Equipment to record to the computer

[Chizip]

hey y'all

i was wonderin if any of ya fine folks could tell me what is good (and cheap) equipment to buy to record (guitar, keyboard, vocals...) to your computer (no macs). I appreciate it.

 

[hiphop]

what do you have? do you have a mixing desk? how much money can you spend?

if you want it to be good quality, it won?t be that supercheap, sorry. you might need a soundcard (A/D converter), a sequencer, maybe a seperate audio recording program, and a midi interface.

i can?t tell you much more without knowing what you got and description of your computer. how many tracks do you want to record? how professional do you want it to be?

to do it good quality (my standard of good is being able to cut an album), prices for the soundcard/ converter range from about 700 $ upwards. i can recommend a RME Hammerfall (DSP, plus multiface or digiface), which is a great interface. a soundblaster or whatever is a gaming card, not professionally used for recording. sequenzer, i would recommend cubase (ask your dealer for nice price or copy it), since logic will be only supported on the mac platform in the near future. there are plenty of okey midiinterfaces for about 100$, if one midi in/out jack on the soundcard (which it maybe should offer) are not enough (16 channels). cubase can record audio, so you won?t really need protools (which is studiostandard, but prices range from 10k upwards). what you need is a fast computer, enough RAM and 40-80 GB fast harddisk for fine multitrackrecording.

 

[singleminute]

i pretty much agree with the person above me, it just depends on what you mean by good. i will say one thing for soundblasters, if you just want a nice cheap soundcard which will record your bog standard gutair style song go for an audigy or audigy 2. My sound card is an edirol ua-700 which cost about 200/300 pound more than an audigy but i record at more or less a studio level. if the music is for your own personal use only, then get an audigy, a decent enough microphone (i used to hate my voice until i got a mike that cost some hard earned dosh) and you can cubase 5 or cubase sx off kazaa lite. i use cubase 5 because i know what i' doing with it, but if your new to cubase you might as well start with cubase sx.hope it helps,remember the most important thing about a good recording is the song itself, dont worry too much about the right equipment, it helps but its not nessacrily needed! check out 'getsigned.com' they have loads of advice under the recording part of the site! c ya

 

[DrMusk]

Go to Radioshack, tell them you want to hook your guitar up to the microphone jack in your computer and go on kazaa or some file sharing program and download "Cool Edit Pro 2.0" ... but if you want to have more than a trial version you either subscribe or get a valid code from somewhere on the internet and thats it your ready to record with less than a $10 purchase.

 

[Chizip]

i ended up going with a tascam us-224