live recording dilemma

Elmo89m

New member
I am using sonar and want to record my guitar (di) and my drums live. If i run this through a mixer and then into my computers 1/4 inch jack then i cant put distortion and other ffects from sonar just on the guitar....Should i record main guitar by micing my amp and then overdub guitars in... also my mixer has a L and R output and my computer only has on line in...what do i do here??? i admit and im sure it is obvious...im a newbie
 
Elmo89m said:
I am using sonar and want to record my guitar (di) and my drums live. If i run this through a mixer and then into my computers 1/4 inch jack then i cant put distortion and other ffects from sonar just on the guitar....Should i record main guitar by micing my amp and then overdub guitars in... also my mixer has a L and R output and my computer only has on line in...what do i do here??? i admit and im sure it is obvious...im a newbie

I did an album that way a few years ago. Basically, I had my drummer play the songs while I played along on guitar, into headphones, so he could hear me. I only tracked the drums, in stereo. Then I went back and added guitar, bass, vocals.

It's important in this scenario to have the drummer click his sticks at the beginning of the song, and during any longish interludes where there are no drums. This way you can keep time when overdubbing. When you're ready to mix, go in and delete the clicks.

You should be able to get a pretty good sounding mix this way.
 
Thank you.....my other question was that my mixer had a L output and an R output but my computer only has one 1/4 inch input...do i only plug one in, if so which one, or do i need more hardware.
 
I'd say don't DI the guitar, but that is just me. Either record the amp along with the drums and get the mix right in your mixer, or do what johnsuitcase said and try to rig it up so that the drummer has the guitar in headphones, but the guitar isn't being recorded.

Elmo89m said:
Thank you.....my other question was that my mixer had a L output and an R output but my computer only has one 1/4 inch input...do i only plug one in, if so which one, or do i need more hardware.
As for this problem, just pan all the tracks to one side and then use that output!
 
thanks for both the panning idea and the radio shack one. for the radio shack one...do i run the output through the Tape out RCA jacks instead of the 1/4 main outs
 
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