How do you record guitars, mics, bass onto your computer.?

Question

I want to record guitars, bass, drums, and vocals onto my computer but i dont know where to start or what i need. somebody help me out.

Answer 1

If you are recording them one at a time, then it's not too difficult. Almost all sound cards have a line-in or mic input. Those are usually 1/8 inch jacks (stereo), where as your guitar cables are 1/4 inch jacks (mono). You'll need to go to a place like Radio Shack and pick up a left and right 1/4 inch (mono) female to 1/8 inch male stereo. Sometimes those are hard to find so you can assemble one by getting an RCA left and right female to 1/8 inch female and then buy some 1/4 female to RCA male so you can plug into it.

Once you have those connectors you can then use a free software like Audacity to setup tracks (I've used Acid Pro as well which was fairly easy to use). With a stereo input you can assign the left channel to be one track and the right channel to be another track. However that will be a mono line becoming stereo in the recording. If you are using a guitar pedals that have stereo effects those will be lost unless you do the guitar in stereo, which means you'll need to record the bass later. Recording them one at a time isn't hard either since you can play back the other tracks while recording the new instrument on a different track. However you'll want to start your first recorded track with some tempo clicks so you know when the other instruments need to come in. The clicks can be edited out once you finished adding all the other instruments.

Make sure you set the volume levels right too. If your instrument is supplying too much volume, it will distort, you can minimize the input level so that it doesn't "clip" and distort.

There are tons of features that you can use in the various software, such as frequency modulators that will help distinguish the different instrument tracks so they have their own frequency range and don't cancel each other out. Learning that takes lots of patience, but details like that will help make your music sound more professional.

Doing drums into the PC is a bit more challenging. The simple method is to place two mono mics, one closer to the highhat, and the other on the opposite side, a little further back to capture the lower toms. Most drummers smack the snare and kick hard enough that the mics will pick those up just fine. You can also use a concussion mic (they're flat plates) and you mount them on the wall, and the whole wall then picks up the vibrations and sends them into the microphone, sometimes that works and you don't want your symbols too loud in the mix as they tend to wash out everything.

Lastly the expensive way of mic'ing drums into a PC would be to get a mixing board, 8, 12, or 16 channels, and many microphones of different types that are designed to pick up the frequencies the different percussion pieces make. Once you've mic'ed every thing, you can check the level inputs to make sure that all mics are feeding at about the same level. Then you can use the stereo out of the mixing board that would normally go to a PA and send it straight to your PC line-in. This will give you more control over how you want to pan the toms left to right in the stereo mix and help balance out the volume level on all the drums.

If you are really serious and want to spend a few more dollars you can buy audio cards that allow for multiple line-ins. This will enable you to record everyone simultaneously.

You'll also need to consider how you are going to store all the music waves that are created. Usually the wav files generated are much higher quality than MP3's, so the wav files will naturally take up more drive space. If you can't afford to go out and get more hard drives, you can back projects up onto CD's or DVD's. Make sure you label your CD's/DVD's and shelve them so it's easy to find.

If you have more detailed questions, feel free to write me via my profile and have fun doing it!

Answer 2

It is simple. You need an audio interface compatible with your computer. There are about 50 different ones ranging in quality and cost, but the most popular entry level unit suitable for making simple demos and indie type recordings is the Presonus Firepod. It will allow you to plug 8 mics into it and hit record. After you have those 8 tracks down, you can go back and fix stuff or overdub stuff like solos or back up vocals. Here it is:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/PreSonus-FIREPOD-10Channel-FireWire-Interface-with-Cubase-LE?sku=184131&src=3SOSWXXA

This unit comes with very capable software for multitracking. Garageband is not what you want. Garageband is a toy for people who want to play.

After you look at the link above hit some sites like www.recording.org or www.homerecording.org
or
www.homerecording.org/bbs/
and READ some of the existing posts. Your question has been asked and answered a million times on both of those sites, so use the search function to do some more research.

Good luck. It is a lot of fun!

Answer 3

Ambitious. I'm guessing you're using a PC, so you can't use GarageBand - the first drawback. But, use Adobe Audition or, one the more pro-end, Cubase. Recording live drums is a nightmare, and you won't make it without learning how to do that from professionals. But if you still want to play, you'll need a set of microphones for drum miking, and a mixer with no less that 6 channels. When you have a good mix from it, you record that output. For vocals, you also need a decent microphone. Gutar and bass are easier, plug them into your amp or pre-amp, use line out to get the signal to your audio input, or, better yet, get one of those M-Audio USB devices. You record each instrument to a separate channel, for drums ideally two channels, and when everything is recorded, you mix them. Simple, really!
Just kiddin' - it is not very simple, but it's fun and worth learning.

Answer 4

you need to either buy recording software which is the best idea or you can download a program like audacity and record through a mic in your computer.

if your doing drums and all that stuff its good to actually go out and get software. if your looking for a decent system your looking to spend around 600 bux.

Answer 5

with a voice recorder on an mp3 player