Recording your own sounds

[Richard Mc F]

My dilema, the younger one wants some way of recording his guitar playing, adding and mixing stuff, I have no idea can any one help?

Your opinions please.

[Mully]

Most laptops can record now - thanks to fricken YouTube......

Start there - see if he keeps doing it before you spend any cash on software

[Slyer]

Buy a mac like all the cool kids. It practically makes the music itself!

[Drunken Monkey]

If you want to do it on the cheap, you can just get a microphone and record directly to your computer. Download Audacity, it's free and will let you do basic editing (cutting, mixing, etc...) The biggest problem with that setup will be the poor quality of the recording going through the sound card. You'll need to fiddle around with the levels a bit as well, there's a wide range of mic sensitivities and qualities for PC mics. Also, they're mostly designed for voice (dynamic instead of condenser) --> Edit: A dynamic mic should be fine for guitar.

The next step up would be using an external USB or firewire soundcard to eliminate most of the electronic noise in the system. These can be had for a couple hundred $$$

Then a better sound card, although at this point you're probably starting to talk tenths as a large amount of the problems with home studioing can be resolved by good quality recording equipment.

Protools is as good as you'll ever need without setting up a full studio.


On top of the technology aspects, think of the recording environment, e.g. you want to eliminate background electronic noise (pretty hard if you're recording to a PC), echo's, etc... You can do things like sticking egg-cartons to all the walls. Jeff Van Dyk stuck his wife in a pillow filled cupboard to record the voice sound track to one of his recordings. The point is, be creative.

[Drunken Monkey]

Actually, you didn't say you were going to do this to computer, or necessarily wanted to use a computer. You could also use a recording deck, but that will cost you $$$.

[The Lone Rider]

There is no way to make good, but simple recordings.

To make recordings, plug a computer mic into your sound card and record into Audacity. Cost: $50 tops
For good recordings you can look at:

N-tracks studio, an M-Audio card (one with a pre-amp built in) and some cables and microphones. Some M-audio cards come bundled with an M-Audio version of Pro Tools (since Digidesign bought M-Audio) Cost: $500+

Or you can go the way of an M-box by Digidesign and get a basic version of pro-tools bundled with it. You will still need microphones and cables Cost: $1000+


If you were more specific on what he wants to do than you can get a more specific answer. If he's JUST recording ELECTRIC guitar, you can get a Line 6 guitar port and it'll do everything from there.

For recordings of acoustic you will need at least a microphone, cable, stand, and pre-amp.

For good recordings of acoustic you will need a condenser microphone (which is a whole 'nother ball game), cable, stand, pre-amp etc..



You could also try and find yourself a 2nd hand 4-track tape recorder which will do very basic recording functions, and he can dub his mixes onto a computer at a later stage. You'd still need cables, microphone(s) and possible a pre-amp



If he gets serious about recording, send him to the Music and Audio Institute of NZ.

If you are in Canterbury I can let you look at my gear and help you pick and tailor to what you want.

Unfortunately audio recording has a lot of buzz words and techno jargon, and it's something best learned when the gear is sitting in front of you.

[Fatt Max]

I would also reccomend a Line 6 Guitar Port if you are recording onto PC. It is a great piece of kit and has a lot of features.

A microphone and sound card on a PC is the cheapest but sound quality may be crap.

Audacity is a free studio based set up that can do the very basics but it depends on your soundcard

Other than that, anything the Lone Rider suggested would be good.

Let us know how you get on mate

[Ferkletastic]

Start with Audacity + external USB audio interface + decent mic (I'd say go with a nice all rounder like a Shure SM58 or 57 at this stage. 58s are awesome, good sound and bulletproof quality.

If you've got a Mac then garageband is your friend. I wouldn't worry about Pro-Tools at this stage, if PC then audacity is fine, or google Reaper which is another cool shareware audio prog.

[Big Dave]

Agree with ferkl. Garage Band is an outstanding piece of software for any amateur musician.

[Drunken Monkey]

Looks like everyones on the same page RE the gear, but I re-iterate: think about your recording environment too. A $1000 condenser mike, $500 worth of top quality cables and the flashest PC gear and funkiest software will be a waste of $$$$ if your environment isn't right. It's going to sound rubbish if you can hear street noise in the background, and you don't want to be doing another take of your best run yet just because the fridge or dryer started up.

[The Lone Rider]

Looks like everyones on the same page RE the gear, but I re-iterate: think about your recording environment too. A $1000 condenser mike, $500 worth of top quality cables and the flashest PC gear and funkiest software will be a waste of $$$$ if your environment isn't right. It's going to sound rubbish if you can hear street noise in the background, and you don't want to be doing another take of your best run yet just because the fridge or dryer started up.

I don't think he's quite after recording in a room with it treated for standing waves and dampened walls.

Turning off your fridge and dryer is easy enough.