I was thinking about recording myself play. However, I would like to record myself singing as well.

I have a peavey vypyr 75W amp. That's about it as far as that kind of gear is concerned (I have a SP-10 Squier amp, but I just use that for practicing basic stuff now--poor baby amp)

Any ideas on gear I would need? I just would like the bare bones basics, not pro stuff. Maybe just for youtube or private recording to monitor my progress.

Hope that makes some sense. Thanks.

_________________
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)

You've got the amp/guitar/USB already covered.

Just add a decent microphone, small mixer and audacity (free download).

http://download.cnet.com/Audacity/3000- ... 58117.html

There are several YouTubes on Audacity tutorials.

You can even find free drumbeats on the web (google).

One of hundreds :

http://www.freeloops.com/

Good luck!

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

What kind of microphone would I need? Can you give me an example.

Thanks for the links.

_________________
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)

Have you seen that Korg SOS recorder? I think that would be a lot of fun to have...

I been looking for something basic to so I can just jam along something...

Here's a review on GW:
http://www.guitarworld.com/korg_sound_on_sound

_________________
Kid: "Hey Smokey! Where did you get your name?"
Smokey the Bear: "Well..."
(former user jimbo612)

...or for the same price as the SOS you should check out theCakewalk V-studio 20. It seems cool especially if you plan on doing this stuff on your pc or laptop.

& you know if you have a Mac, the GarageBand software that comes with them is actually pretty intuitive; my friend uses his in college all the time when he gets inspirations.

_________________
Kid: "Hey Smokey! Where did you get your name?"
Smokey the Bear: "Well..."
(former user jimbo612)

A decent mic for vocals is a Shure PG-48. It's a good mic, but less expensive than a 58 because of handling noise (not an issue unless you'd be walking around a stage with it and good for recording vocals).

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... c=3AGGWXX2

You could even skip the mixer, and use your amp for guitar and vocals if it has 2 channels.

If you did this, you'd want a HI-Z cable instead of the Low-Z (XLR), but you can buy an XLR to 1/4" Line Impedance Transformer too///very cheap at Radio Shack or any elect store.

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Um...a mixer? I'm chomping on stupid pills here. Also, how do I know if my amp has two channels? I have a peavey vypyr 75W.

Funny though, I was just looking at that mic before you posted. Musician's friend is having a sale.

_________________
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)

I looked up your amp and it says it has 4 channels with 3-band EQ master volume and pre- and post-gain controls. You'd want to have different EQ settings for the mic and guitar, but all would go into either PC software (Audacity, Reaper, Ableton, Cakewalk, etc) or a stand alone unit with your USB from amp.

I'd suggest trying audacity (free) first.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrPGMjZORCM

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

If you have an iphone, have a look at this,
http://www.fantastocrats.com/StudioMini/Info.html

First and foremost to record using a PC you need a better soundcard interface than comes stock on most computers which have integrated audio chips on the motherboard instead of full blown sound cards. The integrated chips are ok for playing music or videos or DVD's but when recording full range audio with them you may hear the latency which causes clicks, pops, stutters and the like which can be very annoying. Most laptops do not have a line level or auxiliary input but instead have one microphone level input and one audio output. To solve the latency problem and add line level (auxiliary/line) input deficiency you need to add a better sound card interface. Which soundcard to use depends on whether you are using a laptop or desktop and which operating system you are using. Many soundcards that sound fantastic with Windows XP are not compatible with Windows 7 and vice-versa.

For laptops you are pretty much locked into using an external USB soundcard interface, which plugs into an open USB port and then you plug speakers and line level inputs or a microphone into the interface device. There are several of those external USB soundcards out there. Turtle Beach and Behringer come to mind as some inexpensive USB sound card solutions, but there are others. While I know they both work with XP I'm not so sure that there are drivers yet to allow them to work at all with Windows 7.

There are also USB mixers that take the computer's soundcard out of the equation completely! The USB mixers are more costly than just a standard mixer, but you save the money you would have spent on the soundcard so it all averages out. If I was looking for a mixer right now I might consider going the USB mixer route.

Whatever soundcard solution you settle on should have an audio out for headphones or speakers or both, plus one microphone level and one line level input. The external USB sound card interfaces don't have to be very expensive.

For desktop PC's again it depends on what cards you have to choose from that are compatible with your operating system. If you find a compatible internal soundcard that works with your operating system, they are pretty simple to install. Just follow manufacturer's directions for installation. I use and recommend Turtle Beach internal cards. I'm currently using a Santa Cruz model but it is now obsolete. I like it so much I bought a spare in case mine goes out. The current Turtle Beach model I'd suggest is the Montego. They are for XP systems. The choice of internal soundcards for a desktop that work with Windows 7 is extremely limited now but soundcard manufacturers will be releasing new drivers for existing cards and new cards that will work with Windows 7.

Also with desktop PC's you can use one of the external USB soundcards, or use a USB mixer.

Once the sound card/interface issue is solved and you have a better sounding input/output I would add a mixer, a decent microphone or two and settle on your recording software.

