Guitar Recording

well how big is your pocket! i started with a tape mixing desk,then went onto cubas vst 5, i now have expanded to cubase sl3, which might not mean a lot to you at this stage, but the best way to record acoustic and electric is not to plug directley into a mixer but use a mic. i use a windows xp computor, tascam us-224 mixing desk.......need more help just give me a shout....ps have past recording stuff for sale if your near south uk...all best barry

You really need something between guitar and pc. You could use a mixer (which would also come in handy for recording vocals, etc., through a mic.), a pre-amp or a DI box. They should really have a line out (to the line in on your pc sound card).
As far as software goes, you could use either Audacity or Krystal, both of which are available for free, on the Internet.

Check out the posts in the "In The Studio" forum for some ideas:
http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewforum.php?f=26&sid=5d50289eb05e4a38302ba03abe630e26

Hi theGrimm
If you have an acoustic guitar with built in pre-amp you can connect the guitar cable to a line-input jack on the PC´s soundcard. The signal level from the guitars pre-amp is approx. the same as the line level for a PC soundcard.
But you will need some 1/2" jack to 1/4" jack converter cables. As the guitar cables 1/2" jack is mono and the soundcards 1/4" jack is stereo you will hear the guitar in left or right side.

I did my first recordings with that set-up. It is not best way but it works for the first recordings.

Yeah, I should have mentioned I only want to do something simple at first. My pockets are deep enough, but I'm not looking to build a home studio just yet :D. I figure if I listen to my own practice, I can pick up mistakes that I wouldn't notice while playing. And I can pass the recordings on to my friends for a good laugh!

I have a pre-amp on my guitar, so it's basically I plug my guitar cable into a converter, my converter into the input jack at the back of my pc. Then I download Audacity or Krystal and strum away?

If you want "true" acoustic sound then you shouldn't use the guitar's preamp. You will actually be getting the the pickups sound. I mic my acoustic with a regular vocal mic. I don't have a mic stand but the table is just the right height when I am sitting. The mic is at the 12th fret. You can check my Riders On The Storm link for a sound byte.

You really need something between guitar and pc. You could use a mixer (which would also come in handy for recording vocals, etc., through a mic.)

You can pick up a decent Tascam 4-track for reasonable money - try e-bay or Gumtree - it's not a bad mixer and you can record to tape at the same time

Best,

A :-)

I mic my acoustic with a regular vocal mic. I don't have a mic stand but the table is just the right height when I am sitting.

I do the same. It's simple but very effective if you want a basic setup that provides the ability to self-critique. :)

"I have a pre-amp on my guitar, so it's basically I plug my guitar cable into a converter, my converter into the input jack at the back of my pc. Then I download Audacity or Krystal and strum away?"

Yes, you could do that !
You don´t even need Audacity or Krystal for recording yourself.
You could use Windows ordinary recording device to do single-track recordings.
Or another simple recording SW that could be bundled with your soundcard

I did this recording that way with a SW that came with my cheapo SoundBlaster card.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=407510&songID=2880665
(N.B. the track is long time after recording manipulated with reverb and compressor in Kristal and converted to .mp3 format in Audacity)

But Mike is right, if you want a real acoustic sound from your guitar you should use a fairly good microphone with a pre-amp/mixer of some sort.