Recording

[leeson]

I play most of my guitar by myself. It would be great if I could record the rhythm section and then jam along with myself. Does anyone have a good idea of how to accomplish this without spending hundreds of dollars? Thanks

Bill

[dennisg]

leeson,

It would help to know if you're running a PC or a Mac. If it's a Mac, you could easily accomplish multiple guitar parts with Garage Band. That's exactly what it does.

- Dennis (in Seattle)

[jayswett]

Audacity is a free download which has been mentioned several times in the forum. I believe it allows multitracking. I haven't figured it out completely yet. The price is right.

[bigmo]

I downloaded the Audacity program and can use my headphone mic with no problems. Now how do I interface my guitar through the usb port?

Do I have to purchase an auxiliary plug-in device to go from my guitar jack through the usb or do I purchase a special card that I plug my guitar into on the back of the PC?

I'd love it if I could go through the usb though. Sorry for all these tech questions guys but I'm sure many of you have done this before... haven't you?

PS - By the way thanks for the Audacity recommendation.

[Hydroman52]

You could search Amazon using "USB guitar" keywords. That returns a number of options, but I cannot vouch for any as I've never tried them. I use a Digitech Jamman looper played through a Crate acoustic amp. It's really easy to use, but that is a $200 - $300 option and beyond the price range that you specified.

If you try or find something, let us know how it works.

[jayswett]

Several of the other regular contributors to the forum have much more knowledge in this area. There are several ways to get your guitar sound recorded directly by your computer. See my video response Reiver's "The Rose" thread to see an example of what it sounds like. For this, I plugged the electric guitar into the amplifier, then plugged the amplifier (with a 1/4 to 1/8 adapter) into the "line in" port of my computer. I had to make some input and output adjustments to make the sound quality reasonable.

This product may be another option for you:


There are other products as well. I was in Best Buy just today looking at several other options. These had more input and output options (including microphone) but cost $150.

[karl01]

I use a USB sound card by M audio and Cakewalk Home studio 7 works well.

You could also use a portable recording device like Tascam DR-07. It records to mp3 format and plays back from unit as well in Toronto its about $150.00 O yeah you can also put mp3 tracks on it and slow it down with out changing the pitch for learning songs is great.

karl

[goldleaf]

Al, said he just uses an adapter from 1/4" to a mini jack that plugs into his mic outlet on his pc. He said he uses Dell webcam software that comes with his computer. If you have a web can on your monitor you may have software built in that allows you to plug your guitar into the mic jack with and 1/4 to mini jack adapter. It sounds great. Gary

[goldleaf]

bigmo wrote:

I downloaded the Audacity program and can use my headphone mic with no problems. Now how do I interface my guitar through the usb port?

Do I have to purchase an auxiliary plug-in device to go from my guitar jack through the usb or do I purchase a special card that I plug my guitar into on the back of the PC?

I'd love it if I could go through the usb though. Sorry for all these tech questions guys but I'm sure many of you have done this before... haven't you?

PS - By the way thanks for the Audacity recommendation.

Right now I'm just using my webcam that is part of my Dell monitor. Quality is ok- and definitely good enough for TG's purposes. I also plug my acoustic/electric guitar directly into my computer (1/4 inch at guitar end to mini plug at computer end). Good sound that way- no external noise. From Al copied by Gary

[AcousticAl]

Thanks Gary.

There's a similar thread called Recording software that Bigmo started that I responded to. I have an elec/acoustic, so I can go direct to my computer via the 1 cable that I described in that post Gary quoted.

So far, I haven't gotten into deeper audio programs. Right now I'm pretty shake'n'bake with what I'm doing, as I'm more interested in just getting a good quality clip that you all won't mind watching.