Laptop + Recording = ?

[ProDeZigner]

Alright, I'm not new to recording, but there's still a lot I don't know.

I'm using my laptop equipped with both USB and Firewire with a mic and headphone jack only. I'm using a program called Mixcraft to do all my recording, since it's proven Vista compatible... specs for my lappy are as follows:

1.66Ghz Intel Core Duo
1GB RAM
80GB SATA HDD
DVD-RAM
Intel 945 Graphics

I bought it for school, but lately I've been wanting to jam around and I figured I'd use it for those purposes too, it's easier to take it then a desktop to jam sessions.

I don't want to sink a butt-load of money into recording, but I want to make it easier.

How can I record multiple tracks at once as all different tracks? Right now my recording rig is a ghetto-rigged cable costing 20 bucks from RadioShack. It's as follows:

1/4" Mono plug male to 1/4" Mono plug female -> 1/4" Mono plug male to audio cables (L/R the ones on standard A/V cables) -> Stereo cables to 1/8" STEREO plug male.

This allows anything plugged in to go from mono to stereo, which before I had a problem with going from mono to stereo... any suggestions?

 

[TerraMortim]

Try a Firewire or USB sound card. I use a MOTU 896HD which has 8ins and 8 outs. It's rackmount and sounds good. They have an 828 that I think has more ins and outs. There are lots of options really. You just need to get something like that. I'd put as much ram as you can in your laptop. I've got a couple gigs in my macbook pro for live stuff, and I even wish I could have more for it. Using more than one computer live isn't a bad idea if you have the computers for it. Computers sometimes fuck up, and it sucks when you have a crash and it's on stage...as people don't want to wait for you to reboot and or diagnose the problem if there's something wrong. Some people will have a few computers with the same shit loaded on them, running through a single mixer so if one died they can just turn another one up and no one will be the wiser.

But yeah, I'm sure that the software you're using has different channels. Just get a soundcard with different inputs and then choose your inputs in the software.

 

[TimOBrien]

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/07...ce&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs

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


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

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com

The very first thing you want to do is replace that on-board soundcard, 'cause it only has $1 worth of chips and is a major bottleneck to any recording effort:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm