Need tips on mixing

[mfro98]

Im new at recording and have a pc mic and cubase. I can plug in my acoustic guitar into the computer directly with an adapter or record with the pc mic. I need some tips on how to make my acoustic recordings of a guitar, a bass and vocals sound decent. Things like EQ and effects im kind of new to and some of the dials that adjust frequencies i dont know what to do with (on cubase). If anyone has any tips that could help my "bottom of the barrel" recordings sound half way decent i would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Matt

[AlChuck]

Whoa, it's a whole universe you're opening the door into. Know that, and realize it will take some time and exploration to get anywhere, and you'll have fun.

Some simple tips... first off, I'm afraid you will not be able to do anything that sounds very good with the typical PC mic; plugging a guitar straight into the PC will not work very well, either. A reasonably decent mic and a preamp for it are almost baseline necessities.

The other tip -- read a lot, try to understand as much as possible about sound and how it becomes electrical signals and vice versa; about what headroom and distortion and compression and EQ are, how to work with them or around them; as you learn, experiment as much as you can -- move that EQ around, listen to what it does, change that compression ratio, etc. It's a lot to learn, a lot to understand, and it takes time... but it's a gas and pretty much everything else worth doing is like this, too.