Newbie with some souncard questions

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gregmartin

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Hello everyone.

I am 16 and from minnesota. I love music and recording my acoustic songs i write. I play in the folk-pop-blues styles.. john mayer stuff. I have been recording on my computer for a while. Mic into line in .. thats it. i got good results to... i know one will believe me thats ok. I am now rebuilding my computer so i can really have a true recording computer.. My question is what is a good sound card to buy were i can plug mulitple or at least 2 mics into. I want to be able to change the volume of each mic once recorded. I have heard that running mics into a mixer then mixer to line in is good. but i cant change each mic volume after recording can i? I would really appreciate some help on this topic to clear up my confusion. I dont want to break the bank with this computer.. I am thinking of buying a soundlabs soundcard. do i want to hold off to get a recording sound card?


Thanks

Greg carsltrom
 
First off, I believe you get good results. When I first started recording on my PC I used a computer mic and got much better results than were typical for that kind of setup.

As far as soundcards go, the Audiophile 2496 is the way to go:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-main.html

For $129, the Audiophile gives you two simultaneous inputs. You will need a mixer or some other type of preamp like M-Audio's Audiobuddy to run into the card. With this setup you can record 1 single stereo track or two mono tracks. Adjusting the volume after recording is something you would do within your recording software, and is not in anyway limited by your hardware setup.
 
soundcard

i checked out that soundcard that was suggested and i am confused on how to hook it up. would that be my soundcard.. and take place of the creative labs i want to buy? i want to be able to record 2 people playing guitar at the same time and then go into my program and change volumes on each guitar stuff like that. So correct me if im wrong. I would run stuff to a mixer.. then 1/4 inch plugs to the sound card.. 2 of them? then be able to work with both tracks separatlty? Also when i record my guitar with a mic would it be a track on L and R channels? do the qaurter inch plugs go to monitors? what if i dont have monitors? can i hook up pc speakers from the soudncard? I know I am very bad at this stuff.. im new and im really interested in the topic.
thanks soo much

Greg
 
Greg,

Take a look at the following link:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm

This is the most comprehensive guide to starting a home studio on the net today.

I'm sure many of your questions and concerns can be answered there.

Good luck!
 
greg . a lot of what you need and more i have posted as tips in the past year. hundreds of tips in fact.
search under my name. youll pick up a lot on everything from soundcards,pc configs,mics,recording,software,monitors etc.
THEN if you have Q's. i have answers.
 
Jkestle

Thank you for the great link..

I have yet another question.

I am more of an acousitc musician.. is there any sound cards that do not conatiain midi. DO i need midi if i wont be using keyboards? I just want something to demo my songs on but i want to use something better than mic into computer. Would you say just dont use the midi?

Thanks

Greg
 
gregmartin said:
I am more of an acousitc musician.. is there any sound cards that do not conatiain midi. DO i need midi if i wont be using keyboards? I just want something to demo my songs on but i want to use something better than mic into computer. Would you say just dont use the midi?
Click to expand...

I have a 12 channel line mixer, an M-Audio Delta 44 24bit 4 in/4 out sound card, and use Cool Edit Pro 2.0.

I have no midi capabililty with this set-up. The delta 44 is audio only as well as Cool Edit, now Adobe Audition.

I do demos for my band, and I'm happy with the results for the amount of money I put in.

What you need is a fast computer (1Ghz and up), small mixer (for mic preamps), a 4 channel sound card like the Delta 44 (at least, if your planning to record drums), and Adobe Audition. Don't get software with audio and midi capability (i.e. Cakewalk) unless you think you might need it in the future.

Also look into some books like:
Mastering Audio: the art and the science
Art of Mixing: a visual guide to recording
The Mixing Engineers Handbook.
 
thanks for all your help

you have made a world of difference!

thanks

Greg
 
gregmartin said:
thanks for all your help

you have made a world of difference!

thanks

Greg
Click to expand...

Greg; You may also want to check out "home recording for musicians, for dummies" www.dummies .com, For under $20.00 it answeres a lot of questions in easy to understand terms.(also a laugh here and there) Good luck.
 
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