Birthday Gift-What to buy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Goodonebales
  • Start date Start date
G

Goodonebales

New member
Hey, guys! New to the forum, seems like some awesome setups here, a lot of talented people, etc.

So, my birthday's coming up in a little over a week and my girlfriend has been trying to think of something to get me for months now. I have a weighted 88 key keyboard and an acoustic guitar, and my roommate has an acoustic guitar, and often times we just jam in one of the rooms in our apartment. Anyways, I'm looking for something to get to just record our jam sessions with some amount of quality. I'm not expecting anything near studio sound or anything, just some kind of interface and maybe a few mics so that we can jam. My budget's probably around $150-200. I know this isn't much, but does anyone have any ideas on what I should get? Thanks!
-Scott

Edit: One more thing, I'll be using Audacity, I think, unless someone can suggest a better cheap or free alternative.
 
heya.. i need a couple more posts to add links...
 
Hmmm.

If you want to record live.. you could probly buy a small mixer (Alesis, Behringer, Tapco)

If you want to be able to record more multitrack stuff, you could maybe get a tone port of something comparable.

I recorded this song (
) with basically this: (not much, but first try at digital recording and stuff)

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.co...41SP-AT2020-AT2021-Microphone-Pack?sku=270455

and

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.co...X1-USB-RecordingModeling-Interface?sku=249700

for a DAW.. the line 6 comes with one.. but I used Cubase LE. You could also look at Reaper (50$ for non commercial use). Reaper would allow you to use the *.vst features that come with the toneport (i THINK... might want to do more research on that)

.. so that's my thoughts only....
 
Damn, what a girlfriend...

My wife thinks I have WAY TOO MUCH CRAP and I need to get rid of it all...

Anyway, think about a Tascam DR 07, or DP004 (check the Tascam website for more info)...

These are great little digital portable recorders that are not too terribly expensive...
 
Hey, thanks for the replies. I was thinking about going the handheld recorder route, but I decided against it for a few reasons. Firstly, it seems as if an interface is much more futureproof if I ever decide I'd like to get more serious, and secondly, and of course far more importantly, a room set up with a whole bunch of instruments, an interface and a few microphones, attached to a computer displaying graphs and doohickeys, etc. etc., a dream come true.
 
Goodonebales said:
a room set up with a whole bunch of instruments, an interface and a few microphones, attached to a computer displaying graphs and doohickeys, etc. etc., a dream come true.
Click to expand...
:D

I like it...

For what it's worth I bought a Zoom H4 handheld recorder precisely because it also works as an audio interface. So I get the best of both worlds - it can do do quick and simple stereo recording with its own mics, internal 4 track recording using whatever you want to plug in (2 inputs), or as many tracks as you care to record to a computer (it came bundled with Cubase LE4) when using it as an audio interface.

It may be a squeeze at that budget, but Zoom are about to bring out a new version so you might score an older model cheaply (either new or 2nd hand) when that comes out.

Good luck - collecting more gear and mucking around with mates is always fun.

Chris
 
Thanks, everyone, for the ideas! I guess I may just have to go the portable recorder route, but if there are any more suggestions on what I should be looking at picking up, please let me know! Also, does anyone have any sample recordings from a portable recorder? If so, please let me know! That would be very helpful in deciding what to get.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top