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I was looking for some advice on recording my electric guitar to my pc.

What type of equipment will I need other than a microphone???

What software would you recommend for mixing???

Keep in mind im just starting off so please keep it simple folks!!!

Thanks

You'll need a good tool for mixing. I recommend the Cool Edit Pro 2.0, it's easy and have great effects.

Cool Edit 2.0 is no longer available.

Adobe purchased the company that made Cool Edit (Syntrillium) and rebranded it Adobe Audition.  It's currently at version 1.5 and now supports VST plugins (Cubase etc...).  This is a massive boost to it's appeal and it remains one of the best audio editors and is surely becoming a fantastic multitracking application too.  Sure, it's not quite up with Cubase, Cakewalk, Pro Tools etc... but it's excellent none the less.

I recommed whole heartedly.

thanks guys /\

can anyone recommend a good mic?? I was looking at the shure sm57 before.

Also can anyone give me a simple explanation as to what a pre-amp is and what its used for??? is it essential??

thanks

Thanks for the info, David. I didn't know about that. Check your pm please. ;)

I dunno about the mic, but the pre-amp would make your records sounds way better if you choose to connect direct to your pc soundboard.

www.kreatives.org/kristal

It's the best free recording programm on the net

As I understand it, the preamp is essentially what converts your analog input into digital form, which is then processed on your computer.  The better the pre-amp, the better the sound quality, so pre-amps are probably the second most important thing behind mic quality for getting a good quality recording.  Theoretiically, to do any real digital recording, all you need are some preamps attached to your computer somehow - you don't need anything else, and this is a pretty cheap way to go, if you have the experience and know-how to do that kind of work.

I don't think you will need an expensive shure mic if you're going to plug it into a home sound card...

Maybe if you have a good Turtle soundcard...

So let me get this straight!

You plug your guitar lead into the pre-amp and the preamp goes into the computer??

Where do you hear yourself playing?? through your computers speakers?? does my guitar amp have any relevance when using the preamp?? ???

thanks for the advice so far guys. : ok:

Well, you have to set something up to hear it too.? ?: ok:? ? It totally depends on what setup you have, and what software you use.? Basically, unless you're using Pro Tools, the easiest and most likely solution is to play it back through your computer speakers.

I know you're looking for something simple and cheap to get started, but if you can spend US $450 on an MBox, it's a great deal.? It gives you two inputs and two sends (for non-software based effects), Pro Tools, Reason Adapted, Ableton Live, Sampletank LE, Amptitude LE, and t-racks SE.? It gives you EVERYTHING you need to get started, not to mention Pro Tools.? Lots of Samples, Synthesizers, Drum Machines, Amp software, EQing software, etc.

The pre-amp just converts the analog sound to a digital form that the computer understands, whether it's coming from an amp, or directly from the instrument.? Depending on your input level settings, the pre-amp may do some amplification, I'm not really sure, but other than that, I'm not sure of any way that it's similar to a regular amp.

Again, though, if you want to keep it cheap, all you need to do is pickup some pre-amps, and find the software you want to use.  I highly recomend Apple's Logic, if you have a Mac, I think that's definitely gonna be the future, not Pro Tools, but Pro Tools is the industry standard right now.  You must purchase Digidesign hardware to use Pro Tools (like an MBox)

Well thanks for all the advice there : ok:

I like the look of the mbox i think i'll go for that!!

The mbox website cleared up my confusion!!

1 more Q!!

The Mbox website seems to be recommending the use of an external hard drive.

Do any of you have an Mbox?? and if so is the external hard drive necessary??

An external hard drive is not necessary.  It always better to have your music files located on a separate hard disk than your system disk, but it's not necessary.  It'll run fine on your system drive too.

I have a Tascam US-122 USB interface. It's cheap, works well and is easy to use. Since I'm on a Mac I use Garage Band to record demos. If you want a lot of sounds get a PodXT, you can record directly into your computer with that via USB.

I bought myself an mbox!!

after a bit of messing around you pick it up fairly quickly, im really enjoying amplitube, havent tried sampletank or t-racks yet

Cool, that's awesome man!  Amplitude w/ t-racks lets you create some pretty nice guitar sounds.

If ya have any more questions... just let me know.