Help recording guitar on PC

[Acesi7]

Hey Guys,
As the title states, I'm looking to record my acoustic guitar onto my laptop to start playing around with production, but I've never done it before.
Can you anyone tell me what I need?

The Acoustic has internal pickups as I can play it through an amp. Just need to know what device I need to buy to plug it into my Laptop.

Thanks

[zombieho]

You need an audio interface like this.

These don't sound great, but are cheap and sound ok. It is what I use...

[Raykay]

Im planning on get a us-600 sometime. Might be worth a look for you, perhaps a model with less inputs.

[Acesi7]

Originally Posted by zombieho

You need an audio interface like this.

These don't sound great, but are cheap and sound ok. It is what I use...

Cheers for that.
I'll look into one.

Originally Posted by Raykay

Im planning on get a us-600 sometime. Might be worth a look for you, perhaps a model with less inputs.

Sorry but I couldn't find a US-600, do you have a brand?

Also are these "Behringer UCG102" (eBay) any good? Or are they as crap as they are cheap.

Cheers for your advice.

[Raykay]

Originally Posted by Acesi7

Cheers for that.
I'll look into one.



Sorry but I couldn't find a US-600, do you have a brand?

Also are these "Behringer UCG102" (eBay) any good? Or are they as crap as they are cheap.

Cheers for your advice.

Sorry my fault..

Its the Tascam US-600

http://www.videoguys.com.au/Shop/p/2...-49-us600.html

Might be worth the extra, they also make a version with less inputs called the us-200.

[ichizora]

If you're gonna spend that much, better to grab a Focusrite Sapphire 6 USB from Kosmic...

[Agg]

Originally Posted by Acesi7

Hey Guys,
As the title states, I'm looking to record my acoustic guitar onto my laptop to start playing around with production, but I've never done it before.
Can you anyone tell me what I need?

The Acoustic has internal pickups as I can play it through an amp. Just need to know what device I need to buy to plug it into my Laptop.

Thanks

I plug mine into the microphone port on the onboard audio on my mobo and recording using Audacity, which got me up and running basically for free. Have you tried doing that if you just want to get started and trying stuff? No doubt the other methods result in better quality, but this seems ok for my needs.

[Raykay]

Originally Posted by Agg

I plug mine into the microphone port on the onboard audio on my mobo and recording using Audacity, which got me up and running basically for free. Have you tried doing that if you just want to get started and trying stuff? No doubt the other methods result in better quality, but this seems ok for my needs.

Speaking of which, thats what I'm doing right now on my iMac, I just use a 1/4 to 3.5 mm jack, plug the guitar in and record using garageband or logic.

Only problem is that it's not amplified so sound is relatively quiet, quality is nice though.

You can get these at Dick Smith

[Acesi7]

Originally Posted by Raykay

Sorry my fault..

Its the Tascam US-600

http://www.videoguys.com.au/Shop/p/2...-49-us600.html

Might be worth the extra, they also make a version with less inputs called the us-200.

Originally Posted by ichizora

If you're gonna spend that much, better to grab a Focusrite Sapphire 6 USB from Kosmic...

Originally Posted by Agg

I plug mine into the microphone port on the onboard audio on my mobo and recording using Audacity, which got me up and running basically for free. Have you tried doing that if you just want to get started and trying stuff? No doubt the other methods result in better quality, but this seems ok for my needs.

Originally Posted by Raykay

Speaking of which, thats what I'm doing right now on my iMac, I just use a 1/4 to 3.5 mm jack, plug the guitar in and record using garageband or logic.

Only problem is that it's not amplified so sound is relatively quiet, quality is nice though.

You can get these at Dick Smith

Thanks all of you for your input, and after looking I think the Tascam US-200 is perfect. I do vocal and acoustic guitar, so this could really be perfect to get me off the ground, I have used the guitar straight into the mic port, but it's a pretty crappy sound that comes out (might be the guitar, it's old and haggard, but I love it. ) so wanted to try something a little better.

Do you guys know where I can get one in Melbourne / Aus?

