Cutting Your Own CD If your dream in life is to walk into a record store and see your very own CD on the shelf... get in line. This happens for only a very lucky few. But recent advances in technology make it pretty easy for you to achieve the dream of producing and recording your own CD. With the right equipment and software, if you can move a mouse or press a button you can record your own CD. If you have a computer, all you really have to do is buy some software. If you want to make a small investment, there are digital recorders on the market that will take care of everything for you recording, mixing, mastering and burning, all in one neat package (though you do have to play your own instruments). In this article, you'll find out the basics of CD production, from planning to recording to understanding the tools of the trade. There was a time when producing your own CD meant serious cash. You had to pay for studio time, studio engineers, studio musicians (if you're a solo artist) and duplicating your recording. In the 1970s, when cassette tapes became cheap, available and recordable, people could distribute their own music and make cheap copies of anything. But the sound quality left something to be desired. Now, even the novice musician can produce a CD with a high sound quality. Recording your own CD, unlike using a studio, is not insanely expensive. You can record your own high-quality digital CD with your own inexpensive equipment out of your own house, garage, basement, at tic ... And for the technologically impaired (弱的), there's more good news: You don't need any special skills to record your own CD. Recording machines of the past required the skills of a studio engineer. Things have changed. With the use of computers and digital recording systems, all that's required is the ability to read and follow instructions. Another benefit of doing it yourself is that you can totally control your own music. And since it costs next to nothing to burn copies of your CD, you can easily give them to friends and acquaintances--shameless self-promotion is entirely encouraged--and sell them at performances or on the Internet for a profit. There are really only four steps involved here recording, mixing, mastering, and burning. You just need equipment that will perform. these four tasks. There are three basic ways you can go about this. Component-Based Hardware System--this system involves separate pieces of recording, mixing, effect and CD-burning hardware, so you're dealing with an assortment of equipment. Computer-Based Recording System--almost any powerful computer can run recording and CD--burning software. Many of these programs will let you mix the music and create effects. The costs here are lower than for a component-based set-up. Studio Workstation--this type of equipment provides almost everything you need to cut your own CD in one portable unit. Getting equipped, you can begin the four steps now. Recording. Whether we're talking vocals (声乐作品), guitar, drums, whatever, a recording device eaves the individual tracks and lets you play them back. Depending on the recorder, you might be saving the sound on a hard disk. a memory card, a digital tape or a CD. So you'll need a way to capture the sound and route it to the recorder (the studio workstation, mixer or computer is the recorder by the way). When you record vocals, you'll capture the sound using a microphone. The microphone will be connected to an input jack(插孔) on your computer, mixer or studio workstation. The noise you make gets into the recording equipment through this input jack. When you want to record electric instruments, the process is pretty much the same. Instead of using a microphone, you just plug your electric guitar, electric bass, drum machine or synthesi