Not another 'how can I record on my computer' thread!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mons
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Mons

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Alas, yes. I, like many of my fellow newbies, have trolled these boards looking for a solution on how to effectively record music on my computer. Here's my situation:
-I wish to record my vocals and an acoustic guitar. I wont need to do it at the same time.
-I would like to be able to burn a song to a CD to pass out for/to gigs/friends/etc.
-I have friends who live out of town that I, on occasion, collaborate with. It would be cool to be able to email a track or two and have them add their respective instruments to the song-bass, drums, electric guitar, etc. (we have our own websites as well, so we could upload tracks there)
-We all bought a license to Ntrack Studio, but have yet to fire it up.
-I have an older (early 90s) 4-track recorder and an sm57 mic.
-I would like to be able to add effects to my tracks after I record them(or during).
My PC:
Intel 2.4c 800MHz FSB
1GB RAM
Ti4200 128MB vid card
Abit IC7-G mobo w/onboard Realtek 97 sound
Maxtor 7200RPM 80GB w/8MB cache HD

I don't really have a dollar figure in mind for where my budget can be, but let's just say that I take particular pride in accomplishing great feats with as little means as possible. If this philosophy is going to seriously hinder my recording quality, then I have the means to spend what is necessary for decent or even above-average recordings.

Your input and time would be greatly appreciated.
 
I mentioned having a 4-track because I thought there might be a way to transfer music from it to my computer in a clear, easy way. I've tried it before-4 track directly into the soundcard-and it sounds terrible. Again, total newbie here, so thanks for taking the time to listen, er read!
 
well, being a n00b myself, I know where you are coming from. I was able to do very decent recordings using a Layla Echo 20 sound card, but from what you describe there, an Echo Gina would probably be best from a recording standpoint. It has only 2 Inputs, but sounds like you don't need that many inputs having guitar and vox separate. Bottom line here is that I would get a professional sound card to do digital recording on your 'puter.

The software that I'm using now is Cakewalk 2004 Home Studio. This is good for what I am doing (multitrack digital recording with mixing) and then Sound Forge for mastering. Sound Forge is nice for a great finished product but not completely necessary.

You also might want to look at getting some nice studio monitors in order to do mixing. I'm using Event PS8s and they work fine for me. I tried mixing with some Creative Speakers and everything came out so messed up when I listened to them over the monitors. It makes a huge difference when trying to find little things within your music.

www.mobilesoundrecording.com
 
Cool, thanks for the input. It seems like a decent soundcard coupled with a preamp and some good software might be the way to go.
I have a set of the Klipsch 2.1s-they are unreal for sound.
 
But whoah!

The Musiciansfriend.com site claims that it comes with Pro Audio from Cakewalk. If they still have that deal, I'd go that way if I were you. The Aardvark card now comes with Magix Audio Studio, which isn't nearly as nice as the Cakewalk stuff. It didn't matter to me, 'cause I already had Sonar. If you need software too, go Musiciansfriend...if they send the Magix software, you could always make 'em take it back because it's not as advertised.
 
I was also thinking about a USB-based card with breakout box, so that I could use my laptop to record if I wanted to do so in a funky place. But, I'm reading on this board that the USB's can be tempermental. Any ideas/comments?
 
DO NOT get a USB solution. It is USB 1.0 speed and that SUCKS. USB 2.0 solutions don't exist yet, and when they first come out, of course they will have bugs.

You want a PCM-CIA solution for the laptop.

Look at http://www.echoaudio.com , look at the Layla, they have one that works with both a laptop and a PC , the pre-amps are just as sweet, the D/A converters are some of the best money can buy.

It works well with N-Track and best with Cakewalk SONAR.

The write damn fine drivers.

If you have legacy music on the 4-Track you are going to want to transfer it to the computer, you will need at least 4-inputs on the soundcard ... and 4-preamps ... all 8-inputs n the Layla have very nice pre-amps.

