OK, well the thing I will be recording mostly, is heavy music, or punk etc. I.e, crunchy distorted guitars. I Have a Marshall combo, which is one of the nicest sounding amps I've played, I also have
a Marshall AVT150 stack, but the combo is what I'm using for recording. I also have a very nice Trace Elliot bass amp, which I know little about as I'm not a bass player.
I have a Stagg microphone (black with green writing on it), and a Behringer mic, I'm not sure of the models of these. I have access (from a friend) to a Stagg MD 007, which I'm told is a good mic. I also have a cheap non branded mic which I use purely because I don't have another option, but it seems to be fairly clear toned from what I've heard.
From the amps, I'm running them to a Yamaha MT120 4 track, and using that as a mixer. I am then running the 4 track directly into my computers sound card.
What I don't know, is what outputs I should be using from the amp, and from the 4 track. On the amp there is, Send, Line Out and Output to Speaker (1 & 2), and obviously there is the option of micing them. On the 4 track there is, Aux Send, Phones, Stereo Out, Tape Out, Monitor Out. The sound I am getting seems to overload on palm mutes, making a nasty sound, and I can't get anything decent without giving the computer a really quiet signal. So I think what I need is a mixer, instead of using the 4 track. I don't really know what else to say about my set up.
Any suggestions as to bits of gear that would help me would be appreciated. I also know very little about what preamps actually are, so any explanations and recommendations to products would be awesome. I'm not against spending money, it just takes me a while to save up. So no: "What you need is this... it's £1000", please!
Thank you.