recording problems with Audacity

[soe123]

I'm new to digital recording. just trying to do some basic guitar and vocal demos recording each separately using Audacity on my PC. I can record the acoustic guitar fine going direct into the PC mic jack, but when i try to overdub the vocal (using mic into a preamp into the PC mic jack) I get a nasty intermittent noise similar to the sound of plugging something in only more continuous. Any tips on how to remedy this? thx

 

[Treskalle]

I would suggest using a digital interface. External or internal sound card, a external might be the easiest. To plug direct into the computers standard sound card isn't the best solution. There are a lot of cheap both usb and firewire (pci and pcie as well) soundcards that meet the requirements for 1-2 analog inputs, as I understood you needed? Welcome by the way!

 

[soe123]

thanks! I'll look into that. (other ideas appreciated, too)

 

[TimOBrien]

That built-in soundcard has about 40cents worth of parts and was made for beeps, boops and light gaming, not what we do.

Here's a good guide and tested suggestions that WORK: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

(you'll want to bookmark and read through all of Tweak's Guide while you're there...)

 

[soe123]

good stuff. thanks, Tim.

 

[Villain S Deeds]

I myself stopped using my usb Sound Blaster, and haven't noticed any problems with my built-in card. Of course, I do intend to upgrade one of these days.