JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques General Technical Forum Recording Software

I play guitar, bass,etc., but not keyboards, any recommendations for PC home recording software, specifically how does I get a guitar signal into the computer.
Thanks in advance.

Your best bet is probably one of the "starter sets" that are available for around $300. You can always upgrade later.

What you get is a PCI audio card, an interface (a box to plug into) and usually some software for recording & mixing.

Echo has one ("gina") for $300, as does Lexicon. They usually come with everything you'll need to get started, but be sure to check out the product's specs on their site before you spend any money. Make sure your PC is up to the minimum requirements that the manufacturer recommends.

I'm not really a "computer guy" and haven't found recording on the PC all that attractive-- so I'm sure there are others here who could add their own experience and make some suggestions, too.

Hope I helped...

Heylo
go to my homesite, go to the archive, look at THE DAW Report. It is a complete rundown on the PC based system I got and why. Its more than you need, but the links to info there are still a help as well as the discussion.

off hand I'd agree with the person above. Get a good digital PCI studio card, but make sure it ill operate in your system. Layla/Gina etc isn't compatable with AMD processors for example, or weren't when I built my system. Most cards come with bundles software, but cool edit from syntrillium is free and there are others, and lots of interesting freeware and shareware aditions to the whole. You'll still probably need a small pre-amp/mixer; digitizers require juice and a standard amp isn'y clean and doesn't have phantom power for a good mike if you do vocals. I use a Mackie "mini-mixer", replacing the mixer I got originally which though it had more channels, wasn't near as good as the Mackie.

peace
Brian
Folksinger
http://www.pan.com/folksinger

It can be done cheap. I use a Taylor, blend mike and pickup at about 50% and plug in directly from my guitar to the line in on my Compaq laptop or emachine desktop. I use Syntrilliums Cool edit 2000 which cost about $40, and also bout the 4 track add on for another $40. This does NOT however, work on electric guitars. Best way for them is to mike 'em at the speaker. Want to hear what it sounds like?
go to http://www.pageofpraise.com/mp3DLHS.html
The songs with just vocals and guitar, or vocals guitar and drum track, are done like I just mentioned. Fancier stuff was done with Acid 2.0
Have fun, write back,
Robert

I do home recording on my PC and think it's the way to go for the home studio hobbyist. It provides a nice interface that encourages manipulation of the sounds to get what you want. I use Gina for my sound I/O and Cubase VST for my recording software. You could just plug into whatever sound card comes with your computer, but that will most likely result in a fair amount of noise. Gina is ultra-quiet. Cubase is on the higher end of recording software, so depending on how serious you want to get, it may not be for you. A version of Cool Edit comes bundled with Gina.

I would also suggest buying a book on recording techniques. I found "Practical Recording Techniques" by Bruce and Jenny Bartlett to be pretty good.

I have found the best way to record electric guitar is to mike the amp (rather than just using the output at the back of the amp, which doesn't give you the nice cabinet characteristics, unless you have a really fancy amp that emulates that). For acoustic, I almost always use two mikes; one at the 12th fret and one at the bridge, fairly close, but leaving enough room for your hands. If you are at all serious about getting a good sound, invest in decent mikes; I use a pair of AKG C1000S, about $130-150 each, and find them to do just fine, though it is certainly possible to spend much more!

You will need a pre-amp or direct box to raise the signal to the proper level. I use a Midiman Audio Buddy for instruments -- it handles two channels, works just fine, and is fairly economical (~$100). I find it a bit harsh for vocals, though, so I use a tube pre-amp for that.

To hear some of my music made with this setup, go to http://www.mp3.com/VictorWilburn . If you have more questions, feel free to email me from there.

Thanks for the tips Victor!

Brian

Another guitar recording technique I use sometimes is to take an acoustic-electric, plug it in, and mike both the amp and the guitar directly. The directly-miked sound is more percussive and drives the rhythm, and the amped sound is more crunchy (or however you set your amp), and you can control the balance between the two.