Guitar to Interface to PC to Software

[Carl Wood]

Hello all,

I'm brand new, and am interested in purchasing some equipment for the purposes of recording and editing guitar tracks. I was hoping for some advice, and reccomendations on what gear to look into for a basic home setup (not a recording studio).

Interface?
Software?
Soundcard?

Hardware: PC; Electric Guitar

Thanks all!

 

[johnnymegabyte]

• Recording Software. look at freeware Audacity, or free to use REAPER
• Look at VST Amp simulators ... Google (acmebargig or aradaz) and read on "how to use"
• Buy a 1/4" female to 1/8" male adapter and put it on guitar cable. Plug your guitar + adapter into your Line In of your computer
• Then Search this site ...Newbies or Recording / Computers forums ... for each of your questions topic individually. The answer are abundant

This should get you started

 

[Carl Wood]

Thanks for the reply Johnny, I'll get started with that.

 

[TimOBrien]

My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies that I keep in Wordpad so this is just a paste (I don't want to re-type this all the time):

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...mp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470385421
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)
You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Gui...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1
(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!)

And you can get a FREE subscription to TapeOp magazine at www.tapeop.com

Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!!

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics and have good tips:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs
http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig: http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books: http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) and NOT quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Here's a good guide and tested suggestions that WORK: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm
(you'll want to bookmark and read through all of Tweak's Guide while you're there...)


Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)
Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\
Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com/smm

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)
I use Reaper and highly reccomend it...

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($25) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full FREE studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they gave away SamplitudeV9SE and July 2009 issue they put out Samplitude10SE. FREE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)

 

[Carl Wood]

thanks Tim,

I went to the local book store earlier today and scoped out that first book you mentioned. I read about halfway through the first chapter and have assessed that it'd make a great starter tool for me. Thanks for the recomendation. I'm going to see if I can find it used before I shell out the $26.00CAN they're asking for it, hehe...

 

[vijsolo]

Hi there,

Why inventing a bicykle.

Look here,

Line 6 POD Studio UX1

PODfarm is an industry sound for amp/stompbox simulation. And a recording software included

or this one

Line 6 POD Studio UX2

If you will want to record vocals wiht condencer mic later on.

Cheerz!!!

 

[Carl Wood]

Vijsolo, thanks for the reply. I must admit after reading some of the books mentioned so far I'm toying with the idea of taking this a bit further, but let me do a bit more research on that Line 6 item you linked to.

Thanks again