Noob looking for guidance

H

hamfisted

New member
Hey all,

I've been playing guitar for about two years now and I'd like to start recording my progress. I'm simply a play at home guy who plays along with backing tracks (mostly from youtube) and at this point have no intention of doing anything more than sharing with friends and maybe posting a few videos or tracks on youtube.

There's so many ways to go with recording that I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'm pretty much technologically challenged so simple would be good. I have Audacity (which I find more than a little confusing) and a Boss BR-600 that I find equally confusing. I recently tried recording me playing with a backing track using the BR-600's built in mics. I was pretty happy with the results.

The issue with that is converting the tracks to MP3's or whatever I need to do to save them on my computer. A friend suggested a hand held field recorder that records in MP3 format. That seems like a good solution but as I said, there's so many options.

As far as cost, I'd like to keep it on the low side under $500 if possible.

So I'd really appreciate anyone's input as to what a simple method that would produce good results knowing what my parameters are.

Thanks in advance.
 
i'm no expert at recording over existing tracks - but if i were to tackle this type of gig, I would insert a wav file into my DAW and open a new track for my overdubbed guitar. obtaining those wav files is the problem. maybe someone else has an idea of how to get your youtube vids into wav format. that's all i got, sorry!
 
DM60 said:
Take a look at this link: Lame Installation - Audacity Wiki

Be careful to note, that there is a link to download the Lame plug in. Once installed, just follow the instruction under the link. You're all set and the price is zero.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the fast reply! I'll look into that.

I should also mention that I use a Chrome ASUS box for web browsing and I have an older Dell latitide D610 laptop I have been using for Audacity. I'd love to find an option to record on the Chrome box if possible.

Thanks again!
 
I wouldn't recommend recording in MP3, because it's a "lossy" format. You want your original recordings to be of a high quality and be stored using a lossless format (e.g., WAV on Windows devices, AIFF on Apple devices). Converting your final mix to MP3 for portability and sharing should be the last step, and Audacity should be able to do that for you.
 
hamfisted said:
Thanks for the fast reply! I'll look into that.

I should also mention that I use a Chrome ASUS box for web browsing and I have an older Dell latitide D610 laptop I have been using for Audacity. I'd love to find an option to record on the Chrome box if possible.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

The Chrome OS is a Linux type OS. It usually is a one trick pony for light work.

If you check to see if your interface will work with Chrome, then there are a couple of options. I have found only 100% USB 2.0 compliant interfaces will work with Linux. Most interfaces are not 100% USB 2.0 compliant the drivers they use make them work with USB. I don't think your interface will work.

If it does, then you can look into this: ardour - the digital audio workstation but your complexity starts to go up.
 
SeaGtGruff said:
I wouldn't recommend recording in MP3, because it's a "lossy" format. You want your original recordings to be of a high quality and be stored using a lossless format (e.g., WAV on Windows devices, AIFF on Apple devices). Converting your final mix to MP3 for portability and sharing should be the last step, and Audacity should be able to do that for you.
Click to expand...

Audacity doesn't record in any format expect whatever is in the engine (I would assume some sort of lossless for the origination source), when you save, it is in Audacity format, you have to export for it to be in MP3. So technically, one is not recording in any format, but is capturing in lossles and default save is in Audacity format.
 
I was responding to where he'd said "A friend suggested a hand held field recorder that records in MP3 format." :) I wouldn't recommend that. Save the original recordings in a lossless format, and export the final mix to MP3 if desired.
 
hamfisted said:
Hey all,

I've been playing guitar for about two years now and I'd like to start recording my progress. I'm simply a play at home guy who plays along with backing tracks (mostly from youtube) and at this point have no intention of doing anything more than sharing with friends and maybe posting a few videos or tracks on youtube.

There's so many ways to go with recording that I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'm pretty much technologically challenged so simple would be good. I have Audacity (which I find more than a little confusing) and a Boss BR-600 that I find equally confusing. I recently tried recording me playing with a backing track using the BR-600's built in mics. I was pretty happy with the results.

The issue with that is converting the tracks to MP3's or whatever I need to do to save them on my computer. A friend suggested a hand held field recorder that records in MP3 format. That seems like a good solution but as I said, there's so many options.

As far as cost, I'd like to keep it on the low side under $500 if possible.

So I'd really appreciate anyone's input as to what a simple method that would produce good results knowing what my parameters are.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

You've got everything you need to do MP3s in your computer from your recordings. You can export as WAV from the BR600, then a simple program like with a LAME converter can change to MP3.
 
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