the newest newbie, please help

[faob43]

hey all, i'm more than a little bit hesitant here. i am completely new to all of this, i mean completely, i know next to nothing about any of this.

I play accoustic guitar and have for many years. Some friends mentioned that it'd be cool if i would record myself playing so they could have a copy to listen to, yeah, they're gluttons for punishment.

anyway, i bought a Behringer MX602A mixer and an Oktava MC219 mic. I plan on hooking these to my pc, and using cakewalk's Music Creator 2003. Now then...i haven't a clue how to set the mixer and the mic up. can someone please start from the very begining for me? i'd really appreciate it.

a somewhat embarrassed.....faob

perhaps, it'd help to know, that i have no amp for the guitar, but it is an accoustic electric guitar, and one i rather like. (Epiphone PR5E)

 

[James Argo]

...Do you mean to record 'em by playing and singing at once ? It's not that hard. For the most basic setup, plug your guitars into one of the mixer's channel. And line up the mic on another channel. Route the output of your MX602 to Line Input on your sound card. Better take 'em both L & R (Stereo). You'll need a special cable (Dual mono 1/4" jack to one stereo 1/8"). So now your setup will be Guitars --> MX 602 Chn. 1 --> Soundcard. And so the Mic --> MX 602 Chn. 2 --> Sound card. Double click the Windows kernell mixer (Small spkr icon on the taskbar), open the Recording Propherties (On Options --> Propherties) select the recording source from Line In. Still with me ? Good... Fire up your Cakey, insert audio track, set the input source and output source, arm the track, hit record... play and sing... Stop. That's it. Try those wy first, come back if you have any difficulties...

Jaymz

 

[tmix]

My best Guess

Faob,
I am not completely familiar with your exact gear, but I'll give it a try.
You'l need to be able to hook your mixer to the LINE INPUT (not the mic input) of your computer sound card. This will probably involve getting a twin 1/4 inch mono (male) to single 1/8th inch (male)stereo adapter.You can get them at Radio Shack or the like.
You might get by with a RCA to 1/8 inch adapter if your mixer has those type of outs.

Then you will need to hook up your mic to the mixer (you surely got a mic cable?)
The Oktava mic is a condensor mic so your mixer will need to have phantom power available on it ( most all condensors need this) If your board does not come equipped with Phantom power you will have to buy a stand alone unit (about $50).This supplies condensor mics with the 48volts of juice they need to operate.

Hopefully you have a general grasp on how to fire up your software and arm tracks for recording etc. I am not familiar with your program.

Lastly you will need a way for monitoring what you are doing. Computer speakers are hard to work with while recording acoustically, I would suggest hooking up a stereo receiver to the line output of your sound card and monitor through the headphone outs with the speakers turned off. when you get ready to mix all the gret things you recorded, you can then listen through speakers.

From this point you can literally spend a huge wad of money on all kinds of dedicated preamps-mics-monitors,etc. But my suggestion to you is get to know what you have first, keep it really simple so as not to get discouraged. Keep the focus on your music and performances. Don't venture into the abiss of equipment lust for a while. What you have is more than sufficient to get started on.

Try micing the guitar with your Oktava near the 12th fret about 12-18 away as a starting point, you can also run it direct into the mixer for a different sort of sound.

Good luck!

tmix

 

[James Argo]

...umh... and welcome to the board

 

[faob43]

Thank you, both! that's exactly what i was looking for. I have all the cables and everything you described. i can just plug my guitar right into the mixer, no amp required?

i will try just what you described...what if i wanted to record the guitar and the vocal separately, is that possible with this set up?

thanks again!

 

[tmix]

Yes

Yes you can plug your guitar directly into the mixer, just adjust the input gain until you have a healthy level and record away!
It will sound different than micing it, it will have an acoustielectric kind of bright sound that may be just what you want. I prefer the more natural sound of micing the acoustic... but to each his own.

Yes to question#2 as well you most certainly can record vocals and guitar separately. For best separation you can record them at different times. If you find it hard to do that way you can record a scratch vocal/guitar track first and then replace the scratch track piece by piece first with a new guitar part (playing along with the scratch) and then muting the scratch and sing along with your keeper guitar track.

Depending on your mixer configuration you may want to use direct channel outs (or inserts?) or creative panning while recording so you can hear one thing (a mix of things)while recording a single source (without what is playing back)
There is a million ways to do it, so when you get to that point give a holler and we'll get you going.

Welcome to the world of multitracking!

 

[faob43]

sweet! i think i'm going to like this. thanks for your help, i'll try it out. i'll let you know how it works out....thanks again!