Basic recording equipment ,help

[keithinalps]

I would like to record some tracks using B/T's through my laptop ,whats the best/easiest option using Q2 eftp, many thanks keith (i don't have a mic)

[tonybiker]

Hi Keith.

You will find most of us here will have our own favoured ways of recording and using different gear. If your new to recording and want to start with little expense then I will suggest this as a starter for you.

1. Download Mixcraft 4: www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/

You get a 14 day full working trial. So its free to use. I have used this for years and its simple to use and bomb proof. Ideal if your new to recording.

2. Buy yourself a lead off the well known auction site that goes from guitar to your input on your laptop, approx £4. You can get more fancy connections and box's that use the laptop USB, but they cost.

The above method will get your started for less than a fiver.

I am sure other members will suggest alternatives.

Good luck and have fun!

[George Lewis]

Hi Keith,
Another simple low cost editor is Audacity which is free and easy to use. If you want to spend a little more then rather than use the laptop's inbuilt soundcard you could try something like this.
www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA202.aspx
It is about £25 in the UK and more than adequate for recording a single guitar. It also comes with free software but Audacity is better.
Regards
George

[keithinalps]

Hi Tony and George, thanks for the info will try and source some bits this week, regards keith

[fenderbullits]

Hi All

I have been reading several threads on home recording and as yet have not tried it as I imagined it would involve the purchase of some costly gadgets.This thread has made think about it again,I have read on some sites that it is advisable to record via an interface such as a Line 6 pod or one of many other pieces of equipment on the market because of issues with low volume and background noise.What are the results like using this simple setup or would an interface of some type be preferable ?

mant thanks

Martin

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Martin,
I don't think it is necessary to spend a lot of money to record a guitar. Any effects pedal could act as a suitable interface (with the effect switched off), or you could use a preamp of some kind such as a Pod or Tonelab if you have one. My preferred method at the moment is to use a speaker simulator on my amp instead of a speaker and take the output to the computer from the simulator. Of course, I could mic the amp (a good mic preamp or mixer would then be needed) but the volume level would be too high in my surroundings.
Regards,
Charlie

[fenderbullits]

Hi Charlie

Thanks for your reply,I have tried to record this afternoon just to see what sort of result I could achieve.The chain I used was guitar into the mic socket on a zoom 2000 rfx with eftp then a cable from the rear right output socket into an adapter and the through the laptop via the mic input.I could not hear the guitar when I played it thru headphones but could hear the backing track .I hit the record button and played along blind just listening to the BT but when I played it back I could hear the guitar over the BT,something obviously wrong with the setup any suggestions.?I am using Audacity software

thanks

Martin

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Martin,
Never use the mic input of the soundcard, that would be far too noisy, always use the line input if there is one. It will be less sensitive so you may need to raise the recording level which is easy enough to do by raising the RFX output level control.
You need to set your soundcard output settings so that you can hear wav playback and line input playback (this would have been mic input while you were experimenting previously). You should also set your recording line input level to a high setting so that there is less chance of overloading the line input when trying to get a good recording signal level. I don't know if you mixed the backing track whilst recording but what you need to do is to record the backing onto a stereo track, then record the guitar afterwards onto a mono track whilst playing along with the recorded backing track. Then you can mix the two tracks as required for a final result. One possible issue with doing this however is that the two recorded tracks may be slightly out of sync due to latency when played back, this can be cured by sliding the lead track backwards by a small amount until the syncing sounds correct.
Regards,
Charlie

[George Lewis]

Hi Martin,
For the issue of not being able to hear your guitar as it is recorded.
There are many ways to do this and it sounds more complicated than it is in practice so don't be put off.

First in Audacity under preferences make sure the recording options "Overdub, Play other tracks while recording a new one" is ticked and "Software play through" is UNticked. This means the BT but NOT the guitar signal will go to the soundcard output during recording.
Software play through would be a simple solution but because the software has to record the input signal then send it to the output there is an unacceptable delay which makes accurate playing pretty much impossible. This is not the recorded track latency that Charlie mentioned which is easily fixed and can be done automatically in the latest Audacity version.
It is worth checking to see if your laptop soundcard has a "direct monitor" function though this is unlikely. This means the input signal is routed direct to the output as well as into the software and so there is no latency.
The Behringer UCA202 card mentioned above has this facility as have many other external cards.
In this case the soundcard output contains both the BT and the guitar signal, so can be easily monitored via headphones, powered speakers etc.

Otherwise you need to split the guitar signal into the PC and into an external amp and also monitor the BT via the PC speakers.
There are quite good relatively low cost powered speakers that have two input methods eg 1/8" and RCA sockets that can be used at the same time. With these you can plug the soundcard output into the 1/8" and part of the guitar signal into the RCA.
Another way is to use a small mixer to take half the guitar signal and the BT output and send them to an external amp, headphones etc.

As already mentioned this sounds complicated but once you see the principal you will find a way to do it at quite low cost.
Cheers
George

[timryland]

Hi Keith,

I have had some quite good results by feeding my guitar & effects into a Behringer Xenyx 1202FX mixer. I feed my backing tracks into this as well. The main out goes to my monitors, and the CD out to the line input of my laptop which is running Audacity 1.2.

Once you get all the levels right, I have had some good results with this. The only downside is that you have to do it all in one take.