Someone mentioned the free Audacity software and it will work for sure. Just know upfront that in order to save .wav files as MP3 files you have to download and install the LAME encoder plugin and you will need to contact LAME for a software key to make it work. This takes a few days. It is free for home use.

Audacity is a basic recording software which should be fine initially. A good thing about Audacity is that it will actually run on Windows 98 machines! I have it on a Windows 98 desktop I have taken out to do mobile recording.

Another easy to use and economical solution is COOL EDIT PRO which was bought out by Adobe who changed the name of the product to Adobe Audition. There basically is little difference between COOL EDIT PRO and ADOBE AUDITION. This software has lots of effects including good sounding reverbs, compression and limiting. I use it because COOL EDIT PRO was what the radio stations I worked at used for commercial audio production and I already knew how to work it pretty good.

For mixers the most critical thing is the microphone preamps. The better the preamps the better any microphone is going to sound. But even the cheap mixers like the Behringer Xenyx series and the entry level Mackie mixers are usually ok noise wise for home recording. Naturally the more money you spend the better the mixer you can buy and the better the microphone preamps will be. Sometimes there are two versions of the same mixer as a more costly version will have some effects built in like reverb, chorus, etc. By and large the effects built into the small cheap mixers are not really that good. If you can add these effects in post production it is probably better to do that and stay away from mixer's with built in effects. Most mixers now have phantom power so you can use condenser microphones and I would not buy a mixer without phantom power.

So far as microphones are concerned for instrument recording the Shure SM57 dynamic is the standard for drums and guitars both acoustic and electric. They are about $100 a copy.

For vocal recording microphone selection is more complicated. Some people have a favorite vocal microphone already. If you do there is no reason you could not continue to use your favored microphone. Different voices and different vocal techniques sound better on one microphone than another. Many people buy a studio type condenser microphone for vocals only to find that even the cardioid studio type condenser microphones are very sensitive and pick up every stray sound such as computer fans and the neighbor's dog barking a quarter mile down the block. If you do want to go with a condenser vocal microphone, the better type to get for home recording are the ones that were designed for stage use as they have much tighter pickup patterns than studio type condenser microphones so noise and room acoustics come less into play.

In addition to the Shure SM58 which most people are familiar with as the live sound vocal microphone standard, the Shure SM7B is a killer vocal dynamic microphone for recording voices but costs about $400. Also the Electro-Voice RE-20 and ND-27 are used a lot for both male and female vocals and they are equally expensive. The RE-20 and ND-27 also make great mics for horns and guitar cabs.

You can also put a windscreen on the SM57 and it makes a passable microphone for vocals so long as you don't get too close.

If you want to cheap out on the vocal microphone there are a lot of cheap dynamic microphones out there. The Behringer XM8500 is $30 and not too bad really. It has a sensitivity up close that will pop the "P's" so you might want to add a windscreen to it. My band uses 3 of these at rehearsals and has for years.

If you have a quiet enough recording environment stage type condenser microphones will sound lusher on vocals and acoustic guitar. Suitable stage vocal condensers that are preferable for home vocal recording are the Shure Beta 87A, Electro-Voice RE510 or RE410 and Neumann KMS105. Those are all pretty expensive microphones. Or you can cheap out with something like the Nady SPC-10 for about $70.

Finally, there is a HOME RECORDING FORUM you should check out! It is called SOUND ON SOUND:
http://www.soundonsound.com/
Also maybe useful to you would be:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/

To keep things simple why not get one of those portable digital recorder like Tascam or Zoom or whatever? I'm actually thinking of getting one, I have mics, Presonus Firestudio, used Reaper and Cubase and I felt like it's a lot of work... unless you plan to spend time learning how to use it all and make your own music I wouldn't go that route. For now if I just want to record my playing I think one of those portable things is the way to go.

Thoughts? What model would you guys recommend?

I was looking at a Tascam myself. I just want to keep it real simple, just to monitor my progress, so I was thinking of just a portable player. I'm definitely not interested in publishing. My playing is still waaaay too bad.

_________________
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)

dont be so hard on yourself, let us be the judge of that

So order a Tascam asap and let us hear what you got! I guess the DR07 is their best seller... I should get me one of those.

Some of the portable self contained pocket sized recorders do not have low impedance microphone inputs but do have decent built in condenser mics. The Tascam DP-02 Portastudio does have XLR inputs and also has a guitar direct input. It also has phantom power so you can use it with condenser mics. The palm sized recorders with built in condenser mics are good for rehearsal recordings but it is difficult to get as good a balanced sound with them for demos.

I do home recording for practice too, but I use a mixer into my PC. Lots of times something that sounds good at the time you record it sounds not so good the next day or a few days later when you play it back. When things start sounding good when you play them back days later, then you are getting somewhere. Recording yourself is a great way to find mistakes and eventually make improvement. Otherwise I tend to rehearse mistakes!

I was actually thinking about this.

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-TAS-DP008

Also, there's a very simple cheaper one without the mixer. Again, I'm playing the price matching game. Plus there's a rebate.

_________________
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)