The cheapest, easiest way possible

[jalbert]

I am trying to slap together a cheap way to get my voice and guitar onto tape and CD with at least some sound quality. I have:

2 Kenwood Dynamic Microphones(that cost me $11.00 a piece)
a Lawrence acoustic guitar pickup(the kind that pops into the soundhole)
a JVC TD-W309 cassette deck(with mic input)
and a COMPAQ Presario 2500 Laptop(with CD burner)

What I've done in the past is run a mic(actually before I stepped up to these sweet Kenwood babies it was half of an old set of headphones) through the tapedeck(using it as a preamp) and into the laptop. Let's just say the sound was less than inspiring, but it worked.
What I'd Like to do now is use one mic on my voice and a combination of the other mic and the pickup on my guitar. I've been looking for a cheap preamp/mixer to this with but haven't had luck finding anything with more than two channels. So, I'm thinking about getting a Rolls MX41 4-Channel Passive Mixer and either continuing to use the tapedeck as a preamp or buying a real one. I'd like to have tone control for each channel but I know that's going to be more expensive. Anyway, any suggestions on what I should try or buy would be appreciated.

 

[ssscientist]

My advice would be to get a USB or Firewire audio interface. The one I use with my Compaq Presario 2500 laptop is a Tascam US-122 which has 2 microphone/line inputs, one of which could be used for your guitar pickup and one for your vocal mic. The idea of combining a mic with the pickup signal from the guitar is nice, but I think you might realize that with proper mic placement you will get better recordings. And if you decide to go with a mic on your voice and a pickup on the guitar you will get enough spillage from the vocal mic that it will be just as good as spending money and time on more gear where some good ol' experimentation would do instead.

As far as a computer program to record into, a stereo recording/editing application such as Goldwave will produce a .wav file suitable for burning onto CD:

http://www.goldwave.com/release.php

You can download the demo and play around with it before you pay the $60 or so for it.

Here's a link to the USB interface I use:

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--TASUS122

 

[Be Loveless]

No no nO. This guy is talkin CHEEEEEEEEEEAAP!!! Okay you get yurssef on don too da RAY DEE O' SHACK. You get a dual female to single quarter inch adapter. You plug that bad boy into your tape deck mic input. Guitar in one hole and voice in the other. Record it on tape and run that on in to your compoooter. Just make sure that your guitar and voice levels are balanced, probably by turning the pickup volume down, playing lighter, or singing real loud. And set the tape level in appropriately. I used to record stuff like this when I was in high scool and ican have unique "Quality" to it. It will cost you about 3 bucks. Try it for fun at any rate.

 

[jalbert]

Thank you both very much for your replies but I think my solution might be somewhere in between both of your suggestions. I'm not totally adverse to spending some money and since I'm a finger picker I think I want both mic and pickup on my guitar. Of course I don't really know anything so I might be wrong.
I posted this same question in the Microphones forum:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=123160

The guy I've been talking to in there suggests the Behringer UB802 UB-802 Eurorack Mixer for what I want to do and it seems like a good idea. Please feel free to take a look at what we've been discussing and let me know what you think. Thanks again for taking the time to help me.

 

[Dani Pace]

you want cheap?

O.K. I'm all in favor of cutting corners and saving a buck when I can too so you might want to try this, I did and it worked for me. Cruise a few thrift stores ( Goodwill, Salvation Army etc..) and keep your eyes open for a used 4 track tape machine, these little units work surprisingly well for a preamp/mixer. By using one you get 4 inputs mixed down to 2 (stereo) going into your soundcard, or you can use the monitor out to mix 4 down to 1, whichever you prefer. You did'nt say what kind of soundcard you have but this method works well with Soundblaster Live, after all you did say you wanted to keep it as cheap as possible and still det a deacent sound.

 

[jalbert]

Dani,
My laptop has no LINE IN only a mic input. I've used this to burn CD's of my voice and of old vinyl and the sound doesn't seem too bad. But I do need to use a preamp before running it into the laptop. I also want to run into my JVC tapedeck. I'm not worried about spending a little money. What do you think of the Behringer?

 

[ssscientist]

Behringer in general makes some good products. I'm sure you'll be very happy together.

Next time you post just pick one forum. Please.

 

[jalbert]

I ended up getting the ALTO S-6 and it seems great.