Help - can't get DAW in same room with mikes

[gms]

I'm a guitarist -- classical mainly, though I've been fooling around with jazz for the last couple of years.

Without really meaning too, I've put together a great DAW --a fast PC with plenty of RAM and dual hard drives (I spec'd it to be able to run Gigasampler).

Trouble is, the DAW sits in the bedroom of my noisy house, which is rarely quiet enough for me to record in, except on Sunday mornings when my family is out stealing hubcaps.

On the other hand, I have this great outbuilding in the back yard that is wonderfully dead, lined on all four walls with books. I think it might even have been built by the previous owner as a drum studio.

So my question is, what kind of recording device should I buy if I want to record my guitar out back and then dump it into my bedroom PC for further processing? A Tascam 4 track? Wouldn't that make for slow dumping into the PC? Is there a better option? Minidisc recorder, maybe? If any of y'all have had success with a similar setup, please let me hear from you.

 

[dobro]

Something digital - DAT, minidisc, standalone hard disc recorder - so you won't be translating the data back and forth between analog and digital. Wouldn't it make more sense, though, just to get another computer? If you're recording only yourself doing classical or jazz, you won't need a big, fast computer particularly - there won't be loads of tracks or much mixing.

 

[ola]

First off, welcome.

A coumputer that can handle the task of recording a few tracks and almost no mixing can probably be had for a hundered bucks or so. A first generation Pentium with 16Mb RAM would probably be sufficient. I think the problem would be the soundcard. Buying two is expensive and I don't really like the idea of moving the soundcard between the computers. Also, compatibility may turn out to be a problem.

Getting a standalone recorder would be good in any case as you can record sessions etc. with quality. A regular DAT recorder would be quite sufficient. Stay away from minidisc as it compresses the sound quite a bit and you will loose sound quality.

 

[ametth]

how far is the room to your computer? I have a few ideas..

 

[gms]

Thanks, Dobro, Ola, and Ametth!

Maybe I should look at sneaking another computer into our lives while my wife's not looking. I do have access to a P133 laptop with 64Mb memory, but I guess its built-in soundcard is going to be so-so. Ametth, the outbuilding is about 20 feet out from the back of the house. I've already crawled under the house and strung 10baseT cable between my wife's computer and mine in the bedroom. I didn't consider my wife's computer as a possible recorder, not only because she's fiercely protective of it, but also because it's in the living room where thundering hooves are heard night and day. We have a tiny little house with hardwood floors.

Greg

 

[Wide Awake]

I've recorded steel string acoustic guitar with a 2-track minidisc recorder and they in fact sound real good but there are better options today. I would buy a Boss BR8 instead of a DAT machine because it gives you built-in effects and having 8 tracks would make it easy to do many takes. It also allows you to use two microphones at a time, something you may end up wanting to do (if you aren't already ). Having a "dead" room might not be the best thing, it all depends on what kind of sound you're going for. I like to record acoustic in a fairly live sounding room with some surfaces for the sound to reflect off of and fairly high ceilings. My bathroom has a cool sound if I open up the shower door (just don't turn on the water!). You might try putting a hard board on the floor in front off you when recording. Recording in a dead room will give you more options when applying reverb.