Recording (well duh)

I am becoming hilariously interested in recording. I've been using other peoples multi-tracks, namely a 4-track tascam and a 24-track yamaha thingamagig.

This is all well and good, but I want to record myself, at home, seeing as I cant afford a decent multi track and am more interested in computer recording, i would like to try it.

I got myself a copy of Cubase VST, and I have tried to record with it but all I get is this clicky sort of sound whenever i play back, but when I go to edit the audio in wave lab, it playsback perfectly...

I have messed about with sample rates, but to no avail, and as I dont fully understand the program im scared to try much else :)

So can anyone help?! because its pissing me right off!!

If not, can someone give me some free demo recording gear or something on the net, like goldwave (think thats the name)

Any help appreciated guys, thanks a lot.

First thing ya wanna do is check & make sure your CPU isn't maxing out. Go to your 'panels' menu and pull up
'VST Performance'. If the CPU indicator keeps going into the red, you need more ram or less extensions running...or need to take some stuff out of your VST folder. Check to make sure you don't have any VST effects or instruments working either.
If the Disk indicator keeps going red, it means you're either running too many tracks at once or you're hard drive is in serious need of defragmenting. (when you defragment tho, back up your audio files to a separate drive or they can become corrupted.

If the CPU or Drive isn't the problem, go to Options/AudioSetup/System and mess around with the memory per channel and disc block buffer size and reduce the amount of tracks. Also go to ASIO Control Panel (hit Launch) and check to see if the input gains are set properly and Play Through feature is checked.
(Play through is a pain in the arse tho... if you're not monitoring through your computer you don't need it.
If you are monitoring through your computer you have to check that the Play Through thing is checked every time you start up Cubase (at least with a Mac and System 8.6) You also have to check to be sure to click 'Global Disable' or you'll get an echo or bad latency all the time.
With System 9 and above, the play through function doesn't work at all cause of a bug.

Before i discovered Logic i also recorded alot with cubase and set it up on different computers with different hardware. on some computers it didnt work at all. the settings are always an odyssey. try with different drivers -preferably ASIO - see what you can get for your soundcard.

i found that Logic´s sound setup is way more easy and it worked on every computer i tried it on so far. plus the proggy is more versatile and offers vast possibilities and high-end plugins other than the usual VST-thingies that eat up heaps of memory. all those proggys have one thing in common - it needs a while to get comfortable with. but there are good tutorial books on the market for most of these programs, so that you can (if you have the will and time) easily find access to the major features and create good results. if you are into serious recording then you probably won´t get around a MAC. Logic and Mac is a very powerfull team used in the majority of the pro-studios.

i´mnot saying you wont get great results with cubase either, but IMO Logic is the (far) better proggy. sadly the latest releases (6.0) will be MAC only - to the last version you can get for PC is 5.5 (but that is enough for years of pro recording!)