The Echo Mia with MIDI is a very clean, nice, fast card. But it has no pre-amp and only two inputs. You can get a second card and they will work perfect together to create 4 inputs.

You could then spend the extra money on a nice pre-amp in the inexpensive range like a Joe Meek.
 
Consider getting a Fostex MR8. Use it to record your vocals and accoustic. Transfer recorded files to your PC and mix with your purchased software. Use PC to burn CD.

That combo is easy to use, low in cost, and very effective.

Ed
 
The only thing that I don't like about the Layla solution is that it has no XLR jacks.
I wonder if the Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 has a pcmcia add-on? I'll send them an email and ask.
 
A direct out, or channel output, from a mixing board would be a solution.

You would plug the XLR mic input into the mixing board, and then send a direct out, or channel output, from the mixer into the Layla's 1/4" balanced TRS input.

In the future, when you want to record drums and guitar and bass, or even larger ensembles, you are going to have to have a mixing board to plug all the instruments into. Even with 8 inputs, with the guitarist and the bass and even the drum player singing, ;) , you will run out of inputs, even on the Layla.

If you take the Layla to a live gig, and record to the laptop, you are probably going to be taking outputs from a mixing board, and then plugging those into, (sending), into the Layla.

A Drum set usually takes 4 mics, 4 sends to do a good job recording. A stereo send for a keyboard, 2 sends. Vocal mics, instruments. Auxilliary instruments. They add up quickly.

A little Behringer or Mackie mixing board, which can be quite inexpensive will do the trick for the XLR conversion to 1/4" balanced stereo input into the Layla's pre-amp.

You can use that mixing board for all sorts of things, and learning to use even just a little cheap one, will open all sorts of doors in your ming, when you look at the 'mixing board' onscreen, in the software.

Mixing boards can be gotten on ebay.com very reasonably. Mixing boards are usually very, very tough, especially the Mackie's.

There are even cheaper, cleaner solutions for sending an XLR input into a 1/4" TRS input, like a direct box solution.
 
this is getting quite a long way from the original posting!

mons! you said you 1) have a philosophy of achieving a lot with a little and 2) only need to record one track at a time.

it is important to have a clear idea of what your objective are with home recording before you start otherwise you end up paying lots of money for lots of stuff you dont really need.

the ardvark is a great card no doubt about it. a set up with that card and a talented producer can result in professional quality recordings. you can mike up drum kits with each drum getting separate tracks etc.... but this is all stuff that you didnt mention requiring in your initial posting.

on board sound is usually pretty bad. but it shouldnt be *that* noisy. you may be using the wrong input? none the less the preamps on the mic in are usually very poor and good results are hard to achieve.

still, your old fourtrack has pre amps in it. and a mixer. if you want to make decent (to good with a degree of care) recordings in your bedroom to use as demos etc. you can get perfectly good results using cheap equipment and some cunning.

heres what i suggest if you genuinely dont want to spend too much money and having 8 separate tracks isnt critical.

1. grab a cheap consumer sound card such as a SB audigy or *heaven forbid* the much maligned SB live! (both very cheap on EBAY)
2. make use of the mixer in your 4 track! (the idea of buying another "small mixer" is pretty stupid)
3. connect main outs (probably RCA) of your 4 track to the 1/8 in LINE in on your sound card (need an adaptor cable for this)
4. depending of the availability of outputs/tracks on your 4 track you can either route your line out signal from the card back through the mixer and then out to monitor speakers (this is quite nifty for monitoring purposes). you will probably not be able to do this tho. if not just connect the line out of the card straight to your speakers. again- professional monitor speakers are expensive! are you a professional sound engineer?? no! just use normal speakers or a decent stereo system.
4. ok.. now plug your mike into one of the 4 track channels, open n-track (this is fine for your purposes btw) and away you go.
5. with a bit more cunning it is actually possible to record two mono tracks simultaneously with this set-up (ie, singing and guitar or two mics on the guitar). if you are interested let me know.... this is already way longer than i had anticipated!
 
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