General information for a starter

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Gotan1980

New member
HI,

I play acoustic guitar, all sorts of stuff. I want to start recording some of my music but really don't know where to start. I don't have a massive budget and don't really want to get too heavily involved. If anyone has any advice as to how to start out, would be much appreciated. All I really want to do is record my guitar, voice, perhaps a few other lines. Wouldn't be looking for say 5 different lines. Info on the minimum equipment that i would need (i assume mic, recording equipment, leads etc.) as you can see, I am a real beginner but would really appreciate some help.

Thanks for your advice in advance.

Charlie
 
Gotan1980 said:
I don't have a massive budget and don't really want to get too heavily involved.
Click to expand...
Not sure how seriously you meant this to sound, but being on a budget and wanting something to sound reasonable means you have to get heavily involved!

You can't simply slap a couple of mics up and hit record -- well, you can, but it will sound like crap...

I think you need to decide on what you want to focus on, and then ask specific questions...
 
why don't you get your self a condenser and a dynamic mic, a preamp and a four track. You could probably get all that for 200-300 bucks, and get some decent guitar and vocal sound with it, of course depending on what mics and preamp you get....maybe a shure sm58, a marshall condenser mic and a VTB or a grace preamp....old tascam four-track..and start making some records :)
Get something to listen to your recordings too...headphones or hook your recorder up to your home stereo.
just do a good search on similar equipment that was mentioned and take your time...

good luck
 
Thanks, that is just the sort of advice I need. I am really keen to get this sorted but obviously realise that it takes time and money. However, if I can get started, then I will hopefully begin to learn some stuff as well.

Thanks a lot
 
If I wa starting from scratch and juist wanted to record myself with an acoustic instrument, I'd pick up a large diaphram condensor mic (maybe an AT-4040) and a mic preamp (anything from a Mackie 1202VLZ or a SP VTB-1 or the like) and if I had an OK computer, some multitrack recording software ( I use Cakewalk9 and also Vegas but something like n Track is very cheep but servicable). As long as the soundcard was full duplex, you could get by real nicely until you outgrew your soundcard.
 
yes, the digital recorder (puter) solution would be even more flexible to upgrade down the road when you get more into it
 
Like Track Rat said, I would look into the possibility of using your pc to record. Assuming you have the full duplex card and a cd read write drive, you could pick up N-track's software for $45. You would then have a multi-track machine capable of burning your songs to cd.

The next cheapest on the block is a four-track cassette recorder. The Fostex X12 Multitracker is right around $100. Here you get portability at the cost of using cassette media. Cassette recording is fine if you don't mind tape stretching, rewinding and fast forwarding, and only want to keep with the cassette format. If you want to burn to cd, that's fine too, but then you might as well shouldve recorded to pc in the first place and saved the $100.

If you still want a four-track but don't want to use cassettes, there are digital four-tracks in the $200-$300 range. These come loaded with all kinds of features like reverb effects, metronomes, modellings, and even cheap sounding backing tracks. But of course, you can get more features at higher quality through the pc option.

I have come to the conclusion that nowadays, any of these basic beginner 4-tracks are pretty much overpriced garbage unless the portabilitity factor is a necessity.

Cy
 
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