry room, double bathroom upstairs, jacuzzi and new bathroom downstairs, finished attic, also. Same school district too, which is a plus.

Our 3 girls will finally get their own rooms and I'll finally have a permanent, user friendly space to work on music. Nothing overly fancy is in store, but we have a huge finished basement (38' X 12') with which we'll use as a family room in front of the lower level fireplace, with my acoustic piano, my Tryos, PSR 3000, etc...getting set up in the other side of the room.

I'm not as sophisticated recording wise as most folks around here. Typically, I'll just run RCA's from my Berhinger PA amp to my Sony CD Recorder...then burn everything to my hard drive...then to a final version on a CD.

Our computer will be set up in the same room as I will be, so perhaps it's time for me to take the next step in home recording and consider a program like Cakewalk or Cubase I suppose. I'll be looking for a set-up that I can easily switch keyboards in and out off, of course. A nice workstation desk unit may be another thing to look at.

Any fresh suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. It's a blank slate right now...so, I can set it up however I wish. I don't ever see myself with a highly exotic set up but I'm open to straight-forward ideas that can enhance my creative juices.

Also, the house uses oil heat, has a spetic system and well water. NONE of which we've ever used. If anyone has experience with these, please drop me a line. Everything will be getting a hard look during our home inspection on Tuesday morning, but early indications suggest everything is in good working order.

The heating oil especially interests us. How much will we use during a winter, how much does it cost, how often delivered, etc. I'm usually paying $160-$200/month for electric currently...a few friends have said I'll save money bigtime between the oil heat and our two fireplaces.

Very exciting times for all of us...just wanted to share...

Very much looking forward to hearing/seeing some studio/workspace ideas!

Bill in Dayton

Bill... CONGRATULATIONS .... it sounds GREAT ...
Quote ... "(Any suggestions on a good riding mower?)"...
Nothing runs like a Deere ... a little pricey, but from what I hear, well worth it in the long run ... I have a Murray which has served me well for a number of years ...
t.

Bill... congrats the new home! Having a music room will be great.



I would give you my most humble recommendation for PG Music's PowerTracks Pro Audio. It will do everything you want, less expensive, and more user-friendly than any other audio/sequencer program.

http://www.pgmusic.com/

Glenn

Bill Congrats! I too have just moved into my first home. The wife an I bought ours just under two months ago. You're right it is without a doubt an "emotional roller coster"

Like you I now have my own room for my music and other hobbies. I'm in the process of setting mine up.

I never dealt with a home on (heating oil). Are your fireplaces woodburning or gas? If they're gas (look out for that heating bill YIKES! especially considering natural gas is going up quite a bit this season). If they're woodburning fireplaces, I suggest you use them the entire season. Woodburning will help lower your heating costs. The house we just purchased has a woodburning fireplace in the basement. Plus having an open stairwell leading to the basement will allow the heat from the fireplace to come upstairs.

How big is your room for music? How you set it up would depend on the size of the room and equipment you're using.

Squeak

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 09-26-2005).]

Bill...Congratulations....a big step up...
you will enjoy the fireplace especially in the winter....good show...
Tony Rome

I to would recommend a John Deere mower.

Cousin Ken

Congratulations on your new home. I endorse Glenn's suggestion. Power Tracks Pro is a great budget application and it records both midi and/or audio and has lots of advanced features. I doubt if you would want anything more for your home studio.

Regards - Keith

Bill: Congratulations on your new acquisition. Hope it brings much happiness to your and your family and critters. My recommendation for your "studio" is to take a slow and steady approach. Start with a good tape recorder (with dubbing capability) and record directly to it from your keyboard. Next acquire a digital recorder (too many good ones to mention) but I use a Boss (Roland) BR-864. Record from the tape player/recorder into the Digital Recorder and transfer the resultant digital song to your PC (via USB)for editing and enhancement. I use a nice "free" editor called Wave Pad (from Australia) and am highly pleased with it.

Once I have a song edited the way I think it sounds best, I copy the file to my Dell DJ so I can listen to be sure the song is all that it should be before commiting it to a CD. This saves me tons of CDs not to mention all the time I save. Finally, I print the song info & titles directly on top of the CD with an Epson R200 Inkjet. (Requires Printable CD-Rs now beginning to show up on Wal-Mart shelves.) Fairly inexpensive, too!

Hope this helps. I can't afford to have my songs cut in a professional studio yet. For making demos (some say these are just a little more than fancy work tapes) I am satisfied that it gets the song across to the record label or publisher. (I want somebody talented to sing and record my songs because I am not a performer.)

All the best,

RICE (The Lone Arranger)

Bill,

Congrats on the new home, and I know you'll love it more every day.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

hi Bill, congratulations and welcome to homeownership + a much roomier place to spread out. I bet your new home surroundings will stimulate fresh music creativity as well. As far a recording either Cakewalk Sonar and/or PowerTracks are excellent choices as BOTH include custom downloadable Yamaha Tyros keyboard 'instrument definitions'.

Like you, here in California, we're not familiar with heating oil, septic tanks, or well water sources of home energy, or their associated cost benefits, compared to the standard 'gas, electric', and water utilities, primarily available here. I too am interested in learning more about how heating oil and the like is purchased, delivered, and the relative cost compared to the standard gas & electric utilities.

Scott