Using Laptop to Record

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sean Kienle
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Sean Kienle

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I recently got a nice new laptop and would like to use it for laying down beats and recording guitars and vocals. I kind of imagine an electronic/folk thing. Unfortunately, I have no clue where to start. What kind of hardware and software is best? Should I look to use a USB interface? I've heard that USB has limitations, and there are some other connectors on the back of my laptop...anyone out there do recording on their laptop have any suggestions?

Thanks.
 
firewire our cardbus (pcmcia card) are faster than usb. But I understand that some of the newer usb products are decent. In general you won't be able to record more than 2 tracks at a time, but maybe that is ok. USB interfaces go from $100-700. M-audio, Roland, Event, and some others make usb interfaces.

I am have been using my laptop to record for about 6 months now, using nothing more than the stock soundcard. I have been very satisfied with the results, but will be upgrading to a firewire based card in the new future. Probably the Echo audio products of layla or mona. There are others though from Motu, RME, Metric Halo, and soon from Presonus.

I use cakewalk sonar for software. Depends on what you want/need. For live use, sonar is starting to have some good functionality, like the ability to trigger samples. There are other products in all price ranges from n-tracks to pro tools.

What is your budget?
 
Thanks for your reply. In answer to your question, I'm kind of up in the air on my budget. I'd like to spend as little as possible, but as much as I have to in order to get a high quality finished recording (vocals and miced guitars) and the ability to program my own beats that also sound great...

I'd like to get started for maybe 300, but I can see spending up to 1k before i'm done....
 
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