Never recorded before...what should I get first?

[5L1V3R]

What do I need to start recording?  I have never recorded before and I'm on sort of a low budget.  What do I get first?  Software?  I have Adobe SoundBooth, will that work?  Is there a way for me to plug my guitar into my PC?  I'm not a serious recorder either.  I just want to get some experience with it, get a few of my killer riffs saved, and mess around a bit.

[fuzzking]

Any soundcard with direct monitoring capabilty should do... if you use a consumer audio card, you'll always have to deal with latency issues, meaning that you'll only hear the signal after it's been processed by the computer, making it almost impossible to do overdubs and such.

[spacecadet]

Get yourself a $200 audio interface.  This is basically a glorified sound card with professional features and high quality DACs/ADCs.  It can be external - there are lots of USB and Firewire interfaces - but it can be internal PCI also.  External gives you the benefits of a more organized set of ins and outs and niceties like level and status indicators and whatnot.  You can buy the same thing for a PCI interface but it's a separate expense.  That's the way you'd go if you were really doing semi-pro or pro recording, but there's no need to spend $500-$600 or more on your own home setup.

The audio interface will come with the software you need.  It makes sense to actually shop around for an interface based at least partly on what software they come with.  I bought my E-mu 0404 USB because it came with like four different full-featured recording apps.  (Of course, my computer isn't cooperating right now, so the one I like the most isn't working.)

Don't go slower than USB 2.0 for the audio interface or you'll have bad latency.  PCI is best, Firewire second best, USB 2.0 third best.  USB 1.1 interfaces exist but I probably wouldn't buy one; I have enough latency with USB 2.0.

[BenHagerty]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=705528

I just got that, pretty good

[northern_dirt]

Cheap stuff?... Here you go

[Meshuggahnans]

northern dirt has "the dream crusher" on his license plate!

[northern_dirt]

northern dirt has "the dream crusher" on his license plate!

I remember back when I was 14-15 and I went to a pro audio
supply store.. I wanted to get a few mics for my very simples set
up of an 8 track 1/2 Otari and 24/4/2 Studiormaster desk..

At the time I had no clue about the pricing of pro audio gear,
and there was no budget chiense made gear flooding the
market..

I asked the guy at the store what the price range on his mics were..
He told me $90 to $12 000.. The $2500 I had gotten from pretending to
be a Lutherren, which I had thought was a fortune, seemed very very
small all of a sudden..

Still, 15 years later, Im an audio technician, working for the largest
Television Network in Canada, Millions of people see my work daily
and I make a decent living.. so eventhough "getting into recording"
might seem like a tremendous initial cost, and a neverending upgrade
of gear it can pay off if you stick it out..

[fuzzjunkie]

i would suggest something like this: http://www.music123.com/TASCAM-DR-1-Por ... 6.Music123

this is a Tascam DR-1, but Korg, Roland and M-Audio all make good units. it's portable, so you can take it anywhere. it has microphones...stereo!...so you don't have to dole out for a cheap dynamic and it's great for jotting down lyrics or riffs whenever they hit...no worries about trying to remember that idea 6 hours later with the record light blinking at you from the PC.

you can send the files as .WAV into any DAW later if you want to expand the song via USB. works nice if you have something free like Garageband on your laptop. I have a friend that writes songs with his all the time.

it also has a tuner and I think you can slow the files down without changing pitch, so you can load in MP3s and learn songs with it too!

when i first got into recording i had to make do with a cassette version of this ( a Sony portable stereo recorder ) and no way to edit!

[ugly casanova]

Any soundcard with direct monitoring capabilty should do... if you use a consumer audio card, you'll always have to deal with latency issues, meaning that you'll only hear the signal after it's been processed by the computer, making it almost impossible to do overdubs and such.

you can plug your guitar into you computer's Line-In and then download ASIO4ALL and use it as an input-source.
i'd recommend using KRISTAL as a software. it's freeware and easy to start with: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
for the guitar > line-in you'll need a 6,3mm to  3,5mm adapter (they're cheap).

[fuzzking]

you can plug your guitar into you computer's Line-In and then download ASIO4ALL and use it as an input-source.
i'd recommend using KRISTAL as a software. it's freeware and easy to start with: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
for the guitar > line-in you'll need a 6,3mm to  3,5mm adapter (they're cheap).

Will this ASIO thingie reduce latency? That'd be a nice solution! 

[ugly casanova]

that what its made for. it uses cpu-power for the onboard soundcard and voila: latency between 7-14ms depending on how much 'buffer' you can spend on that..

[spacecadet]

7-14ms is pretty bad, though.  You can't play along with that, which is the whole point of lowering latency (so you can play and hear all your applied effects, etc.)

That's where a real audio interface with a real ASIO driver comes in.  I hate ASIO drivers; it seems like every one of them from every company has problems, but at least with a real one you'll get latency more like 2-3ms.  With latency like that, it's definitely possible to monitor with effects as you're playing.

I'm pretty sure with PCI interfaces you can get latency down to like 1ms, which wouldn't even be noticeable at all.

[northern_dirt]

10-14 isnt terrible.. after 15-20 youll start hearing an actual echo..
5-10 should be fine.

If you think about it.. 5-10ms would translate to 5 to 10 feet from the source..
and for anyone playign in bands that about makes sense...
Soem people even perform better with some degree of latency..

[spacecadet]

Yeah but that's just latency getting back *out* of the computer.  There's always a bit of a delay even with 0 latency, because the ADC is converting, sending to the PC, the PC is processing and recording, then sending it back out.

5-10ms is a noticeable delay and it completely throws off my timing.  I start alternately trying to catch up to what I'm perceiving as late picking and then slowing down to try to get back on tempo.  In the end it's just a complete mess when I play it back.

Believe me, I've played in bands and I've played fairly large gigs (1,000-2,000 people).  The delay on stage is nothing like a 5-10ms delay from a computer audio interface.  For one thing, you have a lot more cues on stage that you're working off of - and visual cues in addition to audio cues (you can see your bandmates playing at the same time, and you can physically feel the kick of the drums.  I think most people in bands work off the physical kick from the drums, which are usually about equi-distant from everybody in the band).  With home recording playing by yourself, all you've probably got at first is a click track.

You can easily test that a 5-10ms delay is worse than anything you'd experience in a band by just taking your amp and putting it across the room and playing, then purposely setting your latency on your computer to 10ms and seeing how different it is.  Because 10ms is really more than 10ms.

And there's no reason to have to deal with latency like that anyway, since even cheap audio interfaces will give you much less these days.

[northern_dirt]

Yeah but that's just latency getting back *out* of the computer.  There's always a bit of a delay even with 0 latency, because the ADC is converting, sending to the PC, the PC is processing and recording, then sending it back out.

I was commenting on a total 10-14 MS of latency..
not added on top of all the other digital processing..