PC Recording

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Rimas

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I have a PIII 1Gig, 128 Mb RAM Crappy SB16 sound card.

I would like to set up a small personal studio in my house (not super professional) I also don't want to spend a lot of money, so here is my situation:

From previos posts, I gathered that i need a mixer to hook a guitar to my pc and record it.....

I have a Johnson JM-60 amp which I would like to hook up to a small mixer (probably a Nady MM4 mixer or similar) my understanding from this point on is to use an rca to single stereo cable and plug into my line-in jack on the soundcard. after that i can use cakewalk (or right now I have Magix music studio) software to record and mix it down.

Is this right? Will it work?
 
You definitely need something to at least give your line in signal a boost. A mixer would definitely do this for you - search the forum for some info on mixers/preamps. I've only been into PC recording for a short time and don't have all the gear/knowledge that I ultimately would like to have for my modest purposes. Presently I either plug into a POD which "outs" to a 1/4 to 1/8 converter which can then feed into my soundcard OR use the left and right 1/4 outs on the POD to feed the stereo ins (also 1/4) on a Tascam 414 (using its mixer component) and then sending the signal from the Tascam's RCA line outs to a the soundcard via the requisite converters/adaptors. Of course, for other things such as bass, acoustic, vocals, etc I generally plug directly into the Tascam (single input or stereo inputs - whatever your flavour) and out directly to the soundcard. This path can obviously be "affected" with various processors such as reverbs, compressors, etc as you get smarter, richer, etc (or you can make extensive use of PC-based effects).

Good luck. Have fun.

As you can tell, I'm not an expert on this, I'm climbing the learning curve. Trial and error rules.

Don't go out and get a Tascam 414 for a mixer!!!! As I stated earlier, there is a wealth of info to search on within this forum (provided by very experienced people) re: good/bad mixers in different price ranges.

Hope this helps - if yes great, if no then perhaps someone else will step in.
 
Thanks for the info--I'll definately look more into a good mixer, for now I just wanted some tips or advice as to whether or not my kind of a setup would work.

I realize now that I need to pipe through "something" to get to my soundcard (i.e. a mixer) I don't want to go through a POD or Jstation, cause my amp has all the effects I would need. Also I don't need to go through a casette 4-track, because I have a burner so I'll just dump my saved songs onto a CD.

So I guess now I just need to look into mixers (I've got a $150 cap if anyone wants to make suggesstions)

Thanks again for the info! It did help!
Rimas
 
Are you wanting to record direct (from the amps line out or something similiar) or do you want to mic the amp....if so , do you have a mic?....
 
Thanks for the reply..

I don't have a Mic at this point, so I'd like to record straight into the PC.

I thought that recording that way would be cleaner since a Mic picks up alot of background noise.

The line out on my amp is to hook up a cabinet, but I assummed it would work to my pc.
 
You shouldnt need a mixer..you can come straight out of your amp into the soundcards line in.....

As far as software, if you dont want what you are using now, try N-Track at www.fasoft.com ....alot easier and cheaper than Cakewalk...however if you will be using MIDI, Cakewalk is better suited to that....
 
Sure, for just recording guitar via amp line-out (basically a "preamp") a mixer is not required (as it wouldn't be for a POD or any direct box). I just made the point that a mixer/preamp of some sort would be needed to boost a signal. Also, a mixer/preamp would be required for bass, keyboards, vocals, drum machines - which will probably be required in short order (unless all of these sources get run through the amp via line-out).

I'd recommend a mixer, even if it's a cheap piece of .....
 
Also, listen to Gidge. Ntrack is a great piece of software.
 
Wow!! thanks for all the great info guys!

All I am planning to do now is record some stuff to help me practice and check my guitar playing, and rather than sit in front of a junky boombox, I thought I'd give this a try..and you guys gave me exactly the info I needed.

In the future I plan to try and upgrade my recording situation of course, but for now as I go through trial and error, I'll see what I want better or don't need to be so good (although I doubt that'll happen).

The only thing I need now I guess is a Mixer and a mic to lay down vocals.

Got any cheapies you recomend?

thanks again for the wonderfull info!!
Rimas
 
"Got any cheapies you recommend?"

For mics, there are cheapies but none I recommend....But for 79.99, a Shure sm57 will do pretty damn good on vocals and if you ever get the urge to mic your amp instead of go direct, that same sm57 is the standard for it, even in pro studios.....

As far as mixer, you still wont need one if you will only be recording one track at a time (Im assuming you are since the SB16 only has one input....Im gonna get flamed for this, but to start out you can run that sm57 into your guitar amp and go direct out to the soundcard....until recently I was going thru a Johnson J-Station for vocals...it worked but I could think of a million different ways to do better....if you can swing another 99.00 the Art TubeMP is a good unit and M-Audio's DMP2 for 199.00 is a 2 channel preamp that just flat out rocks.....

Either way you go the most important thing to do is to start recording,have fun, and see what you need as you go....you will find yourself constantly adding to your wish list and becoming a gear junkie.....

So to sum it up, download N-track's shareware version for free...its pretty easy to get started and pretty powerful once you get into the advanced stuff.....the Magix software you have may even do a decent job....Grab you a sm57 and try it thru your amp to see if youll get a usable sound...if not try to score a preamp.....you will need headphones for recording with a mic.....
 
Thanks!

I'll definately look into getting a Shure mic. As far as the preamp goes I'll have to think about it.

Thanks again for the info!
Rimas
 
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