Hope this helps,

Tim.

[fenderbullits]

Hi Charlie / George

Thanks for the help,unfortunatley my lap top does not have a line in socket,plenty of USB port though.Looks like I'll have to buy a gadget after all.

regards

Martin

[colljaw]

Hi Martin, I don't know what operating system you have on your laptop. If it is Windows, go into your control panel, click on Sounds and Audio Devices. Click Audio on the properties Window. In the Sound playback, select Volume. This will bring up a panoramic window called Play Control. Right click on the Blue bar at the top of the window, scroll down to nView Options and select Always on Top. In my Play Control Window I have Wave, CD Player, Microphone, Auxiliary, Line-In, Midi Synth, Aux 2/Phono, Line-In 3/Hi-Z and Line-In/ Mic 2. If the input you are using is muted then you will not hear your guitar while recording.

The reason for having this window always on top is that when I hit the record button on my recording sequencer that is Sonar, the input that I am using goes to mute. I then have to unmute it so that I can hear what I am playing. I forgot to mention that you can move this window about the screen by holding down a left click on the blue bar and dragging it.

I hope this is of some help to you.

Regards, Jim

[bill]

Hi all and George,
I've been following this thread with interest.

George, can all the sound from the laptop be routed out through that Behringer interface?

The reason I ask is that the normal headphone & microphone out and in sockets on my laptop are out of reach when I have a mobile internet card plugged in (which is most of the time). That leaves me with the built in speakers as the only way to listen to any music.

[tonybiker]

You really need an external sound card.

They use the USB port to hook up.

The card, well its not a card more like a box! has a number of connections to hook up external speakers or a mixer and some come with a headphone socket. You do need to change the Laptop audio device settings to use this external card as default.

Laptop internal sound cards are not normally very good. And some will pick up noise from the hard drive and ends up either though your speakers or in the mix, so an external sound card is essential.

[grip]

Hi keithinalps,

You are in the same position as I was a few days ago, I started to use the G2.1u pedal as as interface for recording, and it worked reasonably well (after a lot of heartache with drivers etc.)

Yesterday I had a look in our local second hand shop and there was an M-Audio fast track USB interface for £40.00 complete with all the unregistered software, it gives me a better monitoring level, and looks like £40.00 well spent. Not sure about the software, all seems rather complex for me, when audacity and mixcraft do the job nicely for the hobbyist that I am.

Tonythebikers advice is spot on.

Kind regards


grip

[fenderbullits]

Hi Jim

Thanks for the info,I am running XP professional,I have to downgrade from Vista as the company data base isn't compatible with Vista.I have already tried your suggestion but I don't have as many options on this laptop it's suited more towards business rather than multi-media.

regards

Martin

[Charlie Hall]

I found that XP Professional has all the features of XP Home, the extra features seemed to be mainly to do with administration controls and debugging. I have never owned a laptop though.
Regards,
Charlie

[fenderbullits]

Hi Charlie

I may have got it sorted,my other pc in the office is a desk top loaded with Vista it appears to have a line in socket and it's got a pretty decent speaker system on it,Ive just loaded Audacity on it and will try again,once again thanks to all for the advice.


regards

Martin

[keithinalps]

Hi All, I have d/loaded Aud 1.3 Beta and tells me to D/load raw tracks but nothing happens apart from a graph that looks like an earthquake print out

[grip]

Hi Keithinalps,

Just open the Audacity, drag your mp3, or wav etc. backing file onto it and that will be the sound of the track graphically represented. Hit the green play button and you will hear your backing track. If you want to record a lead line onto that just hit the record button (red) at the top and it will open another track and record your input.


Kind regards


grip

[George Lewis]

Hi Bill,

... can all the sound from the laptop be routed out through that Behringer interface?

Yes, it has two line level RCA inputs and two RCA outputs as well as digital S/PDIF Toslink optical output and, wait there's more .. 1/8" headphone out with it's own separate volume control and monitor switch that sends the input direct to the headphone out as well.
In most cases connecting to a USB port will auto load the Windows USB Audio driver and possibly even set it as default. Otherwise it is a simple matter to set it as default in the Sounds and Audio Devices setup.

Regards
George

[bill]

Hi all,
The Behringer U-Control UCA202 interface I ordered arrived today. So far all I've used is the headphones socket.

The sound is far superior to that from the built-in speakers of my laptop but that isn't difficult.

'Installation' involved plugging it in to a USB port of my laptop which is using Windows Visa Ultimate SP2. The sound was automatically re-directed to the headphones. When I unplugged the Behringer, the sound automatically reverted to the built-in speakers.

The Behringer is very light and doesn't seem very robust but time will tell. It suffers very badly from RF interference from the mobile broadband express card (Merlin XU 870) plugged into the laptop (Dell Lattitude D830) when I am using the laptop for anything e.g. surfing the net. The USB cable is about 1.5 m long so the interface can be placed far enough away from the laptop so that the interference is no longer audible. Wrapping the interface in aluminium foil also reduces the interference.

Message edited to pinpoint the source of the interference.

Message edited again to add: comparing the headphones out from the laptop and the Behringer, to my ears the Behringer is clearer, it seems to have a quicker transient response and better frequency response than the sound built-in to the motherboard.