Home PC Recording - on the cheap?

chriswallace85 · 27th July 2011, 12:46 PM

I wanna do a little rudimentary home recording - nowt, flash, maybe just a couple acoustic guitar and vocal demos, and maybe a bit electric playing just to hear myself back when practicing.

I've got an SM57 for micing up my amp when live, and I've got Audacity which I've pissed about with before. Now as I said I'm not arsed about quality being great and just wanting a very basic setup I had hoped I'd just be able to plug the mic into the computer and away we go but apparently that's not possible.

Anyone know what I'd need to get going? Cheap preamp?

gizmoganzee · 27th July 2011, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chriswallace85

I wanna do a little rudimentary home recording - nowt, flash, maybe just a couple acoustic guitar and vocal demos, and maybe a bit electric playing just to hear myself back when practicing.

I've got an SM57 for micing up my amp when live, and I've got Audacity which I've pissed about with before. Now as I said I'm not arsed about quality being great and just wanting a very basic setup I had hoped I'd just be able to plug the mic into the computer and away we go but apparently that's not possible.

Anyone know what I'd need to get going? Cheap preamp?

Have you plugged the mike in the right hole? it should work like, is Audacity a sound recorder, press record set levels etc

knumbskull · 27th July 2011, 12:53 PM

just recorded a couple of bits and pieces at a mate's house last weekend using guitar pro, garageband and his line6 toneport. quality wasn't great but it's perfect getting ideas down and developing them a bit.

basically created the drum track in guitar pro, exported as a midi file then recorded straight into garageband for guitars/bass. piece of piss really.

chriswallace85 · 27th July 2011, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gizmoganzee

Have you plugged the mike in the right hole? it should work like, is Audacity a sound recorder, press record set levels etc

Well what I've done in the past with Audacity when pissing about, is use a pair of headphones and stick them in the mic socket and blast away. Pretty bad quality as far as background noise goes but you could hear the guitar and vocal, and basically all I want is a better quality version of that, and thought going straight into the mic socket with what is a decent mic (for live pickup anyway) would do that for me but I couldn't get it away. I dunno if something is up with the levels on the computer/soundcard - maybe I'm missing something.

gizmoganzee · 27th July 2011, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chriswallace85

Well what I've done in the past with Audacity when pissing about, is use a pair of headphones and stick them in the mic socket and blast away. Pretty bad quality as far as background noise goes but you could hear the guitar and vocal, and basically all I want is a better quality version of that, and thought going straight into the mic socket with what is a decent mic (for live pickup anyway) would do that for me but I couldn't get it away. I dunno if something is up with the levels on the computer/soundcard - maybe I'm missing something.

Well Teed'll be alang shortly to help yer like

chriswallace85 · 27th July 2011, 01:31 PM

Does Fylu (sp) not get on these days?

dcl0sc · 27th July 2011, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chriswallace85

I wanna do a little rudimentary home recording - nowt, flash, maybe just a couple acoustic guitar and vocal demos, and maybe a bit electric playing just to hear myself back when practicing.

I've got an SM57 for micing up my amp when live, and I've got Audacity which I've pissed about with before. Now as I said I'm not arsed about quality being great and just wanting a very basic setup I had hoped I'd just be able to plug the mic into the computer and away we go but apparently that's not possible.

Anyone know what I'd need to get going? Cheap preamp?

Using Garageband on me Mac ATM, its mint and very simple to use....

chrisVoyeur · 27th July 2011, 01:51 PM

Hi,

me and my mates do a bit of this stuff. We had a 'proper' studio until we had everything nicked by gypsies and a drug baron (long story) A couple of years ago.
We now work on a very basic level and recently we been using an iRig http://www.ikmultimedia.com/irig/features/ with brilliant results.

The iphone acts as the FX processor or the mic pre-amp. The vocal recordings have been noiseless and the guitar effects are well tasty.
Combined with Adobe Audition and Cubase we have achieved some excellent results.

gizmoganzee · 27th July 2011, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisVoyeur

Hi,

me and my mates do a bit of this stuff. We had a 'proper' studio until we had everything nicked by gypsies and a drug baron (long story) A couple of years ago.
We now work on a very basic level and recently we been using an iRig http://www.ikmultimedia.com/irig/features/ with brilliant results.

The iphone acts as the FX processor or the mic pre-amp. The vocal recordings have been noiseless and the guitar effects are well tasty.
Combined with Adobe Audition and Cubase we have achieved some excellent results.

Looks canny nifty that like

Nick666 · 27th July 2011, 02:00 PM

You'll need a sound card to process your signal properly. A simple usb soundcard would do the job if your on a budget. A decent Preamp is defo a worthwhile investment as well as it could make an average mic sound excellent.