[Raykay]

Originally Posted by Acesi7

Thanks all of you for your input, and after looking I think the Tascam US-200 is perfect. I do vocal and acoustic guitar, so this could really be perfect to get me off the ground, I have used the guitar straight into the mic port, but it's a pretty crappy sound that comes out (might be the guitar, it's old and haggard, but I love it. ) so wanted to try something a little better.

Do you guys know where I can get one in Melbourne / Aus?

Videoguys are in Notting Hill, I'm thinking about getting a bigger brother of the 200, so post feedback if you can.

http://www.videoguys.com.au/Shop/p/2...-49-us200.html

[Boneman]

Originally Posted by Acesi7

Hey Guys,
As the title states, I'm looking to record my acoustic guitar onto my laptop to start playing around with production, but I've never done it before.
Can you anyone tell me what I need?

The Acoustic has internal pickups as I can play it through an amp. Just need to know what device I need to buy to plug it into my Laptop.

Thanks

Whats your budget ?

[Acesi7]

Originally Posted by Boneman

Whats your budget ?

Um, don't really know. I'm only just starting to get into this, so I'm not after something that is professional grade or anything. But something that does that job would be nice and does it well at a performance per $$ standpoint.

Only requirements is that it plugs into a computer for editting and that it has 2 inputs 1 for a mic and one for a guitar. So the US-200 is very appealing.

Truth be told I'm leaning strongly towards This

It's the Tascam US-200 + Rode NT2 Condensor Mic. Is this a good deal? So I suppose my budget is around $500 for Mic and Interface

I'm very new to the recording side of all of this, so I very much so appreciate the assistance.

[Boneman]

Take a look at the Focusrite range, in particular the Saffire 6 or the newer Scarlett 8i6 for the interface, the preamps are clean and their drivers seem to work, which is important.

Also you will need some studio monitors to listen back and learn how to mix things. You could start with some very cheap Cakewalk MA-7a or something, and combine them with your favourite headphones to reference things.

Will you be using the microphone for recording the guitar or for just vocals ? You may find something like the SE Reflexion Filter kit will help when doing vocals with a condenser in a noisy environment.

So heres 1 combination that I think would be good for a new guy -

Focusrite Saffire 6 USB
Cakewalk MA-7a micro monitors
SE Electronics X1 bundle (mic and filter)

This may be a little more than your budget, but you will have nothing stopping you from getting a very decent recording from this. Of course the mixing aspect is a totally different process and you will need a DAW, I suggest Reaper, and reading the manual . The sooner you can get away from Audacity the better, as a whole other world opens up.

[Acesi7]

Originally Posted by Boneman

Take a look at the Focusrite range, in particular the Saffire 6 or the newer Scarlett 8i6 for the interface, the preamps are clean and their drivers seem to work, which is important.

Also you will need some studio monitors to listen back and learn how to mix things. You could start with some very cheap Cakewalk MA-7a or something, and combine them with your favourite headphones to reference things.

Will you be using the microphone for recording the guitar or for just vocals ? You may find something like the SE Reflexion Filter kit will help when doing vocals with a condenser in a noisy environment.

So heres 1 combination that I think would be good for a new guy -

Focusrite Saffire 6 USB
Cakewalk MA-7a micro monitors
SE Electronics X1 bundle (mic and filter)

This may be a little more than your budget, but you will have nothing stopping you from getting a very decent recording from this. Of course the mixing aspect is a totally different process and you will need a DAW, I suggest Reaper, and reading the manual . The sooner you can get away from Audacity the better, as a whole other world opens up.

Thanks for that

I'd mostly be using it for vocal, but would love to see how the guitar sounds through the mic, not through the (most likely cheap and nasty) pickups.

I've got my hands on Sony Soundforge 10 at the moment, so would this be a good option to use for editting?

The suggested setup would cost me around $200 more than the one from ebay I linked above. Is it worth the extra cost? What are the advantages?

As for Speakers, Monitor and Headphones. I've got that sorted.

[ichizora]

I've got the Saffire 6 USB. It's an excellent interface with one of the best mic preamps you can get. You will be better off lining-in with your acoustic if you've got an active pickup than to record through an NT2. I would use an NT1 or NT2 for vox but you won't really get any stereo width recording acoustic guitar unless you use a matched pair of NT5s.